Jennifer Saint

A re-telling, in fact a re-imagining of the story of female warrior Atalanta, abandoned in the wild by her father at birth, and that of the voyage of the Argonauts. Narrated by Atalanta herself, this is a pacey and vivid account of her upbringing, initially by bears, her development into a fine hunter and warrior. She sticks to the known 'facts' of the Argonauts' adventures, bringing them to life by developing the characters included in the voyage. An entertaining way of bringing Greek myths to life.… (mais)

So Ariadne is touted as a feminist retelling of the Theseus and Ariadne myth, but I don't think that it particularly succeeds in either the 'feminist' or the 'retelling' aspects.

Taking the retelling aspect first, the most well known part of the myth is covered in the first third of the book and seems to add very little to the usual narrative beyond being told from Ariadne's perspective. I'm admittedly less familiar with what happens with Ariadne following her marriage to Dionysus, but I think there is a reason why that part of the myth is less mainstream - the lack of a particular 'plot' per se. This meant the Dionysus parts of the book (which made up the majority) were noticeably lacking in narrative drive, and the inclusion of the Phaedra aspect did not overall story more compelling.

On the feminist side, aside from using the voices of the women, I did not feel like this book meaningfully engaged with the myths from a feminist angle like some other novels of the same vein. My two main gripes were that: (a) It seemed like the author had a preconceived notion of wanting to have two opposing kinds of women in Ariadne and Phaedra, and was determined to push this contrast for the entirety of the book, with the result that there was very little character development for either of them (particularly for Ariadne, who aside from making two out-of-character decisions, largely remains the same person despite her experiences); and (b) the book clearly wants to address various aspects which are often glossed over or not featured in regular myth narrative, like childbirth, motherhood, arranged marriage etc. as well as showing how women frequently suffered as a result of the actions of men, but while the events certainly elicited sympathy, I did not feel like were properly woven into or even always relevant for the story, and some almost seemed included for the sake having them.

There were certainly flashes of emotive prose and significant foreshadowing, and some moments in the book were quite poignant and powerful - I thought the portrayal of Pasiphae was quite well done, for instance - but ultimately, Ariadne didn't meet the expectations of a meaningful retelling for me, feminist or not.… (mais)

I liked it. It is not great, but it was solid enough to enjoy. It is exactly what it promises to be, a retelling of the myth of Ariadne (and her sister, which often made me think the title was a little off). The novel is atmospheric, with some great introspective parts (esp. certain parts told by Phaedra).

One thing I disliked and was impossible to ignore was the dynamics of the relationships that were somewhat unconvincing. The drama for me just wasn't there in some key moments. Jennifer Saint is great with words, but I wish her dialogues and relationships were as nuanced as her descriptions.


… (mais)