Helen of Troy

Location & Checkout Length	Call Number	Checkout Length	Item Status
Downtown 2nd Floor 4-week checkout	Fiction	4-week checkout	Due 05-07-2024

COMMUNITY REVIEWS

A great read, especially if you've read Homer submitted by berry.laura on September 29, 2008, 10:31pm I picked up this book at random and it turned out to be one of the best I've read this year. It's the story of the Illiad, from Helen's point of view. The writing is so vivid hat I felt like I was actually there. Margaret George explains Helen's motivations for abandoning her entire family and even her child: all for passion, a gift from Aprhodite. George weaves in the pantheon of Greek gods into the story from the human characters' experiences and perceptions. I enjoyed Helen's opinions of the characters we know from Homer, and liked the addition of a couple of characters we don't know from Homer. Also interesting is George's take on the inevitability of the Trojan war. The drums of war were beating, Helen's leaving her husband for her Trojan lover is just the excuse the Greeks need. Not Helen's fault, George seems to be telling us!

If already know the story, this book's a fresh perspective on it. If you don't already know the story, you can read a synopsis on the web (wikipedia has a good one). This book is best in the middle. You might need a little patience at the beginning, and the thread of the story is weakest regarding what happens to Helen after the fall of Troy -- I thought George made some pretty unlikely turns, all to keep Helen faithful to Paris. (Yes of course the whole thing is fiction anyway.) But the heart of the story is Helen and Paris falling in love, and what it costs them. If you like a good love story, and like a good Greek drama, this is a great read.