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| Achilles |
On a long train journey to York and back I did the most sensible thing - I read a book. Lovely, 352 pages of verbal jouissance and storytelling bliss. It was called, The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller. In some ways I regret having read it because I wanted to keep it for a hot summer holiday, but once I had begun reading it I couldn't put it down. I even read it at breakfast in the Churchill Hotel, York (nice place to stay). But the narrative voice of Patroclus is quite superb, Briseis is wonderful and the portrayal of Icarus as the hero but a bit of a popinjay is wonderful. There is a nice take on the story, where Patroclus as the 'better man' has to die before Achilles can re-enter the fray and the battle. But apart from the evil Pyrrhus I felt the ending slipped into sentimentality. Of course we as readers crave that ending but Thetis changes character too easily for me and we don't really see her development. So that is my cultural event of the week, that and taking some pictures of the beautiful York St John campus - oh to work there, so beautiful and nice people too. And I ate the best steak dinner ever, there, ribeye, with salad and freshly made chips, washed down with a glass of Montelepuciano d'Abruzzo and a slightly sparkling water chaser. And on the way home I also listened to this as the train chugged along, listen to the guitar chug slowly in the background as the voices weave themselves around the song, it is an Achilles and Patroclus coupling:
