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heyitschzva's review against another edition
2.0
The story, on its on, is... okay. It's a decent story. However I found myself struggling relentlessly as I read this to keep myself in the story. The language the author chose to use was very modern, as were the social mannerisms and interactions between many of the characters. I was consistently confused by Aristotle's contradictory views on particular things, and felt as though in a lot of places the author was pushing modern ways on thinking onto things that would have been incredibly commonplace.
dannafs's review
3.0
Since this is not the sort of story I typically read, I wasn't sure that I should get it from the library. However, the first sentence clinched me: "The rain falls in black cords, lashing my animals, my men, and my wife, Pythias, who last night lay with her legs spread while I took notes on the mouth of her sex..." Any book that opens with oral sex is fine by me! This is a somewhat historical, somewhat fantastical novel of Aristotle and Alexander the Great. Overall, I enjoyed it. I did have trouble with some of the transitions, what I mean: in the middle of the page, it seemed author Annabel Lyon would completely shift time and be somewhere else. The story is interesting, there are many war battles and lessons. There are some gory sections, so if you can't stand blood and guts, this may not be for you. There is also liberal use of "fuck" and even the occasional "cunt." I find that sort of thing endearing. I'm sure someone who is interested in this time period/history would find it even more interesting and intriguing. For me, it was just a change of pace.
My favorite scene:
"'Do you need a cloth?' I asked. Not wiping, though, but rubbing. She tried to use my fingers but I pulled away and told her to be more modest.
'What?' she said.
'I am finished.' ...
'You're finished. I'm not.'
Not knowing what to say, I let her continue. She arched her back a little and then collapsed in a series of spasms, moaning weakly with each exhale. An annoying sound.
'And what was that?'
I assumed her answer was a lie. My father had taught me what claimed to experience was not physically possible.
'Next time, you can help,' she said.
I asked her to describe her pleasure.
'Like honey,' she said, and, 'Like a drum.' And other similes: cresting a hill, waves breaking, the color of gold.
She said when I came I sounded like a man lifting something heavy and then, with a great effort, setting it down."
My favorite scene:
"'Do you need a cloth?' I asked. Not wiping, though, but rubbing. She tried to use my fingers but I pulled away and told her to be more modest.
'What?' she said.
'I am finished.' ...
'You're finished. I'm not.'
Not knowing what to say, I let her continue. She arched her back a little and then collapsed in a series of spasms, moaning weakly with each exhale. An annoying sound.
'And what was that?'
I assumed her answer was a lie. My father had taught me what claimed to experience was not physically possible.
'Next time, you can help,' she said.
I asked her to describe her pleasure.
'Like honey,' she said, and, 'Like a drum.' And other similes: cresting a hill, waves breaking, the color of gold.
She said when I came I sounded like a man lifting something heavy and then, with a great effort, setting it down."
emmastia's review
3.0
This book was different from anything I had read in a while - a novel set in Greek times following the relationship between Aristotle and Alexander. It was fun and engaging and really made me rethink what I know about ancient history. It also brought me perfectly to the start of my next book, [b:Cleopatra: A Life|9722923|Cleopatra A Life|Stacy Schiff|http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41WX1NtEBIL._SL75_.jpg|12020129].
I read about this book initially on a website that recommended 3 great debut novels of 2010: [b:The Breaking of Eggs: A Novel|7629775|The Breaking of Eggs A Novel|Jim Powell|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1277815596s/7629775.jpg|10128815], [b:The Wake of Forgiveness|7743827|The Wake of Forgiveness|Bruce Machart|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1285287831s/7743827.jpg|10561949] and this one. They were all very good.
