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A review by katiealex72
The Women of Troy by Pat Barker
4.0
3.5 stars.
The Women of Troy continues the story that happens after the Silence of the Girls, beginning with the Trojan horse and ending when the Greeks finally leave the destroyed city of Troy in their ships to go back home. I assume this is the middle of a trilogy, and (it pains me to say this) it shows; it doesn’t work well as a stand alone novel.
Pat Barker’s writing is wonderful, as it always is. The story is told mainly from the POV of Briseis who is pregnant by now-dead Achilles and married to one of his Myrmidons, not a slave any more. She visits here, she visits there..seeing now Hecuba, then Andromache, then Cassandra, then the common Trojan women used as sex slaves, then Hecuba again, rinse and repeat. It is basically a story of a woman visiting other women and recalling things that happened and trying to help them as much as she can. She doesn’t do very much because none of the women can and most aren’t even allowed to leave their huts. We get the occasional chapter from Pyrrhus or Calchas’ POV, but it’s mostly women, talking. I wondered why it was taking me so long to read when I’d zipped through Silence of the Girls, and I think it’s just the extreme limitation of the plot. One of the problems with taking a famous story that’s been around for thousands of years, I suppose.
Recommended for Pat Barker and Homer fans or; otherwise, maybe not.
The Women of Troy continues the story that happens after the Silence of the Girls, beginning with the Trojan horse and ending when the Greeks finally leave the destroyed city of Troy in their ships to go back home. I assume this is the middle of a trilogy, and (it pains me to say this) it shows; it doesn’t work well as a stand alone novel.
Pat Barker’s writing is wonderful, as it always is. The story is told mainly from the POV of Briseis who is pregnant by now-dead Achilles and married to one of his Myrmidons, not a slave any more. She visits here, she visits there..seeing now Hecuba, then Andromache, then Cassandra, then the common Trojan women used as sex slaves, then Hecuba again, rinse and repeat. It is basically a story of a woman visiting other women and recalling things that happened and trying to help them as much as she can. She doesn’t do very much because none of the women can and most aren’t even allowed to leave their huts. We get the occasional chapter from Pyrrhus or Calchas’ POV, but it’s mostly women, talking. I wondered why it was taking me so long to read when I’d zipped through Silence of the Girls, and I think it’s just the extreme limitation of the plot. One of the problems with taking a famous story that’s been around for thousands of years, I suppose.
Recommended for Pat Barker and Homer fans or; otherwise, maybe not.