Reviews - Il silenzio delle ragazze

8.2k reviews for:

Il silenzio delle ragazze

Pat Barker

3.85 AVERAGE

3xhhheather's review against another edition

3.75

dark emotional sad slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

e_milyann's review against another edition

3.5

i was hoping for more of an insight into the women’s - in particular briseis’s - perspective of the iliad but i fear i learned nothing. like more on her backstory would’ve been great, or even tales from the other slave women to actually give them a voice rather than a running commentary on the events that took place with some insight into how they were treated (which was horrific but even their characters were hardly developed)

also the change of pov kinda ruined it, the whole point of the book was to give a voice to the women and yet we have multiple chapters of the men’s stories? hmm

alyshahgul's review against another edition

3.75

medium-paced

saoirseosborne's review against another edition

Honestly really wasn't convinced by this. I thought the concept was great - yes, let's hear from the women who are utterly ignored in traditional narratives like the Illiad! And to some extent, Barker achieves this. However, I'd have liked to hear from the perspectives of more women than only a powerful, privileged woman. There's a moment in the first chapter where Briseis wonders briefly about the perspective of her slave girl - yet the moment is passed over and not really revisited. Of course, Briseis becomes a slave herself, but still has a better life than the impoverished women who live between the huts in the camp.

I couldn't really work out whether or not we were expected to believe in the myths interwoven into the story. The plague is presented as totally a coincidence, not from Apollo, and the men's sacrifices to Apollo are dismissed as nonsense - yet the claim that Apollo's mother is some sort of sea goddess is accepted uncritically.

To some extent, I liked Barker's anachronisms, like the men's language - I felt that it showed that men's laddish misogyny has not changed over millennia. But sometimes it did just feel out of place.

Some chapters were indeed from men's perspectives. To some extent, I liked this - reading about how Achilles perceived Briseis was interesting. But Barker gives the chapters in which Homer etc treat as the most significant events of the story of Troy (e.g., Patrocles' and Achilles' deaths) to men. Surely these are the events which most warrant retelling by women?

abbeymaeriereads's review against another edition

2.5

I had been so looking forward to this book and was so excited when I finally got it from the library, but I ended up being incredibly disappointed with the execution of what I think was actually a very interesting premise. This is billed as essentially a retelling of the events of the Iliad from the perspective of Briseis, Achilles’s slave/concubine. And for Part 1, that’s what you get. I was enjoying Part 1, though I did feel like the author assumed a level of background knowledge that meant she skipped over any real character development of Briseis, so it was a bit hard to connect immediately. And a complaint I had throughout the book is that there’s very little dialogue and what we do get is jarringly modern and incorporates British slang (I’ve read this was an intentional choice by Barker, but it didn’t work for me).

It all fell apart for me in Part 2. This section starts off with a POV chapter from Achilles, and we continue to get Achilles/Patroclus’s POV chapters for the rest of the book, without Briseis even being present for a lot of them—which makes no sense in a book advertised as a retelling from her perspective. To me, this shift took this from a potentially interesting shifting of the framework through which we view the Trojan War to a pretty standard retelling with nothing new or interesting to add. And then we get a bizarre message near the end that essentially seems to amount to “slaves should accept their place as slaves”? Admittedly, I was frustrated with the book’s messaging in general by this point, so I may be interpreting this a bit ungenerously. However, I do think that this book overall contained lukewarm themes about the female plight during a war, particularly in ancient times, that are not revolutionary in any way and are not particularly impactful or insightful in this story in particular.

To me, if I am reading a retelling, I want something that brings in new ideas or perspectives, which is certainly what Pat Barker was attempting to do here; however, the actual execution of that purpose was extremely flat and disappointing.

fishy_chrissy's review against another edition

4.5

dark reflective medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

I really loved this book, told from the perspective of Briseis as a slave in Achilles’ camp at Troy. ChatGPT recommended it to me based on my enjoyment of Song of Achilles, and it delivered. Really well-written. I’m surprised that I am not getting bored of reading the same story from different angles.

Content Warnings