I finally pulled Circe off my to-be-read pile and, Wow! I loved it, even more than I did Miller’s earlier work, The Song of Achilles. As much of mythology is male-centric, it comes as a delight and a surprise that author Madeline Miller riffs on the myth of Circe and creates a modern myth of her own, told from the female point of view, that of Circe. And, best of all. it’s a page-turner with all the best elements of Greek mythology present: war, treachery, seduction, betrayal, love, have, monsters, gods, demigods, heroes, and mere mortals.
Circe, a minor deity (the daughter of the sun Titan, Helios, and a sea nymph, Perse), is tormented by her own family and has few godly powers. When she is exiled to the remote island of Aeaea, Circe develops her own power and becomes a “witch.” There, though she lives somewhat in isolation, she develops an inner strength and self-awareness and grows emotionally through the course of the novel, eventually becoming a fierce, independent woman—a woman with a definite attitude. She eventually faces off with Athena and comes out ahead.
As in The Song of Achilles, the prose is masterful and lyrical, its tone quite in keeping with its mythological setting and characters. Each sentence is polished until it shines as brilliantly as Helios’s light. The first half of the story includes well-known mythological characters such as Prometheus, Icarus and Daedalus, Jason and Medea. In the second half of the book, Odysseus appears, charismatic, cunning, and driven. As a main character, Circe is complex, sympathetic, and thoroughly fascinating. I stayed up until four a.m. to read this in one sitting—and it bears being read over and over.
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