I thought The Women Of Troy was very good. It’s perhaps not quite as brilliant as its predecessor, The Silence Of The Girls, but Pat Barker has produced another superbly told, humane and completely real story here as she continues her retelling of the fall of Troy and its aftermath through the eyes of Briseis, once Achilles’ Prize Of Honour, now married to Achilles friend.
The events here are, of course, very well documented in the Iliad, the Aeneid and in countless retellings since. What makes this special for me is Barker’s remarkable ability to convey the human experience of her characters, most notably the Trojan women who are now enslaved by the Greeks. The Greeks themselves are stranded on the plain of Troy by a persistent hostile wind and the growing atmosphere of discontent, lawlessness and violence is beautifully evoked – partly in the behaviour of the men, but most powerfully in its effect on the women, who are never safe from male whim and violence. It’s a timely portrayal which has strong echoes today, but one which is never heavy-handed which makes its impact all the greater for me.
All of this is done in lovely, unflashy prose. It is writing which is extremely evocative without ever drawing attention to itself, so the real, day-to-day experience of these characters from a heroic tale is quite remarkably vivid. Briseis’s voice is especially good, with her intelligent observation of the monstrous inhumanity with which the women are treated, coupled with her fatalistic acceptance that she cannot resist it and her quiet, determined resilience. Once or twice there is a flash of genuine anger, for example when the Greek men are concerned because many women, including priestesses, were raped in temples and that the desecration of the temples has angered the gods. “B- that, I thought, what about the women?” is Briseis’s response and it hits you in the face. Her characters are excellently portrayed – especially the adolescent Pyrrhus, for me. There are also some genuinely moving moments, like the birth of a child to a slave and a long-delayed hero’s funeral.
Perhaps because the idea is now more familiar, this didn’t have quite the impact of The Silence Of The Girls for me, but it’s still an excellent, engrossing read with some very important content, expertly developed. Warmly ecommended.
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