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A review by elaineruss
Ragnarok by A.S. Byatt
4.0
It's no secret that A.S. Byatt is one of my favourite authors. Her writing takes my breath away and Ragnarok is no exception. Part of the Canongate Myth's series, Byatt takes the ancient Norse legend about the end of the world and makes it current.
It's no surprise that Byatt would be part of this project. Almost all Byatt's novels are infused with myths and history. In fact in her most famous novel, Possession, Byatt's fictional poet, Randolph Henry Ash writes a poem titled "Ragnarok".
Another interesting and rather emotive decision by Byatt was to tell the story from the point of view of herself, as a child, in the Second World War. A move that makes the tale intensely close to home.
More fascinating than the tale however is Byatt's afterword. Byatt seizes this opportunity to draw parallels between the tale and our own battle with climate change. To steal a line from my friend's blog post:
"It is an excellent piece of writing, and she drew an interesting exegetical point from it - that the gods knew Ragnarok was coming, but they didn't have the imagination to avoid it. The parallel between our current culture's collision course with catastrophic climate change is thought-provoking."
As a side note, the hard back version of this book has been very beautifully published. Canongate really should be given credit for such a fabulous series of books and the care that has been put into them.
It's no surprise that Byatt would be part of this project. Almost all Byatt's novels are infused with myths and history. In fact in her most famous novel, Possession, Byatt's fictional poet, Randolph Henry Ash writes a poem titled "Ragnarok".
Another interesting and rather emotive decision by Byatt was to tell the story from the point of view of herself, as a child, in the Second World War. A move that makes the tale intensely close to home.
More fascinating than the tale however is Byatt's afterword. Byatt seizes this opportunity to draw parallels between the tale and our own battle with climate change. To steal a line from my friend's blog post:
"It is an excellent piece of writing, and she drew an interesting exegetical point from it - that the gods knew Ragnarok was coming, but they didn't have the imagination to avoid it. The parallel between our current culture's collision course with catastrophic climate change is thought-provoking."
As a side note, the hard back version of this book has been very beautifully published. Canongate really should be given credit for such a fabulous series of books and the care that has been put into them.