Helen of Troy

The story of Helen of Troy is one of those tales that everyone sort of knows generally without actually reading or watching it first-hand, as if we've taken it in via cultural osmosis (I've found the same to be true with the Star Wars movies and Moby Dick). We all somehow know that Helen was a pretty lady whose “face launched a thousand ships”, and she caused a huge war involving some trickery called the Trojan horse. Pretty basic, but isn't it cool that a myth that built up around real events and real people who lived 3000+ years ago, on a totally different continent, is still in our cultural consciousness? The answer is f yes.

What I liked best about the book was how it completely drew me into its world. The amount of detail in describing the places, the people, and their actions created a convincing reality for the story, and it felt good to just let go and lose myself in it. I've been reading a lot of non-fiction lately, so this was a good book for getting outside that mindset and do some reading just for the pure pleasure of a story.

Another thing I really liked about this story was finding out how many famous myths and heroes are connected to it, and through it to each other. It was like all these other myths were half of a puzzle's pieces, and the story of Helen of Troy is the other half that helps bind them all together into one.

The thing that drove me nuts about this book was the abundance of prophesies, and the fact that people would seem to fear them and yet act surprised when they came to pass. If they go to the trouble of seeking out prophesies, then why don't they believe them and accept that their actions can't alter anything? Also, way too many people in the book had prophetic powers, it sort of kills the magic of second sight if most people have it.

This book is a beautiful interpretation of the story of Helen of Troy. Margaret George is able to take a well loved story and turn it into a personal diary told through the lips of Helen. Sparta and Troy are so easy to imagine as are the believability of the personalities of the characters. It was also interesting how the gods played a subtle manipulating role. It is a very romantic retelling of a classic story.

I am really all over the map on where to rate this one. Personally, I think the Trojan war was not exciting reading in it's original form when I read the Iliad. So I thought the author did as good as a job as I can imagine being done given the source material I really hated most of the characters in the book, and that made it a bit hard to stick through