Scan barcode
A review by christinecc
Call Me Athena: Girl from Detroit by Colby Cedar Smith
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
A multigenerational odyssey through marriage, sisterhood, war, and growing pains.
"Call Me Athena" is a novel in verse, partly based on the author's paternal grandmother's life story. The story here goes back and forth between our three protagonists: Mary (born to Greek and French parents, now living in 1930s Detroit), Jeanne (a French girl from Saint-Malo in the 1910s), and Gio (a young Greek man far from home, also during the 1910s, in what seems like an interminable odyssey).
Speaking of the Odyssey, I'd like to emphasize how apt that comparison is, not because of the book's roots in Greek culture, but rather because of the novel's moving themes of loss and "nostos" (i.e., homecoming). Is Mary at home in a world where she straddles two cultures? Will Gio ever find home again when he flees Greece? And where will Jeanne's heart finds its home when she takes a chance for love?
And as in the Odyssey, family takes up a prime place in this story. We quickly come to understand how important mothers, fathers, siblings, and children are to our heroes. Even when they despair, their thoughts go to those they love: their flesh and blood, but also their future, chosen family.
The third Odyssey similarity lies in the fragmented storytelling that leaves us few surprises. Just as in Homer's epic, we start in the present, where our hero has a wife and child, before the author casts us into the past. Needless to say, it's no secret who Gio and Jeanne are to Mary, so we have a sense of where the 1910s couple will end up: in Detroit. The real suspense rests with Mary, but author Colby Cedar Smith's storytelling chops turn the 1910s timeline into a gripping tale that kept me turning the page. The characters are real, ruthless, and vulnerable. I was rooting for them from the start.
Recommended for anyone who wants a personal and historical epic in a bottle, with a poetic flair and enough heart to make the verse go down like water.
Thank you to NetGalley and Andrews McMeel Publishing for sending me an eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.
"Call Me Athena" is a novel in verse, partly based on the author's paternal grandmother's life story. The story here goes back and forth between our three protagonists: Mary (born to Greek and French parents, now living in 1930s Detroit), Jeanne (a French girl from Saint-Malo in the 1910s), and Gio (a young Greek man far from home, also during the 1910s, in what seems like an interminable odyssey).
Speaking of the Odyssey, I'd like to emphasize how apt that comparison is, not because of the book's roots in Greek culture, but rather because of the novel's moving themes of loss and "nostos" (i.e., homecoming). Is Mary at home in a world where she straddles two cultures? Will Gio ever find home again when he flees Greece? And where will Jeanne's heart finds its home when she takes a chance for love?
And as in the Odyssey, family takes up a prime place in this story. We quickly come to understand how important mothers, fathers, siblings, and children are to our heroes. Even when they despair, their thoughts go to those they love: their flesh and blood, but also their future, chosen family.
The third Odyssey similarity lies in the fragmented storytelling that leaves us few surprises. Just as in Homer's epic, we start in the present, where our hero has a wife and child, before the author casts us into the past. Needless to say, it's no secret who Gio and Jeanne are to Mary, so we have a sense of where the 1910s couple will end up: in Detroit. The real suspense rests with Mary, but author Colby Cedar Smith's storytelling chops turn the 1910s timeline into a gripping tale that kept me turning the page. The characters are real, ruthless, and vulnerable. I was rooting for them from the start.
Recommended for anyone who wants a personal and historical epic in a bottle, with a poetic flair and enough heart to make the verse go down like water.
Thank you to NetGalley and Andrews McMeel Publishing for sending me an eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.