historical fiction, mythology
In Greek mythology, Clytemnestra was a princess of Sparta.
Her sister, Helen, was the beautiful one but Clytemnestra was the strong,
brave, and smart one. At the age of 16, she chose to marry a distant king. He
traveled home to prepare his kingdom for the arrival of their new queen and
their child. But while he was away, Agamemnon journeyed to her city and,
because he always wanted what he couldn’t have, he stole her life away to make
her his queen. Broken, grieving, and enraged, she promised herself retribution.
I didn’t remember any of these stories from my days of Greek
mythology in high school and college. But I did remember a lot of the names. Costanza Cosati did a good job imagining Clytemnestra’s daily life, the personalities of
her family members and the other characters, and weaving an engaging tale of a
woman who was betrayed multiple times and gets her revenge. I feel the strength
of this novel is in the way Cosati pulled together conflicting and limited
ancient stories of this heroine and not only filled in the holes but built a
compelling story around them to draw a complete picture of Clytemnestra.
I wouldn’t say her story was gripping, but the story
provided a good education about the plights of women in ancient Greece and
focused on a heroine who was able to eventually make her own way in a man’s
world.
The audiobook narrator, Olivia Vinall, did a nice job with this one. She had a limited vocal repertoire but I felt her voice was perfect for this story. I’ll give her an A-.
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