I read about this book initially on a website that recommended 3 great debut novels of 2010: [b:The Breaking of Eggs: A Novel|7629775|The Breaking of Eggs A Novel|Jim Powell|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1277815596s/7629775.jpg|10128815], [b:The Wake of Forgiveness|7743827|The Wake of Forgiveness|Bruce Machart|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1285287831s/7743827.jpg|10561949] and this one. They were all very good.
kirstinbrie's review against another edition
5.0
I loved it. Annabel Lyon brings the ancient past to life in a vivid, easily accessible way. I thought all of her characters were human representations of the two dimensional historical characters that we all know.
bookishbrittany's review against another edition
adventurous
informative
reflective
slow-paced
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship
strikingthirteen's review against another edition
3.0
I would give this three and a half if possible. The writing is lovely and I love the way that these great historical figures are made to be like real people. Granted I don't quite have the biographies of Aristotle and Alexander the Great quite up to snuff in my head but I really liked the way that Lyon wrote them. It was a great book to get lost in for a day and just leaf through. I think I was hoping for a little bit more teacher/student stuff considering the main plot of the book but I did also quite enjoy Aristotle's flashbacks to childhood, his homelife, his relationship with Philip, all that other extra stuff which just fleshed it all out.
All in all, very enjoyable :)
All in all, very enjoyable :)
expendablemudge's review against another edition
3.0
Rating: 3.75* of five
The Publisher Says: On the orders of his boyhood friend, now King Philip of Macedon, Aristotle postpones his dreams of succeeding Plato as leader of the Academy in Athens and reluctantly arrives in the Macedonian capital of Pella to tutor the king’s adolescent sons. An early illness has left one son with the intellect of a child; the other is destined for greatness but struggles between a keen mind that craves instruction and the pressures of a society that demands his prowess as a soldier.
Initially Aristotle hopes for a short stay in what he considers the brutal backwater of his childhood. But, as a man of relentless curiosity and reason, Aristotle warms to the challenge of instructing his young charges, particularly Alexander, in whom he recognizes a kindred spirit, an engaged, questioning mind coupled with a unique sense of position and destiny.
Aristotle struggles to match his ideas against the warrior culture that is Alexander’s birthright. He feels that teaching this startling, charming, sometimes horrifying boy is a desperate necessity. And that what the boy – thrown before his time onto his father’s battlefields – needs most is to learn the golden mean, that elusive balance between extremes that Aristotle hopes will mitigate the boy’s will to conquer.
Aristotle struggles to inspire balance in Alexander, and he finds he must also play a cat-and-mouse game of power and influence with Philip in order to manage his own ambitions.
As Alexander’s position as Philip’s heir strengthens and his victories on the battlefield mount, Aristotle’s attempts to instruct him are honored, but increasingly unheeded. And despite several troubling incidents on the field of battle, Alexander remains steadfast in his desire to further the reach of his empire to all known and unknown corners of the world, rendering the intellectual pursuits Aristotle offers increasingly irrelevant.
Exploring this fabled time and place, Annabel Lyon tells her story in the earthy, frank, and perceptive voice of Aristotle himself. With sensual and muscular prose, she explores how Aristotle’s genius touched the boy who would conquer the known world. And she reveals how we still live with the ghosts of both men.
My Review: I think this is up there in ambition of storytelling with The Song of Achilles, the five-star imaginative tour de force by Madeline Miller. Aristotle as narrator of his time spent in Pella? A good idea! Tutoring Alexander means getting to the heart of the legend that surrounds Alexander and vivifying him, dusting off the fustian and falderol accreted to his tale.
Here's Alexander speaking to Aristotle:
Nice. Not a teenaged person speaking, and no I'm not retroactively applying 21st-century standards to Alexander, I'm fully aware that he was a powerful king's heir and a man before he was 17. But that's not my inner ear's problem with the passage.
It sounds like speechifying. It's not faux archaic, it's not arch or overwrought. It's just...speechy. Like a modern presidential speech to the jus' folks at a Town Hall. Aristotle, a man of immense intellect and unbounded curiosity, attempts to instill those qualities in Alexander's still-forming mind:
Aristotle uses some pretty vulgar (in all senses of the word) subjects to pique the youth's questing intelligence's appetite for information. (If Alexander was alive now, he'd be a Google employee assigned to counter-hacking.)
