Circe

'Circe' is the story of the Greek mythological figure, as told from her perspective rather than the men around her. The author has attempted to remain true to the original myths, whilst at the same time looking at the stories from a female point of view, something often ignored in the originals in favour of the male hero, thus typically reducing women either to a wholly passive role or to that of monsters.

Circe begins with her childhood as a 'nymph' (essentially a low-powered female immortal) in the halls of Helios, her father. She is seen as a nonentity. Not powerful enough or beautiful enough to be of real interest. Then she - and her three siblings - demonstrate a strange and terrible power: witchcraft.

Exiled to the island of Aiaia, Circe hones her skills. For much of her time, she remains alone other than her animals. Her main connection to the outside world is, for a long time, the sporadic visits of Hermes. Through him she keeps track of what is going on elsewhere.

On a rare visit off the island, she helps to birth the Minotaur, monstrous son of her sister, Pasiphae. Then she's once again alone... until Odysseus' crew land upon her shores.

Despite the longevity of her life, this is not a grand sweeping epic. Out of necessity, the focus is quite tight upon Circe and her small island. This makes it a very character-driven story rather than plot-driven. The comparisons between Circe and female relatives such as Pasiphae and Medea, for example, or the way 'bad nymphs' get exiled, whereas 'good nymphs' are pawns in marital and sexual chess games that are controlled by the men in their lives. It asks questions about the nature of monsters.

I would recommend this book, but to be honest I preferred Miller's other title, Song of Achilles more. However this is still a gorgeously written text, full of poetry, evoking such beauty and grandeur from a time when gods and humans shared a new earth.
The reason I didn't give it a five is because the eponymous character, Circe, is constantly baffling to me. She is a god, yet always acts powerless. She is a witch, the mother of all witches, and yet she never uses her powers to improve her place. She seems always scared, of her family, of the Olympians and lives off of borrowed moments of pleasure. She borrows Aaetes from her mother, Daedalus form her sister and Ulysses form Penelope. It is an unexpectedly depressing read. I could not reconcile the paradoxes within her. Saying that, it was a story I read quickly as the writing pushes you forward and keeps you hooked.

The vivid imagery of the Gods, their halls, the islands and seas is almost touchable. Circe is a power icon for people wanting to find their place in the world. Would thoroughly recommend this read.

Loved this! Different to what I'm used to reading. It's mystical and exciting, feminist without being heavy handed. Great drama and fantasy. Highly recommend for an escapist read!

Loved this glorious, magical novel. Let's hear it for witches and women everywhere 👏👏👏

This book proved tricky for some of the members as they found the writing style not be one that gripped them from the beginning. It was felt that the book was quite wordy and descriptive which made it tricky to understand in parts.

There were some book club members who knew some of the names of the mythical people in this book and nejoyed seeming them pop up in this book. Those that didn't know much about Greek myths found this was an interesting way to learn more, especially about things like the Minotaur. A few people in the book group were looking things up as they went along just to add to their knowledge, but this might have made this into more of a learning book than a reading book. We all had a discussion about what we all knew about the Greek Myths and maybe wanting to learn more after reading this book.

We loved the bits when Circe was looking after her baby, there were some hilarious bits there with her exasperation with the needs of this small creature. She really was trying her best to care for him but she had no idea and no-one to help her learn.

Overall we gave it 6 out of 10.

Interesting book