troisoiseaux

Read Country by Michael Hughes, a more or less beat-by-beat retelling of the Iliad set in Northern Ireland during the Troubles— the Greeks are IRA, the Trojans are British soldiers; Helen (Nellie) was turned as an informant for the British and finagled herself a new life in London out of it, under the not entirely untrue story that she'd run off with a British soldier; the gods are politicians from London and Dublin making back-channel deals and local ones who can be tapped for a favor. God, this was brilliant. This is what retellings are for: a cultural translation with something interesting to say about both the source material and the new context; the oh, that's clever of recognizing how stuff has been "translated", especially when it takes a chapter or two for the significance of a certain detail to click. (I did have the Wikipedia synopsis of the Iliad open for reference the entire time.)

Just started listening to Frank Herbert's Dune as a full-cast audiobook, which I'm coming to pretty much blind – I haven't seen the movies, and to the extent I have learned anything through cultural osmosis, it's that Paul is Space Jesus and it's a metaphor for the fight over oil in the Middle East...? – but liking it so far. Kind of wild to read for the first time in 2025, among all the articles about everyone outsourcing their brains to ChatGPT: "Once men turned their thinking over to machines in the hope that this would set them free, but that only permitted other men with machines to enslave them." Like, oh, this is the Torment Nexus from sci-fi classic Don't Build the Torment Nexus.

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sovay

Read Country by Michael Hughes, a more or less beat-by-beat retelling of the Iliad set in Northern Ireland during the Troubles—

I've never heard of this! Thanks for the heads-up.

troisoiseaux

I got the recommendation from a friend when I was trying to convince her to read Ferdia Lennon's Glorious Exploits, which I feel like would make an interesting pairing with this one.

I got the recommendation from a friend when I was trying to convince her to read Ferdia Lennon's Glorious Exploits, which I feel like would make an interesting pairing with this one.

It just sounds like a retelling that does something that isn't the now agonizingly standard "I read Madeline Miller and all I got was this girlboss feminism."

It's so refreshing in that sense, and it's also just so so good as a take on the Iliad and on the Troubles. 10/10 probably my favorite book I've read this year so far.

rachelmanija

Me neither! Sounds right up my alley.

kore

That book sounds AMAZING.

Imho the most important thing to realize about Dune is it's basically a Lawrence of Arabia retelling.

Imho the most important thing to realize about Dune is it's basically a Lawrence of Arabia retelling.

Fascinating! This does not necessarily clarify things since I honestly don't know that much about Lawrence of Arabia (and/or Lawrence of Arabia (1962)) either but I'll keep it in mind.

genarti

Oooooh, I'm reading the Iliad right now, and Country sounds like an amazing follow-up to it (though probably after an appropriate interval).

Highly recommend! I must confess, I've never actually read the Iliad, or rather, I've never gotten past the bit where they're naming everyone on the Greek ships (there's a nod to this in Country that made me laugh out loud).

lunabee34

I love that sort of retelling; it's one of the reasons I want to read Demon Copperhead. People's comments have led me to believe it's a transformative adaptation in the way you're describing.

I definitely found myself thinking of Demon Copperhead while reading this— they're the same type of retelling/reimagining/adaptation where the bones of the old story are clearly recognizable under new upholstery.