Lavinia by Ursula K Le Guin was kindly gifted to me by a friend. I was told it was "basically a feminist retelling of a myth you love but complains about that book you hate" which is exactly what it is. I adore the fall of Troy and the story of Aeneas, but I dislike the Aeneid.
Plot
Lavinia is a first person narrative told in retrospect; we follow Lavinia as she discovers her future. She is visited by a dying poet, Maru, who is writing an epic poem about Aeneas. He laments over not being able to fully flesh her out, and hopes that his poem is not published (spoiler alert: it was, and it is the Aeneid of Virgil). The book is the life of Lavinia, from the young maiden who was blamed for a war, to the old widow she becomes.
Characters
I think, because I know the plot of the Homeric epics and the Aeneid so well, the characters didn't need to be fleshed out; I already knew them as old friends. The side characters were wonderful, and the scenery often has a personality of its own. Ursula K Le Guin did a better job at writing the characters than Virgil did.
Summary
Lavinia is a tragic story, but there is so much hope in there. Lavinia herself speaks of becoming flesh, of weaving her own story, and there is beauty in that.
Statistics
Page count - 279
Time it took to read - 155 minutes
Would recommend to - people with an existing knowledge of the myth, but wanting a feminine voice
This was a beautiful book, and I'm so glad I read it
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