bookshelf

IOKASTE

Name: IOKASTE
Author: Victoria and Alice Underwood Grossack
ISBN: 1-4137-2675-5

THE NOVEL OF THE MOTHER-WIFE OF OEDIPUS

by Victoria and Alice Underwood Grossack ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 7, 2004

A well-balanced update that maintains the original's mythic suspense, while peopling it with sharply drawn characters and...

bookshelf

First-time novelists Grossack and Underwood retain the ancient setting and basic outline of the story of Oedipus, but infuse it with a modernized tone of psychological realism.

Where Sophoclean tragedy emphasized Oedipus's relentless, self-immolating quest for the truth, the authors' retelling focuses on his mother Iokaste's desperate attempts to sweep the truth under the rug before it demolishes her hard-won domestic bliss. While this change reduces Oedipus to a bland romantic lead who arrives rather late in the story, it transforms Iokaste—here a competent ruler and a seeker of emotional and sexual fulfillment—into an all-but-contemporary heroine with a busy role in her own fate. As such, the narrative reflects a resolutely feminine perspective, with numerous weddings and harrowing childbirth scenes. The focus is on Iokaste's fraught personal relationships and coping strategies, particularly as she contends with such troublesome male figures as Laius, a drunken layabout too terrorized by oracles to live his life, and her Machiavellian brother Kreon. The authors present an absorbing, quasi-historical portrait of ancient Greece—organized by elaborate religious rituals but driven by worldly concerns about politics and the economy, where devotees bribe oracles for favorable pronouncements, mobs stand ready to tear their rulers to pieces should they lose divine favor, and everyone is unsure about whether certain calamaties are the result of human skullduggery or the hand of the gods. They manage to demystify the story's supernatural elements while retaining their drama, especially in a riveting setpiece in which the Sphinx's riddling is recast as a public inquisition and mass execution by a bloodthirsty priestess of Dionysus.

A well-balanced update that maintains the original's mythic suspense, while peopling it with sharply drawn characters and accessible motivations, Iokaste effectively displays the buried secrets and familial turmoil of a Greek legend that translates so well into popular drama.

Pub Date: July 7, 2004

ISBN: 1-4137-2675-5

Page Count: -

Publisher: N/A

Review Posted Online: May 23, 2010

Review Program: Kirkus Indie

Categories:

HISTORICAL FICTION | GENERAL FICTION

bookshelf

WE WERE THE LUCKY ONES

by Georgia Hunter ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 14, 2017

Too beholden to sentimentality and cliché, this novel fails to establish a uniquely realized perspective.

bookshelf

Hunter’s debut novel tracks the experiences of her family members during the Holocaust.

Sol and Nechuma Kurc, wealthy, cultured Jews in Radom, Poland, are successful shop owners; they and their grown children live a comfortable lifestyle. But that lifestyle is no protection against the onslaught of the Holocaust, which eventually scatters the members of the Kurc family among several continents. Genek, the oldest son, is exiled with his wife to a Siberian gulag. Halina, youngest of all the children, works to protect her family alongside her resistance-fighter husband. Addy, middle child, a composer and engineer before the war breaks out, leaves Europe on one of the last passenger ships, ending up thousands of miles away. Then, too, there are Mila and Felicia, Jakob and Bella, each with their own share of struggles—pain endured, horrors witnessed. Hunter conducted extensive research after learning that her grandfather (Addy in the book) survived the Holocaust. The research shows: her novel is thorough and precise in its details. It’s less precise in its language, however, which frequently relies on cliché. “You’ll get only one shot at this,” Halina thinks, enacting a plan to save her husband. “Don’t botch it.” Later, Genek, confronting a routine bit of paperwork, must decide whether or not to hide his Jewishness. “That form is a deal breaker,” he tells himself. “It’s life and death.” And: “They are low, it seems, on good fortune. And something tells him they’ll need it.” Worse than these stale phrases, though, are the moments when Hunter’s writing is entirely inadequate for the subject matter at hand. Genek, describing the gulag, calls the nearest town “a total shitscape.” This is a low point for Hunter’s writing; elsewhere in the novel, it’s stronger. Still, the characters remain flat and unknowable, while the novel itself is predictable. At this point, more than half a century’s worth of fiction and film has been inspired by the Holocaust—a weighty and imposing tradition. Hunter, it seems, hasn’t been able to break free from her dependence on it.

Too beholden to sentimentality and cliché, this novel fails to establish a uniquely realized perspective.

Pub Date: Feb. 14, 2017

ISBN: 978-0-399-56308-9

Page Count: 416

Publisher: Viking

Review Posted Online: Nov. 21, 2016

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2016

Categories:

RELIGIOUS FICTION | HISTORICAL FICTION

- BOOK TO SCREEN
Hulu’s ‘We Were the Lucky Ones’ Adds To Cast

bookshelf

MAGIC HOUR

by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 2006

Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.

bookshelf

Sisters work together to solve a child-abandonment case.

Ellie and Julia Cates have never been close. Julia is shy and brainy; Ellie gets by on charm and looks. Their differences must be tossed aside when a traumatized young girl wanders in from the forest into their hometown in Washington. The sisters’ professional skills are put to the test. Julia is a world-renowned child psychologist who has lost her edge. She is reeling from a case that went publicly sour. Though she was cleared of all wrongdoing, Julia’s name was tarnished, forcing her to shutter her Beverly Hills practice. Ellie Barton is the local police chief in Rain Valley, who’s never faced a tougher case. This is her chance to prove she is more than just a fading homecoming queen, but a scarcity of clues and a reluctant victim make locating the girl’s parents nearly impossible. Ellie places an SOS call to her sister; she needs an expert to rehabilitate this wild-child who has been living outside of civilization for years. Confronted with her professional demons, Julia once again has the opportunity to display her talents and salvage her reputation. Hannah (The Things We Do for Love, 2004, etc.) is at her best when writing from the girl’s perspective. The feral wolf-child keeps the reader interested long after the other, transparent characters have grown tiresome. Hannah’s torturously over-written romance passages are stale, but there are surprises in store as the sisters set about unearthing Alice’s past and creating a home for her.

Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.