Embedded Files
Roger Lancelyn Green
I really enjoyed this, greek myths make for fantastic stories and it is fun to explore a pantheon of characters from a new perspective. I haven't read the Illiad so can't make comparisons to that but the twists and turns of intrigue were really well done, portraying it as a war of honour and dishonour. This is a theme throughout the book with both to be found on both sides and those most honourable likely to be those who can recognise honour and humanity in the other side. Those without honour meanwhile often are able to work together more as, while they do not trust each other, they are less attached to concepts of duty. Paris in particular is portrayed as a thoroughly weak and unpleasant character.
Odysseus's early speech which describes the Trojan's as the coming power and the war as inevitable with Helen merely a pretext is brilliantly done. It creates a picture of the Trojan's as a young wolf, confident and strong, pitching itself against the alpha for supremecy. This contextualising in the politics of the time helps bring the story closer to historical fiction than to myth as do numerous touches that make the magical a matter of opinion not fact.
Lancelyn Green's afterword says he took his Trojan War from a number of different classical sources but noticed that Nicostratus, the son of Helen and Menelaus, never had his story told, despite being taken along with Helen as a baby. I love this kind of premise that takes an unusual viewpoint to a common tale.
Much of the story is told from Nicostratus's perspective, dealing with his complicated conflicing identity as a Greek brought up in Troy and giving us his view on the war. The bond of necessary closeness between him and Helen, as joint captives for 10 years is excellent, as are Margery Gill's illustations of them (I particularly like both the images of Helen and the texture and angles of the stone).
- As I read I found myself wanting to read much more of the Trojan War and to rewatch the brilliant recent RSC production of Troillus and Cressida. I knew the broad outline but many of the twists and turns were new to me and more would be to most children. Making stories like this accessible to young readers in the way Roger Lancelyn Green does gives them a great chance to see the Trojan War unfold without knowing the ending. It reminded me of my mum telling me about the first time we watched the BBC Pride and Prejudice addaptation, my sister and I would discuss what we thought might happen and who might end up with who after each episode. It is a wonderful thing to be able to come to classical works without the foreknowledge given by the cultural ubiquity of certain stories, although there is sometimes something to be said for the puzzle or forboding of foreknowledge (Vango 2 does this particularly well in the case of the Hindenburg).
I also loved the first chapter, viewing one of the most storied events in history from the point of view of the children of those involved. I particularly liked Electra's unthinking eagerness to be involved in adventure, if only by proxy, and Hermione's determination to make her see that it was not something to be envied.
I also love the idea of The Luck of Troy as a physical thing. Wouldn't it be great to work with a class to write stories of other abstract nouns made concrete, perhaps belonging to particular places.
My main criticism of the book is that the character of Polyxena seems to trail off significantly. It makes sense that, as war becomes less of a distant thing and centre's on Troy, her friendship with Nicostratus will become more distant and that him and Helen will become more isolated. This in conjunction with her impending adulthood are good plot reasons that she should slip out of the story but I didn't feel like it was shown enough for me and her role in the story fell away too suddenly. This is a fairly minor quibble though.
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