Thoroughly enjoyed this book. It probably would have had a much greater impact if I was familiar with Vergil's The Aeneid. ( )

Ursula LeGuin is a fabulous writer, and in this book she uses her skill to retell the Aeneid from Lavinia's perspective.The book is imaginative and well-written, and I imagine I would have enjoyed it more if I were familiar with the original epic. ( )

I went to look at this book mostly because I write in the voices of Bible characters, and because I've never failed to be impressed with LeGuin. I had just torn myself away from the paperback, trying to talk myself out of buying it after reading the first chapter, but on the way back from the restroom, I found a first-printing hardcover in the deep-discount bin. I think it was meant for me.

I finished reading it some weeks ago, but haven't been able to find a better place for the volume than my nightstand. OK, some of it was a little magical for my taste, but even that gave me what felt like an authentic window on the mindset of a culture that far precedes mine. But those parts taught me how people of her time might have thought, and in ways that I could not have grasped from pedagogy of any sort (and I did take Latin, way back).

I really cared about Lavinia. I really had to work to let her live in her culture and not demand the understandings of mine. I've been known to lecture my contemporaries on how people of the cultures represented in the Bible probably understood the "supernatural" events narrated there in a very different way than we (at least adults) do looking back through our scientifically ground lenses. But LeGuin let Lavinia tell us, show us, how much easier it was to understand things from her viewpoint. I'm awfully glad she did. ( )

Le Guin rewrites Vergil's Aeneid from the hero's second wife's point of view. Fascinating. ( )

http://www.bostonbibliophile.com/2009... ( )