The Silence of the Girls: Review (Spoilers!)
"Grief's only ever as deep as the love it's replaced." - The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker
Hey hi hello friends, and welcome back to my blog! I know it's been a hot minute, but I won't get into that. We have a book to talk about, don't we?
The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker is the story of the Trojan War from the viewpoint of Achilles' war prize, Briseis.
If you are not familiar with The Iliad, it goes like this: Achilles and his troops ransacked the kingdom of Lyrnesses, where they kill all of the men and take the women hostage as slaves and war prizes. Achilles claims the queen, Briseis, as his own, after he murdered her husband the king, as well as her brothers as they tried to defend the palace (where Briseis and the other noble women were hiding). Over the course of about seven years, Briseis lives as Achilles concubine in the Greek encampment. When the leader of the Greek army, Agamemnon, is forced to give up his prize (a priestess of Apollo named Chryseis), he demands Achilles give him Briseis as recompence. This leads to Achilles (and subsequently his troops) refusing to fight for Agamemnon in the war, which damages the Greek army almost beyond help. After Achilles dies, she is given to one of his comrade-in-arms as his wife.
The Iliad of course focuses mainly on Achilles, so we don't get a whole lot of Briseis. We know that Achilles claimed to have loved Briseis as much as any man would love his wife, and that after he is killed Briseis is the one to personally prepare his body for the afterlife. We also know that Briseis and Patroclus, Achilles' right hand (and lover; NO ONE CAN CONVINCE ME OTHERWISE) had a strong friendship, and that Briseis laments over Patroclus when he is killed.
Pat Barker's The Silence of the Girls focuses more on the women of the Trojan War, with Briseis being our main protagonist. We start out at the sack of Lyrnesses, and end directly after Troy is ransacked and defeated. We learn more about the other slave women and concubines that are just briefly mentioned in The Iliad, which I really appreciated.
We'll start with the 3 pros I have for this book.
1. The in-depth look of Briseis and the other women's lives in the camp. I thought it was a wonderful thing to tell these stories, since nearly every other retelling of The Iliad focuses on Achilles and Patroclus, or Odysseus and Agamemnon. The fact is that Briseis and the other women enslaved by the Greeks during the Trojan war were vitally important to the outcome.
2. The ending. I enjoyed this ending more than I did of other retellings, like The Song of Achilles for example. This ending set up hope for Briseis and her child. Even though she couldn't remain in Troy like how she desired, she agreed that a life as a free woman in Greece with her now husband and future child would be better than a brutal death or living out her days as a slave.
3. The relationship between Patroclus and Briseis. I'll say it before and I'll say it again: Patroclus and Briseis are the ultimate brOTP. I love their dynamic in nearly every retelling I read; Patroclus being a little protective over Briseis and Briseis being able to speak her mind to Patroclus. He was always kind to her in this story, which I appreciated.
Okay, now we have the not-so-fun part. Here are my 3 cons:
1. The pacing of the story. I guess this is more technical than anything, but I found it so hard to read this book. There would be some chapters that seemed to end as soon as they started, and then the next chapter would take years and just drag on. I found it really hard to get into the plot of the story, though I suppose I could also blame that on the fact that I know the story of The Iliad backwards and forwards. But still, retellings are meant to be fresh; you should be able to enjoy the story even if you know the source material.
2. Achilles' 3rd person POV. I really couldn't stand when the story would switch out of Briseis' POV. It completely drew me out of the book. Those chapters were confusing and kind of irrelevant, especially for someone who knew the original epic like I did. The whole point of this book was to shed light on Briseis' thoughts and actions, so the chapters where the POV shifted to Achilles really bugged me.
3. The stagnation of Briseis' character arc. People might disagree with me on this, but I actually found Briseis' character a little bland. I liked how she remained loyal to Troy and Lyrnesses until the end, but I found it getting repetitive. Especially the part where she planned on sneaking into Troy by hiding next to Hector's dead body in the cart Priam was taking back to the city. The only reason she didn't go through with it is because she was scared of what would happen when Troy would fall. She was so sure that Troy would be defeated, it kind of made her undying loyalty seem pointless.
I think my favorite part of this book was the plague. I thought the description of the rats was very well written, and I honestly loved it when Briseis would pray to Apollo to smite the Greeks down with plague. And the way she described Agamemnon through it all: Agamemnon was always the antagonist in Achilles' story, and he was the same in Briseis', though for completely different reasons.
I also enjoyed any time Patroclus and Briseis talked, because as I said before, they're the ultimate brOTP. Plus, it helped that Patroclus talked shit about Achilles, and everyone knows that Achilles was kind of a whiny bitch. Briseis' internal monologue did not shy away from that.
Overall, I gave this book 3.5 out of 5 stars. I thought it was well written, but it didn't impact me as much as other Iliad retellings have, and as a Greek mythology and literature stan, that's something that is deeply important to me.
