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A priestess of Hekate with no use for kings, Medea must depend on them and other men for her survival, to her frustration and fury. While ambitious, Jason still needs constant prodding to fulfill the destiny Medea creates for him by means of sorcery, cunning, and blood.
The Argo’s sea voyage from Colchis to Jason’s homeland of Iolcus feels overly drawn out, yet it allows for multiple opportunities to rework the traditional mythos in inventive ways—which often involve the characters indulging in their atavistic natures. The setting has an otherworldly feel at times, which heightens the sense of the tale’s ancientness.
Sensual and violent, often simultaneously, Vann’s novel evokes the primal force of women’s power.
Bright Air Black is published this month by Black Cat (the trade paperback imprint of the independent press Grove Atlantic; $16, 250pp). I reviewed it for Booklist, and the review was published in Booklist Online on February 3rd.
Some notes:
- It's hard to tell from the image above, but the cover shows a ship with a full crew of oarsmen plying their way through dark waves, as seen from above.
- If you haven't yet gotten the impression that this novel will be a challenging read due to the subject matter, let me repeat that. It is poetically written, though, so I found myself simultaneously admiring the prose and recoiling from the imagery in some scenes. I haven't read Vann's other novels but, from reviews, I understand that this is typical of his style.
- The novel's set in the 13th century BC, and the author has made a good effort to re-create the atmosphere of that long-ago time.
- Would I recommend it? If you're a literary fiction reader up for something daring and different (and you have a strong stomach), then by all means give it a try.
ooooooooooooh -- I am so torn! Love myth/myth retellings but also am not much for gore/blood/violence. But I do enjoy Medea and literary fiction ... so torn!! Thanks for reviewing this one -- it hadn't been on my radar.
ReplyDeleteI definitely understand!
DeleteThe excerpt you can find via Amazon's Look Inside feature (which shows the first two chapters) should give more of a sense of the style and content. There are some later scenes I wished I could scrub from my mind afterward, but the writing is gorgeous! I'm still torn... but glad I read it.
Also, looking at the Amazon view, I see there's an author's note at the beginning that wasn't in my ARC. Vann talks about his (very cool) firsthand research via captaining a reconstructed ancient Egyptian ship and also sailing his own vessel around the Greek islands, with his version of Medea "following the archaeological evidence and never straying from realism." I got the sense of that while reading. The novel evokes the characters' beliefs, but I wouldn't call it a fantasy novel.
Wow, I had no idea this book existed -- Medea is one of my favorite plays! Everything about this one sounds wonderful, and I am really loving the sound of Vann's prose. Thanks so much for sharing this great review! I will be heading out to pick this one up. :)
ReplyDeleteI'll be interested to hear what you think of this retelling once you have the opportunity to read it!
DeleteIf you like this book, I recommend Kerry Greenwood's Medea. She has written such a beautiful and tragic tale of this mythological figure.
ReplyDeleteThanks - I may actually have a copy of it around here, which I'd bought ages ago but haven't read yet.
DeleteYes, I'm giving it a re-read at the moment. It's very good indeed. If you don't have that copy, Sarah, it has been re-printed, in recent years, by an Aussie small press called Clan Destine Press. It has a much nicer cover than the original large press edition that's now out of print.
DeleteYou may know Kerry Greenwood from the Phryne Fisher novels.
Good to know her ancient Greece novels have been reissued. I think I have all three Delphic Women novels as mass market paperbacks from the late 90s. I've read Electra, which was very good.
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