In the end, the historical Alexander and the historical Aristotle are brighter figures for Lyon's spit-polish of their statues. It's a good book, and I won't read it again. I feel it's delivered its payload of meaning and philosophical pondering to me. Alexander sums up the experience of The Golden Mean quite well:
I can't begin to tell you how tough it was for me to finish this five-star idea and rate it under four stars. I can't honestly push it higher, for the reasons I've given. It might seem to others a perfect five, which rating I can't give but can see how a reader with a more accepting nature would.
Watch this writer. This is a debut novel, following a story collection and a novella collection as well as some YA work. There is nothing in this book, either structural or aesthetic, that suggests to me a career of mediocre ~meh~ness. Fine, imaginitive writing will come forth from her pen. I haven't read the follow-on to this book, The Sweet Girl, about Aristotle's daughter. Happen that I will, with a deal of hope for excellence.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
The Publisher Says: On the orders of his boyhood friend, now King Philip of Macedon, Aristotle postpones his dreams of succeeding Plato as leader of the Academy in Athens and reluctantly arrives in the Macedonian capital of Pella to tutor the king’s adolescent sons. An early illness has left one son with the intellect of a child; the other is destined for greatness but struggles between a keen mind that craves instruction and the pressures of a society that demands his prowess as a soldier.
Initially Aristotle hopes for a short stay in what he considers the brutal backwater of his childhood. But, as a man of relentless curiosity and reason, Aristotle warms to the challenge of instructing his young charges, particularly Alexander, in whom he recognizes a kindred spirit, an engaged, questioning mind coupled with a unique sense of position and destiny.
Aristotle struggles to match his ideas against the warrior culture that is Alexander’s birthright. He feels that teaching this startling, charming, sometimes horrifying boy is a desperate necessity. And that what the boy – thrown before his time onto his father’s battlefields – needs most is to learn the golden mean, that elusive balance between extremes that Aristotle hopes will mitigate the boy’s will to conquer.
Aristotle struggles to inspire balance in Alexander, and he finds he must also play a cat-and-mouse game of power and influence with Philip in order to manage his own ambitions.
As Alexander’s position as Philip’s heir strengthens and his victories on the battlefield mount, Aristotle’s attempts to instruct him are honored, but increasingly unheeded. And despite several troubling incidents on the field of battle, Alexander remains steadfast in his desire to further the reach of his empire to all known and unknown corners of the world, rendering the intellectual pursuits Aristotle offers increasingly irrelevant.
Exploring this fabled time and place, Annabel Lyon tells her story in the earthy, frank, and perceptive voice of Aristotle himself. With sensual and muscular prose, she explores how Aristotle’s genius touched the boy who would conquer the known world. And she reveals how we still live with the ghosts of both men.
My Review: I think this is up there in ambition of storytelling with The Song of Achilles, the five-star imaginative tour de force by Madeline Miller. Aristotle as narrator of his time spent in Pella? A good idea! Tutoring Alexander means getting to the heart of the legend that surrounds Alexander and vivifying him, dusting off the fustian and falderol accreted to his tale.
Here's Alexander speaking to Aristotle:
You who understand what a human mind can be, how can you bear it? I don't have the hundredth part of your mind and there are days when I think I'll go mad. I can feel it. Or hear it. It's more like hearing something creeping along the walls, just behind my head, getting closer and closer. A big insect, maybe a scorpion. A dry skittering, that's what madness sounds like to me.
Nice. Not a teenaged person speaking, and no I'm not retroactively applying 21st-century standards to Alexander, I'm fully aware that he was a powerful king's heir and a man before he was 17. But that's not my inner ear's problem with the passage.
