Love and War

The Trojan War is such a familiar story from Greek mythology, having been re-interpreted so many times. Homer made these events famous in his epic poems The Iliad and The Odyssey, and they have been retold in various forms - poems, plays, films, songs - ever since. I have recently been revising these myths through novels which retell the tales from the perspective of characters who had previously not been given a voice such as Pat Barker's The Silence of the Girls (2018) and The Women of Troy (2021), narrated by Briseis, the slave who was Achilles' war prize.

Madeline Miller spent ten years writing her first novel, The Song of Achilles (2011), breathing new life into the story of Greece's most famous warrior. This novel tells the story of Achilles from the viewpoint of Patroclus, Achilles' closest confidante, friend and lover. 

Patroclus is the son of Menoetius. As a young boy, he accidentally kills another boy and is exiled to Phthia, placed in the care of Peleus, the father of Achilles. When the two boys meet they are complete opposites - Achilles strong, brave and athletic; Patroclus introverted, innocent, intuitive. But Patroclus soon befriends Achilles and travels with him to Mount Pelion to be educated by Chiron, the Centaur. Here they learn warcraft, healing, cooking and other life skills. Slowly, they also discover their deep love for one another. 

Achilles' mother Thetis hides her son on Skyros to keep him away from the war that is now building in Troy. She is aware of a prophecy that her son will become a legendary warrior, but he will die young, after killing Hector in battle. But Achilles cannot avoid his fate and before long he is his way to Troy and command his Myrmidon army in a decade-long war. 

In selecting Patroclus as narrator, Miller allows the reader to bear witness to the events and see another side of Achilles, with Patroclus serving as his moral compass. Achilles is known for his wrath, his brutality on the battle field. But here, we see more tender moments between the two men. Miller's Patroclus is a lover, not a fighter, and over the course of the novel we see his character grow and display a different kind of bravery. 

We know how this story will play out, but Miller's poetic writing and portrayal of this relationship makes the tale fresh and exciting. As a reader, I was invested in these characters and was keen to see how Miller would write the end of their tale. It was wonderful to read of the love these men had for one another. 

In terms of comparison, I think I would have enjoyed The Song of Achilles more if I had not read Barker's version of this story in The Silence of the Girls, which I found to be superior. I also preferred Madeline Miller's second novel Circe (2018) which is one of the best novels I have read in recent years and started me on this journey through ancient myths. 

The Song of Achilles won the Women's Prize for Fiction in 2012. Madeline Miller has announced that she is working on her next novel, taking on the story of Persephone. Cannot wait for this to be published!

Chaucer Revisited

Zadie Smith is a fascinating writer. Best known as a novelist, essayist and short-story writer, Smith is the recipient of countless awards for her works like White Teeth (2000), The Autograph Man (2002), On Beauty (2005), NW (2012), and Swing Time (2016). She has just written her first play, The Wife of Willesden (2021).

Knowing I will likely never see this play performed live, I reserved a copy of the book from my local library and spent an afternoon reading it aloud. Smith has taken the form, characters and themes from 'The Wife of Bath's Tale' in Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales (c 1405) and modernised it for a contemporary audience. In her retelling, the Wife of Willesden is a 55 year old woman, Alvita, who has been married five times. At a pub on London's Kilburn High Road, after a few drinks, Alvita joins in the open mic night to talk about her life. Her husbands are present, as are her niece Kelly, her church-going aunt, a local minister, her best friend Zaire, and various other figures like God, St Paul, Black Jesus, Nelson Mandela, Socrates and more.  

In Alvita's prologue she riffs about marriage and misogyny, sex and religion. She is vibrant, provocative, assertive and energetic. Alvita doesn't suffer fools and knows what she wants from life. She also won't put up with any crap from anyone, as in this example where she stops Eldridge (Husband #4) from slut-shaming women:

'STOP RIGHT THERE. Please don't use, my brother,
One type of woman to cuss another.
We are all sisters. And don't try to neg
Me. You feel free to take me down a peg
Or two. Mention my crow's feet. Cellulite.
Tell me I'm boring or not too bright.
Cos you've worked out when I'm shy or sad
I won't stray too far. I won't act too bad.
But when I'm feeling myself; hear done right,
Clothes on point? Then you nuh want me out nights.
When I hit the club, it's full of your spied:
Your cousin, your sister's man. Benny. Mike.
You think your man dem can shut me down?
Step to Me; we'll see who ends 'pon the ground!' 

As you can see, the dialogue is infused with modern rhyming couplets, patois and a sense of urgency.  With other speakers she uses local dialects to reflect the diversity of the community. It is a remarkable feat of writing, and reminds me of how Lin-Manuel Miranda's Hamilton brought contemporary life to the Federalist Papers with his hip-hop rap battles. Here, the dialogue is energetic and vibrant.   

After the lengthy prologue, The Wife of Willseden's tale transports us to 18th century Jamaica (rather than Arthurian England).  Here Auntie and Alvita introduce us to Queen Nanny, leader of the Jamaican Maroons - former slaves who fought the British in the First Maroon War (1728-1739) - and a poor Maroon who sought to discover what women want. 

As a reader, you get a different experience reading a play from seeing it performed live. While there are stage directions, the reader doesn't have the benefit of a talented troupe of performers bringing life to the words on the page.  However, I really appreciated the writing of this play. It has been a long time (almost 30 years!) since I read Chaucer so I cannot comment on Smith's technical abilities in transforming this verse, but I think she did a great job in making Chaucer accessible to a modern audience. 

