What can I tell you? It's a retake on the story of Medusa done in Haynes' inimitable style and it's as good as I expected. In fact it's better than I expected, partly because I didn't know how on earth she was going to make Medusa sympathetic, but in the end, in the words of Ryan George from You Tubes Pitch Meeting series*, 'it was easy, barely an inconvenience'.
It's a sad story, with a bitter sweet ending. It also points up how old the practice of victim blaming is; Medusa is raped by Poseidon in Athena's temple, but it's Medusa who Athena punishes. Zeus happily rapes his way round what seems like half of Greece, but it's his victims and their children that his wife Hera attempts to vent her wrath upon. There is however some light relief in the way the Hesperides run rings around a hapless Perseus, for whom you will have absolutely no sympathy by the time the book ends.
One of Haynes' writing 'tics' is to be very reductive with the gods of Greece, undercutting the heroic and noble way they have often been portrayed, by showing them as basically humans writ large. I did worry this might get old but she has pulled it off once again. The scene where Athene, the latest, youngest and therefore most insecure of the gods, demands that Zeus give her 'a thing', because all the other gods have a thing is very funny indeed, and explains why she is always seen with an owl.
Recommended unconditionally.
* If you don't know this and feel like a laugh check it out. Pick a film or film franchise you know to begin with, and then have fun exploring.
Excellent! It was on my wish list anyway, but it's good to know I'm right to have it there.
ReplyDeleteThank you for the recommendation to Ryan George, a while back, by the way. We think he's a hoot!