Medium – Book
About the Book – This story tells the tale of two different women, who are often overlooked in Greek history/myth. The first is Jocasta, the wife and (eek) mother of Oedipus, whose story is told in the third person. The second is Ismene, her daughter /grand-daughter, whose story is told in the first person. Jocasta is sold into marriage at the age of fifteen, marrying the king of Thebes and bearing a son, who is born dead. Ismene lives in the palace 10-20 years later, and in her first account we see her stabbed by an unknown assailant, ripping her sense of safety away from her viciously. We follow the two women through their stories, but the story told here doesn’t always follow the storyline of the myth.
My Rating – 4.5/5
My thoughts – I love anything set in Greek history/myth. I loved Mythos, Heroes and Troy by Stephen Fry, and the book Circe, which I read last year. Natalie Haynes writes in a similar way to Madeleine Miller, who wrote Circe, taking the well-known myth and picking out lesser characters before giving them a voice. Both of the main characters are excellent and have very different, but very clear voices of their own. They are both strong in their own ways, with Jocasta having more ‘queenly’ strength, whereas Ismene is more quietly strong, clever and intelligent. The supporting characters are great, especially Ismene’s brothers and sister, and Sophon, who acts as Jocasta’s friend and doctor, and Ismene’s tutor.
The storyline follows the Greek myth more or less, but the ending is different. The author manages to show more of a strength in Jocasta’s ending than the one traditionally given to her in myth. Ismene’s is also great in a different way – hopeful and inspiring. I’ve only docked half a point out of my own preferences – it is slightly gory in places and also it goes into quite some detail about a plague and lockdown. Bit of a sensitive topic at the moment! But otherwise, it is an excellent, well written book and I look forward to reading more by this author – I think I have two on my TBR pile!
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