Jason Furman's Reviews > Circe

Circe is less than the sum of its parts. It has too many parts that do not really fit together, bolting together a variety of greek myths and legends into one story that has Circe at its center—if not its periphery. Almost the opposite of a Greek drama that takes place in a limited time and place or the Iliad which uses a few weeks to tell an epic story of a ten year war.

Circe is an interesting character, someone who discovers herself over the course of the book. The primordial discussions of Titans and the new waves of gods was interesting. Circe transforming Glaucus and Scylla worked well. The extended Minotaur/Daedelus/etc seemed out of place. The Odysseus parts were less interesting, too close to the original but also not offering an exciting new perspective. And the entire last part with Penelope and Telemachus coming to Circe’s island was downright bizarre.

Overall, I liked The Song of Achilles much more, although that too had serious flaws but of a different type. The Pat Barker ones are much, much better.

[Note - I tightened up my star ratings this past year, in previous years I probably would have given this three stars. Also I listened to about two-thirds of this on Audible and read the other third.]