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rue_baldry 's review for:
The Persian Boy
by Mary Renault
This is a wonderful epic, deeply rooted in facts, atmospheric, and with a great choice of narrator. My biggest problem with Fire From Heaven, was that Alexander, the protagonist, was too perfect to be believable, or, ultimately, completely sympathetic. In this novel the narrator protagonist is someone who is in love with him, and so his presentation as paragon becomes right and necessary. Also, Bagoas is a character for whom it is easy to feel affection, especially as the first few chapters tell of the traumas and suffering of his youth before meeting Alexander.
I had thought that I would feel conflicted by Alexander being emotionally and sexually unfaithful to Hephaistion, who is probably the more sympathetic of the characters in Fire From Heaven. It’s also interesting to be reading this not long after Song Of Achilles, because of the way Alexander and Hephaistion saw themselves as mirrors of Achilles and Patroclus. However, that relationship, and the resulting relationship between Bagoas and Hephaistion, is handled well and sympathetically. It does all make sense.
The Persian Boy covers a lot of geography, many battles, lots of historical characters with similar names, and I can’t pretend to remember all of them or to be able to keep completely clear on who was which. But ultimately a lot of that is background. It’s a fascinating character study of Alexander, who was a unique and powerful figure who changed the histories of a fair chunk of the world. It is the best written Renault book I have read so far and I was gripped throughout, dispute it being very long.
I had thought that I would feel conflicted by Alexander being emotionally and sexually unfaithful to Hephaistion, who is probably the more sympathetic of the characters in Fire From Heaven. It’s also interesting to be reading this not long after Song Of Achilles, because of the way Alexander and Hephaistion saw themselves as mirrors of Achilles and Patroclus. However, that relationship, and the resulting relationship between Bagoas and Hephaistion, is handled well and sympathetically. It does all make sense.
The Persian Boy covers a lot of geography, many battles, lots of historical characters with similar names, and I can’t pretend to remember all of them or to be able to keep completely clear on who was which. But ultimately a lot of that is background. It’s a fascinating character study of Alexander, who was a unique and powerful figure who changed the histories of a fair chunk of the world. It is the best written Renault book I have read so far and I was gripped throughout, dispute it being very long.