It sounds like speechifying. It's not faux archaic, it's not arch or overwrought. It's just...speechy. Like a modern presidential speech to the jus' folks at a Town Hall. Aristotle, a man of immense intellect and unbounded curiosity, attempts to instill those qualities in Alexander's still-forming mind:
You must look for the mean between extremes, the point of balance. The point will differ from man to man. There is not a universal standard of virtue to cover all situations at all times. Context must be taken into account, specificity, what is best at a particular place and time.
Aristotle uses some pretty vulgar (in all senses of the word) subjects to pique the youth's questing intelligence's appetite for information. (If Alexander was alive now, he'd be a Google employee assigned to counter-hacking.)
My father explained to me once that human male sperm was a potent distillation of all the fluids in the body, and that when those fluids became warm and agitated they produced foam, just as in cooking or sea water. The fluid or foam passes from the brain into the spine, and from there through the veins along the kidneys, then via the testicles into the penis. In the womb, the secretion of the man and the secretion of the woman are mixed together, though the man experiences the pleasure in the process and the woman does not. Even so, it is healthy for a woman to have regular intercourse, to keep the womb moist, and to warm the blood.
In the end, the historical Alexander and the historical Aristotle are brighter figures for Lyon's spit-polish of their statues. It's a good book, and I won't read it again. I feel it's delivered its payload of meaning and philosophical pondering to me. Alexander sums up the experience of The Golden Mean quite well:
You and I can appreciate the glory of things. We walk to the very edge of things as everyone else knows and understands and experiences them, and then we walk the next step. We go places no one has ever been. That's who we are. That's who you've taught me to be.
I can't begin to tell you how tough it was for me to finish this five-star idea and rate it under four stars. I can't honestly push it higher, for the reasons I've given. It might seem to others a perfect five, which rating I can't give but can see how a reader with a more accepting nature would.
Watch this writer. This is a debut novel, following a story collection and a novella collection as well as some YA work. There is nothing in this book, either structural or aesthetic, that suggests to me a career of mediocre ~meh~ness. Fine, imaginitive writing will come forth from her pen. I haven't read the follow-on to this book, The Sweet Girl, about Aristotle's daughter. Happen that I will, with a deal of hope for excellence.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
brendad's review against another edition
2.0
Found it to be a difficult read- not that familiar with the historical context, and following the names!
tachyondecay's review against another edition
2.0
Let me summarize this book for you.
—wait, no, sorry, that’s Star Wars. Let’s try this again.
—no, no, now that’s Lion King. DAMN IT.
OK, don’t worry, I got this.
Nailed it.
Aristotle: Join me, Alexander. Feel the power of the Dark Side.
Alexander: Never!
Aristotle: Alexander, I AM YOUR FATHER.
Alexander: No!
Aristotle: Look within your heart, Alexander, which is actually a heart, and is not merely the shadow of an ideal heart, because how the hell did Plato think that would work anyway? You know it to be true.
Alexander: Noooooooo!
Aristotle: *chops off Alexander's hand with a light-sabre*
—wait, no, sorry, that’s Star Wars. Let’s try this again.
Aristotle: Everything the light touches is your kingdom.
Alexander: Wow
Aristotle: A king's time as ruler rises and falls like the sun. One day, Alexander, the sun will set on Philip’s time here, and will rise with you as the new king.
Alexander: What’s that dark part over there?
Aristotle: That is Persia. We do not speak of it.
Later, Aristotle gets trampled to death by wildebeest while Alexander looks on, and it is ALL HIS FAULT. Then his uncle becomes—
—no, no, now that’s Lion King. DAMN IT.
OK, don’t worry, I got this.
Aristotle: If you’ll just concede the necessity of going to school, we’ll go on having conversations about leadership every night just as we always have. Is it a bargain?
Alexander: Yes, sir! *prepares to spit on his hand*
Aristotle: We’ll consider it sealed without the usual formality. Now about Boo Radley….
Nailed it.
stephybara's review against another edition
Gave up. If you know more about the period or are interested in it, this might hold your interest more. This is a fictional account of the time that Aristotle spent with the young Alexander (eventually to become The Great). It just didn't work for me.