A review by ohwowbee
Pandora's Jar by Natalie Haynes

adventurous funny informative reflective medium-paced

5.0

I could read Natalie Haynes forever. She has nuanced, funny, and pointed insights into the messy contradictions of classical literature and history, and her breadth of knowledge is outmatched only by her sense of humour. 

In the penultimate chapter, about Penelope, Haynes writes: “When the question arises - why retell Greek myths with women at their core? - it is loaded with a strange assumption.” 

The assumption is that women are in the margins for a reason; that these aren’t their stories, or they are accessories or supporting characters for a reason. The assumption is that the original authors didn’t care about these women, and that those are the authoritative versions of the stories, obviously. Only, as Haynes has shown in her book, this is not the case at all. There is not one true authority on any myth.

In the chapters final lines, she replies to herself: “... the answer to this question should be: because she’s in the damn story. Why wouldn’t we want to hear from her?”
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