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angelqueen04 's review for:
A Thousand Ships
by Natalie Haynes
"This is the women's war, just as much as it is the men's. They have waited long enough for their turn. This was never the story of one woman, or two. It was the story of all of them."
Talk about an understatement. Natalie Haynes essentially took the ancient poems and plays about the Greeks and the Trojans and shook them upside down until they gave up the story of the characters which had been so sorely neglected over millennia - the women. Here we have Clytemnestra, Hecabe, Andromache, Chryseis, Briseis, Cassandra, even the goddesses themselves, all finally telling their story, the events that were their lives. The end result was both fascinating and heartbreaking.
Most say that the Iliad is a story of men, that it provided the earliest example of men at war. The women stay mostly in the shadows, only a few, like Andromache, briefly stepping into the light. But here Haynes shines the light on all of them. While the men die (on the battlefield in glory, at the feet of Zeus in ignominy, etc), it it the women who survive to bear the consequences of their defeat (some longer than others).
I have to say that I very much enjoyed this story. Though it can be a bit hard to follow at times, as it jumps from different points in the timeline, but I was absolutely fascinated to see the fates of the women of these stories. I particularly liked the moments where Penelope, who is so often characterized for her patience and tolerance, just completely rag on Odysseus for some of his more foolish decisions in the Odyssey.
A great story!
Talk about an understatement. Natalie Haynes essentially took the ancient poems and plays about the Greeks and the Trojans and shook them upside down until they gave up the story of the characters which had been so sorely neglected over millennia - the women. Here we have Clytemnestra, Hecabe, Andromache, Chryseis, Briseis, Cassandra, even the goddesses themselves, all finally telling their story, the events that were their lives. The end result was both fascinating and heartbreaking.
Most say that the Iliad is a story of men, that it provided the earliest example of men at war. The women stay mostly in the shadows, only a few, like Andromache, briefly stepping into the light. But here Haynes shines the light on all of them. While the men die (on the battlefield in glory, at the feet of Zeus in ignominy, etc), it it the women who survive to bear the consequences of their defeat (some longer than others).
I have to say that I very much enjoyed this story. Though it can be a bit hard to follow at times, as it jumps from different points in the timeline, but I was absolutely fascinated to see the fates of the women of these stories. I particularly liked the moments where Penelope, who is so often characterized for her patience and tolerance, just completely rag on Odysseus for some of his more foolish decisions in the Odyssey.
A great story!