Finally, the way in which this play came about is fascinating. In the introduction to the The Wife of Willesden, Smith explains that in 2018 the Borough of Brent was named London's Borough of Culture for 2020. Smith is a lifetime resident of Brent and much of her fiction is set here, so naturally she was asked by organisers if she would assist by writing something. Without thinking too much about what she would write, Smith agreed, indicating that she may modernise something from the Canterbury Tales. She boarded a plane to Australia and landed to a Twitter storm where her proposed contribution had been misinterpreted into Smith authoring her first play. After an initial panic and consideration of retreat, Smith sat down and penned The Wife of Willesden, which is currently being performed at the Kiln Theatre in London  (Nov 2021 to Jan 2022).

Into the Gap

Chris Hammer's fourth novel Treasure and Dirt (2021) is a departure from his previous series featuring journalist Martin Scarsden, but retains all of his page-turning brilliance.

In the outback mining town of Finnigans Gap, close to the NSW-Queensland border, a local opal miner Jonas McGee is found dead. Homicide detective Ivan Lucic (a minor character from Hammer's previous series) is sent from Sydney with two forensic experts to investigate. He is paired with Nell Buchanan, a junior detective from Lightening Ridge who was once stationed in the town.  Together they discover that nothing is what it seems and that everyone has a secret.

Hammer is known for creating a sense of place in his novels. He has a way of describing a landscape, a town and its inhabitants so that the reader can become immersed - feeling the heat, smelling the dust and swatting the flies as you read. This is helpful as the characters spend a lot of time driving between the ridges, walking the streets and looking out over the arid plain. 

There are a lot of characters in this novel and at almost 500 pages there are plenty of twists and turns to keep the reader guessing as to whether McGee was murdered, by whom and why. The plot is complex - covering the mining industry, the decline of towns based on exploiting natural resources, corruption, religious fanatics, share prices and more - and as the story evolves it becomes clear that there may be additional crimes here. 

I have previously critiqued Hammer's superficial portrayal of women in his novels. He has redeemed himself with the character of Nell Buchanan - an authentic, complex and determined woman.  I really liked Nell's intellect and instinct, and the way she was a worthy partner for Ivan Lucic. I hope to see her character evolve and be central in future novels.

Treasure and Dirt is a fine example of Australian noir and it is great to see Hammer branching out and moving away from the Scarsden series. My only quibble is with the length of the novel, as I think that it could have been trimmed back with less ancillary plot lines to make for a more taut crime thriller. 

My reviews of Chris Hammer's previous novels are available on this blog:

• Scrublands (2018)
• Silver (2019)
• Trust (2020)

Planning for 2022

After two years of a pandemic, it seems a little foolish to make plans for anything right now. With record high COVID cases, mounting pressure on the health system, leaders who are only interested in the coming election, the immediate future looks bleak. 

There is so much happening that is outside my control, I can only plan for what I can control - like my reading. But I do like to be agile enough to respond to whatever comes my way and go wherever my moods and interests take me.

I am looking forward to a number of new books due to be published in 2022, including:

• Hanya Yanagihara - To Paradise (January)
• 
  Margaret Atwood - Burning Questions (February)
• Jane Caro - The Mother (March)
• Wendy McCarthy - Don't be too polite, girls (March)
• Jennifer Egan - The Candy House (April)
• Douglas Stuart - Young Mungo (April)
• Emily St John Mandel - Sea of Tranquility (April)
• Julian Barnes - Elizabeth Finch (April)
• Kate Grenville - Elizabeth Macarthur's Letters (April)
• Dervla McTiernan - The Murder Rule (May)
• Geraldine Brooks - Horse (June)
• Zadie Smith - The Fraud (September)
• Anna Funder - Wifedom (September)
• David Marr - A Family Business (November)
• Samantha Maiden - Open Secrets (TBC)
• Britney Higgins - memoir (TBC)

While I won't get to all of them this year, I have preordered many from my library.

I seem to consistently be able to read 30 books each year, but given the uncertainty this pandemic brings and the impact it will have on my workload, I do not want to increase the volume. Instead I will continue to explore new authors, genres and subject matters. To diversify my reading and to challenge myself to read more fiction, I have created a new checklist to add some fun to my reading.

20th century modern classic	Retelling of another story	Novel in translation	Poetry  collection	Women's prize longlister
First Nations Author/Issues	Essay collection	New to me author	Biography or memoir	Book on the 1001 list
Debut novel	19th century classic	Published  in 2022	By a favourite author	Non-fiction bestseller
Short story collection	Australian  literary prize longlister	Current affairs/politics	Protagonist is over 50	LGBTIQ+ Author/Issues
Pre-19th  century classic	Non-fiction history	Book in my To Be Read pile	Booker prize longlister	Novella in  November

New categories added this year include:

• First Nations Author/Issues
• LGBTIQ+ Author/Issues
• Non-fiction History
• Novella in November
• 20th Century Classic
• By a favourite author

In adding these categories, I have removed ones that involved various settings (e.g. wartime, sea) or themes (e.g. coming of age). 

Last year I focussed mainly on fiction. This year I want to add more non-fiction to my list, but also get back to the classics and include other forms of writing - poetry, drama - into the mix.

Happy reading everyone!