Circe by Madeline Miller

 

Circe by Madeline Miller was our book club book in November. You may remember the character of Circe from your Greek mythology as a daughter of Helios. If you read the Odyssey in high school, you may vaguely remember her as the character who turned men into pigs.  If you don't remember any of that, you can still follow this book well enough.  It's, as the title suggests, a complete telling of Circe's tale, from the time she is born until a very ambiguous ending that I took to mean she died after living through many human lifetimes, but the ending is definitely up to interpretation. 

Here's what's admirable about the book. It's well written. Miller writes in a clear manner that immerses you in a world without you having to work too hard. I don't have any beefs with this aspect of the novel.  It's interesting to take a somewhat background character of a larger story, especially a female character, and make her the center of the story. It delves deeper into the stories of all the things you vaguely remember from covering Greek myths - Jason, Scylla, the Minotaur - and puts Circe in the middle in a new way.

But here's the thing.

As beloved as this book is, I just didn't care. I could have shut the book at any page and never wondered how it ended.  If it weren't for book club, I would have read my required 100 pages (I think every book deserves 5 pages or 100 pages) and just shelved it as a DNF.  It's just not for me. The vast majority of the book is just torture after torture for poor Circe, but it turns out that that's not enough for me to care about her.  Her life is terrible, yes, and I feel her loneliness and isolation, but she's also terrible.  Eh. This book just wasn't for me.  

Book club report: One person other than me finished and she LOVED it, two other people didn't finish (pages 12 and 17).  One person told us on the Facebook page that she was still reading the book and was enjoying it greatly.  Mixed results for such a beloved book.

Thing of note:

lambent eyes (page 8 for the first time):  I did not know the word lambent and it was used repeatedly to describe Circe's eyes - (of light or fire) glowing, gleaming, or flickering with a soft radiance

Quotes of note:

"What was the fight over?"

"Let me see if I can remember the list." He ticked his fingers. "Vengeance. Lust. Hubris. Greed. Power. What have I forgotten? Ah, yes, vanity, and pique."

Sounds like a usual day among the gods," I said. (page 200)

...I found myself steeped in mortal flesh. Those frail bodies of theirs took relentless attention, food and drink, sleep and rest, the cleaning of limbs and fluxes. Such patience mortals must have, I thought, to drag themselves through it hour after hour. (page 214)