Circe

I never found this book a page turner, but I loved it from start to finish. Miller's writing is beautiful, and the character she turns Circe into is a wonderfully biting commentator on the affairs of gods and men alike. What she does with this story feels at once very true to the Homeric tradition--in that everything she adds is woven into the mesh of stories that previously existed--and a clearly intentional addressing of the most frustrating things about the old stories. She isn't kind to the macho man heroes of old, but does make them much more interesting, believable characters. In particular the "here's what happened after" she does to the Odyssey deals with everything I find frustrating about that story in a very effective way.

I really enjoyed this book.

I picked it up to read during a week holiday in Greece, I thought it would be fun to learn about some Greek mythology while I was there.

It was - but this book was fun so far beyond just learning about ancient mythology, this was a well-drawn portrait of a deep and complex evolving character.

This book doesn't just tell us about Circe, it takes us along with her on her journey.

After Song of Achilles, this one disappointed me. It felt like a collection of short stories and oh my, so many characters and names to remember.