Troy – Stephen Fry

You think you know the story, maybe from Homer’s Iliad at school, or Brad Pitt’s exploits in the 2004 film. You think you know the main players – Helen, Achilles, Odysseus, Hector, Paris. But exactly who did what to whom and why?

Here, Stephen Fry takes you through “the greatest story ever told” with clarity and wit. In his hands (or words) the names are fleshed out into characters and events make as much sense as mythology allows.

The Greeks: Menelaus, the wronged husband who calls in the pledges of support when wife, Helen, is carried off to Troy; Agamemnon, his brother, king of kings, noble but rather dim; Odysseus, the trickster, charming, resourceful, but self-serving; Achilles, bold, big-headed, and invincible (apart from that unprotected heel). Then the Trojans: King Priam, aged and fretting over his city and his sons; Hector, the stately, upright, honourable warrior; Paris, the pampered, entitled waster, gifted Helen as a bribe by Aphrodite to sway his judgement of the beauty contest between her, Hera and Athena.

Let battle commence, ten years of it, on the plains of Ilium. On both sides, heroic deeds and heroic deaths; sulkings and fallings out; squabbles over tribute, booty, and concubines. A stalemate until Odysseus reveals his cunning plan – the old wooden horse trick – and despite Cassandra’s warnings, the Trojans fatally fail to beware Greeks bearing gifts.

It is a great read. Fry’s scholarship is worn lightly and though the sly asides are fun, he does not shy away from the brutalities that intrude. He gives the women their due, as far as possible given the sources, and exposes the failings of the mighty, be they men or gods.

Mythos, Heroes, Troy, all read, next stop Odyssey (via Pat Barker’s trilogy giving voice to the Women of Troy).

MaddAddam – Margaret Atwood

This final book of the eponymous trilogy begins where both the previous two Oryx and Crake (reviewed July 21) and The Year of the Flood (reviewed June 23) left off and helpfully provides a precis of what has gone before.

For those not familiar with the series, the important thing to know is that we are in a post-apocalyptic time when few humans survive. Among them are: the remnants of God’s Gardeners, a non-violent resistance group that prepared for and survived the pandemic; the Crakers, a new breed of humanoids genetically engineered by Crake to remove aggressive tendencies, gentle by nature, naïve, but sexually promiscuous; the MaddAddamites, ex-colleagues of Crake who through prior knowledge and ingenuity survived the cull of humanity; and a group of Painballers, violent criminals released on licence to fight each other to the death for the entertainment of the masses, still around due to luck and cockroach-like toughness.

The Gardeners, MaddAddamites, and Crakers have joined forces and created a settlement, living hand to mouth on subsistence farming and widespread scavenging. But their meagre resources (and women) are coveted and threatened by the heavily armed Painballers.

The narrative is taken forward by Toby. She is an ex-Gardener and a key member of the settlement due to her wisdom, experience, and rifle. Her equivalent in the MaddAddamites is Zeb. He is tough and uncompromising. Toby is attracted to him but there are younger, more attractive women available in the group.

And there is work to be done integrating the Crakers into the society. They revere Jimmy the Snowman, a MaddAddamite who led them out of their protective environment, but now he is sick and they turn to Toby for guidance in the brave new world. It is a burden she can do without but shoulders necessarily, complaining only to Zeb.

Add in the Painballers, who aren’t going away, and the main plotlines are complete – survival, romance, creation myth, and a fight to the death.

Atwood juggles these themes stylishly, subtly, and exceptionally well. The strange world becomes familiar; there is investment in the characters; the crises are worried over; the right outcome is desired but feared for.

A fitting end to the trilogy.