Hey hi hello friends, and welcome back to my blog! I know it's been a hot minute, but I won't get into that. We have a book to talk about, don't we?
The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker is the story of the Trojan War from the viewpoint of Achilles' war prize, Briseis.
If you are not familiar with The Iliad, it goes like this: Achilles and his troops ransacked the kingdom of Lyrnesses, where they kill all of the men and take the women hostage as slaves and war prizes. Achilles claims the queen, Briseis, as his own, after he murdered her husband the king, as well as her brothers as they tried to defend the palace (where Briseis and the other noble women were hiding). Over the course of about seven years, Briseis lives as Achilles concubine in the Greek encampment. When the leader of the Greek army, Agamemnon, is forced to give up his prize (a priestess of Apollo named Chryseis), he demands Achilles give him Briseis as recompence. This leads to Achilles (and subsequently his troops) refusing to fight for Agamemnon in the war, which damages the Greek army almost beyond help. After Achilles dies, she is given to one of his comrade-in-arms as his wife.
The Iliad of course focuses mainly on Achilles, so we don't get a whole lot of Briseis. We know that Achilles claimed to have loved Briseis as much as any man would love his wife, and that after he is killed Briseis is the one to personally prepare his body for the afterlife. We also know that Briseis and Patroclus, Achilles' right hand (and lover; NO ONE CAN CONVINCE ME OTHERWISE) had a strong friendship, and that Briseis laments over Patroclus when he is killed.
Pat Barker's The Silence of the Girls focuses more on the women of the Trojan War, with Briseis being our main protagonist. We start out at the sack of Lyrnesses, and end directly after Troy is ransacked and defeated. We learn more about the other slave women and concubines that are just briefly mentioned in The Iliad, which I really appreciated.
We'll start with the 3 pros I have for this book.
1. The in-depth look of Briseis and the other women's lives in the camp. I thought it was a wonderful thing to tell these stories, since nearly every other retelling of The Iliad focuses on Achilles and Patroclus, or Odysseus and Agamemnon. The fact is that Briseis and the other women enslaved by the Greeks during the Trojan war were vitally important to the outcome.
2. The ending. I enjoyed this ending more than I did of other retellings, like The Song of Achilles for example. This ending set up hope for Briseis and her child. Even though she couldn't remain in Troy like how she desired, she agreed that a life as a free woman in Greece with her now husband and future child would be better than a brutal death or living out her days as a slave.
3. The relationship between Patroclus and Briseis. I'll say it before and I'll say it again: Patroclus and Briseis are the ultimate brOTP. I love their dynamic in nearly every retelling I read; Patroclus being a little protective over Briseis and Briseis being able to speak her mind to Patroclus. He was always kind to her in this story, which I appreciated.
Okay, now we have the not-so-fun part. Here are my 3 cons:
1. The pacing of the story. I guess this is more technical than anything, but I found it so hard to read this book. There would be some chapters that seemed to end as soon as they started, and then the next chapter would take years and just drag on. I found it really hard to get into the plot of the story, though I suppose I could also blame that on the fact that I know the story of The Iliad backwards and forwards. But still, retellings are meant to be fresh; you should be able to enjoy the story even if you know the source material.
2. Achilles' 3rd person POV. I really couldn't stand when the story would switch out of Briseis' POV. It completely drew me out of the book. Those chapters were confusing and kind of irrelevant, especially for someone who knew the original epic like I did. The whole point of this book was to shed light on Briseis' thoughts and actions, so the chapters where the POV shifted to Achilles really bugged me.
3. The stagnation of Briseis' character arc. People might disagree with me on this, but I actually found Briseis' character a little bland. I liked how she remained loyal to Troy and Lyrnesses until the end, but I found it getting repetitive. Especially the part where she planned on sneaking into Troy by hiding next to Hector's dead body in the cart Priam was taking back to the city. The only reason she didn't go through with it is because she was scared of what would happen when Troy would fall. She was so sure that Troy would be defeated, it kind of made her undying loyalty seem pointless.
I think my favorite part of this book was the plague. I thought the description of the rats was very well written, and I honestly loved it when Briseis would pray to Apollo to smite the Greeks down with plague. And the way she described Agamemnon through it all: Agamemnon was always the antagonist in Achilles' story, and he was the same in Briseis', though for completely different reasons.
I also enjoyed any time Patroclus and Briseis talked, because as I said before, they're the ultimate brOTP. Plus, it helped that Patroclus talked shit about Achilles, and everyone knows that Achilles was kind of a whiny bitch. Briseis' internal monologue did not shy away from that.
Overall, I gave this book 3.5 out of 5 stars. I thought it was well written, but it didn't impact me as much as other Iliad retellings have, and as a Greek mythology and literature stan, that's something that is deeply important to me.
Comments
Post a Comment