Circe

This was another Book Club read and turned out to be far better than I expected. After all, what’s interesting about some minor deity who gets exiled to a deserted island all by herself? And indeed, the book did start with the feeling that it was just named dropping greek Gods and Titans but I have to admit that before very long, I was completely hooked and fascinated to see where it was going. I had no idea what would happen next or how things might be resolved.

At the end I initially felt that men had generally got a fairly bad press in this story, none of them were great and many of them behaved quite appallingly, however on reflection I realise that one of the strengths of this book is that nobody comes out anywhere near perfect and all the characters are flawed in someway. An interesting exercise in shrinking God in down to the status of mankind and also making a distinction between a “hero” and a “good person”. We often conflate the two (Aragorn being a clear example) but really a “hero” is someone who performs heroic deeds (beyond the abilities of most people) but that says nothing about their morals.

A thought porovoking work that was beautifully written, marvellously descriptive and unlike anything I had read before. I’m so glad I’ve read this and would urge everyone to join a Book Club or reading group if they can as it will undoubtedly broaden their horizons, just as mine have.