troisoiseaux: (reading 11)
[personal profile] 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.

Date: 2025-05-30 01:18 am (UTC)
sovay: (I Claudius)
From: [personal profile] 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.

Date: 2025-05-30 01:32 am (UTC)
sovay: (I Claudius)
From: [personal profile] sovay
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."

Date: 2025-05-30 04:03 am (UTC)
rachelmanija: (Default)
From: [personal profile] rachelmanija
Me neither! Sounds right up my alley.

Date: 2025-05-30 02:21 am (UTC)
kore: (Default)
From: [personal profile] kore
That book sounds AMAZING.

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

Date: 2025-05-30 04:23 am (UTC)
genarti: Knees-down view of woman on tiptoe next to bookshelves (Default)
From: [personal profile] 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).

Date: 2025-05-30 10:02 am (UTC)
lunabee34: (Default)
From: [personal profile] 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.

Date: 2025-05-31 09:51 am (UTC)
lunabee34: (Default)
From: [personal profile] lunabee34
Hopefully I'll be able to get to it this summer.

Date: 2025-05-30 10:52 am (UTC)
sabotabby: (books!)
From: [personal profile] sabotabby
I've never heard of Country; that sounds amazing.

Butlerian Jihad now!

Date: 2025-05-30 12:44 pm (UTC)
osprey_archer: (Default)
From: [personal profile] osprey_archer
Chiming into the chorus to say Country sounds amazing!

Date: 2025-05-30 03:45 pm (UTC)
chestnut_pod: A close-up photograph of my auburn hair in a French braid (Default)
From: [personal profile] chestnut_pod
Consider your recommendation taken!

Date: 2025-05-31 07:59 am (UTC)
fucktheg0ds: (Default)
From: [personal profile] fucktheg0ds
retelling of the Iliad set in Northern Ireland during the Troubles

Added straight to my to-read list!

Date: 2025-05-31 10:09 pm (UTC)
blotthis: (Default)
From: [personal profile] blotthis
Ohhhh, I love good adaptations... absolutely adding Country to the post-Iliad reading list. Thank you!

Date: 2025-06-06 03:03 am (UTC)
blotthis: (Default)
From: [personal profile] blotthis
... mood

Date: 2025-06-02 09:06 pm (UTC)
garonne: (Default)
From: [personal profile] garonne

Country by Michael Hughes

This sounds excellent. Thanks for the rec!

Profile

troisoiseaux: (Default)
troisoiseaux

June 2025

S M T W T F S
1234567
89 1011121314
15161718192021
22232425262728
2930     

Most Popular Tags

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags
Page generated Jun. 12th, 2025 02:55 am
Powered by Dreamwidth Studios