Monday, August 6, 2018

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Circe by Madeline Miller



    Madeline Miller's "Circe" is an adaptation and reinterpretation of many parts of Greek Mythology, centered around the immortal sorceress/witch Circe (well, duh) from her own perspective.  Circe, in various sources, shows up a bunch of times throughout Greek mythology - most famously in Homer's Odyssey, but she appears directly or tangentially in a number of other myths.  As an avid reader of Greek and Roman mythology growing up, and having read more of it during my K-12 education (I took both Latin and Ancient Greek in high school, so mythology was a consistently referenced subject), Circe's premise definitely intrigued me when I first saw the book recommended on twitter.

  That recommendation is definitely deserved - Circe is a really really excellent book, whether or not you know of the myths being retold/reinterpreted or not.  I was familiar probably with about 70-80% of the tales, but found myself enjoying this interpretation of the tales I knew quite a lot even with some foreknowledge of what was almost certainly going to happen as well as the parts where I could not recall whether they were wholly the author's invention or based upon some unknown myth.  Miller takes these tales and by changing the perspective, comes out with a fresh (and somewhat feminist as you might expect) story that is well worth your time, if it's a bit slow at first.

More after the jump:

-----------------------------------------------Plot Summary----------------------------------------------
Circe was born to the Titan Helios - the God of the Sun - and the nymph Perse as their firstborn child.  But despite being the eldest, she grew up the least favored of her three siblings, and always felt like an outcast among the other Gods, Nymphs and Immortals and when she discovers she possesses the capability for witchcraft and admits it to her father, she finds herself exiled to a deserted island by the order of Zeus.

But her exile cannot prevent the world from coming to her, and as Circe tries to find herself and her own powers, she finds that beings of myth - gods and mortals - come to her Island on their own quests.  The greatest of these is Oddyseus, and it is his visit to her Island that will change her world for good, and set her on the path that will lead her to taking steps to ensure her happiness in a way the gods could never have conceived
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Again, the structure of Circe is fairly simple in concept: the book is set from Circe's point of view as she sees and interacts with various Greek myths, beginning with the story of Prometheus (sort of), and through her own viewpoint we see how these interactions shape and change her life.  As with frequent books that take a villain or semi-antagonistic character from another story and show the tale from her own perspective (I hate to make the "Wicked" comparison, but it has to come up I guess), Miller shows Circe has an incredibly sympathetic figure.

In this telling, Circe is largely a tragic figure - an immortal lacking the attributes to stand out amongst the other immortals on the surface who simply wants to be loved at first and finds no such thing at every corner, but only people who wish to abuse her, whether these people be mortal or immortal, and finds that even those she helps fail to give back in return.  It doesn't take too long to feel for her as she struggles to change from being a doormat to a woman who will not be anyone's plaything, not her family's, not any mortal's, not even any Olympian's.

It should be noted that while I describe Circe here as a tragic figure, the book does not end on that note (although it cutely retains some ambiguity).  The result is a very very satisfying ending that does not leave the reader sad or depressed, but thoughtful - so if you were worried about a downer ending, this book very neatly avoids that in a way that feels incredibly appropriate for who Circe is as a character.  It's also a very feminist ending in how Circe takes charge, as well as how another spoiler character does so.

This is not to say that other characters do not have tragic endings even outside of their myths - this is not the most heroic version of Odysseus you will read, although it definitely works.  The other characters involved in this book, none of whom take up anywhere near the space of Circe herself, also work very well, including that aforementioned spoiler character who has a portrayal as far as I can tell (from my own prior knowledge and from online searching) is at least partially original and pretty incredible for what little page-time that character gets in this book.

If there is a major critique of this book, it's that it can be slow at times, particularly at the start, and some of the myths that interact with Circe are less memorable and just seem included just because (particularly, that of Jason and Medea, which apparently does include Circe in some of the myths and does fit thematically, but is so brief as to feel more like time wasting than anything). Not that anyone reading this should expect an action packed book or even a quick paced one, but readers familiar with Circe from the Odyssey might find the parts up to Circe meeting Odysseus to be a bit slow while waiting in anticipation - and as readers will begin to feel for Circe early, all of the early moments of despair for her in a row with little happiness can get a little bit overwhelming.   Still, after that meeting with Odysseus about 55% of the way through the book, however, the book is firing on all cylinders.

Still, I highly recommend Circe - as a feminist retelling of many Greek myths, or even just a great story in general retelling those myths from another character's point of view, who the author does a great job making it easy to root for to find eventual happiness.
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