Ithaca

Product Information

It's all about Penelope as queen of Ithaca, mother to Telemachus, and cousin to Clytemnestra, Orestes, and Elektra. Ithaca is an interesting addition to the wave of retellings and companion stories of classic tales from Greek mythology. We also see the story though the perspective of Penelope’s son Telemachus, and though several of the suitors.

While I did enjoy Hera’s narration, I felt that her views and perceptions dominated the story and somehow relegated Penelope’s perspective to the sidelines. But everyone waits for the balance of power to tip, and Penelope knows that any choice she makes could plunge Ithaca into a bloody civil war. She also holds nothing back while voicing her own brutally honest opinions about some of the "heroes" and how poets and bards wax eloquent while singing praises of their exploits, often neglecting to mention the contributions of their female counterparts or the lesser known mortals who have played an important role in their success.

Ici l’histoire nous est narrée à travers les yeux de la déesse Hera, une déesse que je ne portais pas vraiment dans mon cœur et en lisant ce livre je me suis rendue compte qu’en fait je voyais Hera comme on me l’avait décrite à savoir une femme jalouse vindicative et terrifiante.

This isn't a bad book, yes hard to read and follow, and yes there are a lot of names and people who seem their existence wasn't necessary, but it is a GOOD story, not perfect, though I like to read the next book. According to myth, she is defined by her jealous and vengeful nature in dealing with those who offend her. Having already loved Claire North’s science fiction works, I was surprised and delighted to learn she was writing a series of Greek mythology retellings- a sub-genre I adore! The Oresteia, which covers the lives and deaths of Clytemnestra and Agamemnon and their children, Orestes and Elektra, was also an integral part of this story.

He is the author of 7 books, including Truth, Lies, Gin: The Much-Lamented Death of Madam Geneva, and The Last Revolution. Published in 2022 and the first book in The Songs of Penelope series, Ithaca by Claire North follows the story of Penelope who was barely into womanhood when she wed Odysseus. It was a nice choice that helped maintain some pace in this book – which is otherwise rather slow paced. We see this more through the small insights we get into Clytemnestra and Helen, their stories more harrowing than Penelope’s. Athena loves it when a hunky warrior clad in bronze kneels before her inner sanctum, and when a man violated a woman upon her altar, it was the woman whose hair she turned to snakes in retribution for this sacrilege.

And one of my first books I posted on the latter was my thoughts on The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood.She managed to both utilize the classical modes of storytelling used by Homer and his contemporaries while subverting those same modes in ways both thoughtful and irreverent. There are some pretty disturbing scenes throughout, none overly graphic, but they paint enough of a picture to understand what is going on and I couldn’t help but feel my blood boil reading these scenes. A complete change in style and genre from the usual dystopian fiction for the marvellous Claire North, however Ithaca still boasts her exquisite quality of writing and wicked sense of humour. I have liked others more, but in the end, I enjoyed this one enough to mark the forthcoming second novel in the series as one I will be reading.

It is told by the goddess Hera, who feels largely forgotten by the poets in the shadow of her husband Zeus, and step daughters, Athena and Artemis. On Ithaca, everyone watches everyone else, and there is no corner of the palace where intrigue does not reign . The story follows Penelope, Hera, Clytemnestra, and so many more women who are often glossed over in stories like The Iliad and The Odyssey. It tells a story that is full of betrayal and scheming, of friendships forged and friendships broken, of goddess and queens, love and death, and of fate and free will.While Hera herself has a smart and sympathetic character which develops throughout the book, the story’s main focus is Penelope, a woman whom I felt I never really got to know throughout the book. there is an originality of voice here that I have not come across in Irish fiction for quite some years now. But on the isle, it is the choices of the abandoned women—and their goddesses— that will change the course of the world.