The book is
told from the goddess Circe’s point of view, beginning with her childhood among
the Titans until she is banished to her island, where she becomes a powerful
oracle, enchantress, herbalist, and feminist with magic powers to seduce men.
Her narrative
is at once enthralling because Circe, being a goddess who lives for over a
thousand years, experiences the heroes from the Trojan War, the demi-gods of
Greece, and the adventures of her lovers and her own self-discoveries that mark
her journey through the ages.
On a
personal note, Circe’s journey hits home with anyone, like myself, who has
struggled with becoming an independent woman.
In the house of Helios, god of the sun and mightiest of the Titans, a daughter is born. Circe is a strange child - not powerful and terrible, like her father, nor gorgeous and mercenary like her mother. Scorned and rejected, Circe grows up in the shadows, at home in neither the world of gods or mortals. But Circe has a dark power of her own: witchcraft. When her gift threatens…
Louise
Erdrich’s novel, The Antelope Wife, focuses on a battered woman who
turns to her ancient tribal beliefs in the spirits of Nature, and in
particular, the antelopes of the prairie, to help her overcome abuse.
The Antelope
Wife and the Antelope Goddesses are totem figures in Native American Mythology
that symbolize freedom and independence, especially for those who are abused
and beaten by their spouse.
The
generations of Antelope women who follow the goddess are presented by Erdrich
as strong, independent females who must overcome the hardships of life in the
city by retaining their belief in themselves and their ability to overcome
disaster.
The story is
an uplifting tale of bravery and cunning that will inspire and comfort any
reader who seeks guidance and those readers who simply yearn to see an example
of fortitude and success in the face of danger. On a personal note, it’s a good
book for those who can relate and those who should empathize.
Past and present combine in a contemporary tale of love and betrayal from Louise Erdrich, winner of the National Book Award for Fiction, 2012
'Everything is all knotted up in a tangle. Pull one string of this family and the whole web will tremble.'
Rozin and Richard, living in Minneapolis with their two young daughters, seem a long way from the traditions of their Native American ancestors. But when one of their acquaintances kidnaps a strange and silent young woman from a Native American camp and brings her back to live with him as his wife, the connections they all…
Neil Gaiman’s selection of short stories is based on
the premise that there are “little triggers” or things that upset us embedded
in each of his stories. Gaiman draws on myths and legends as well as fairy
tales to reach those triggers that serve to both frighten us and illuminate
some part of our subconscious self.
As a student of Carl Gustav Jung and the study of
the symbols and archetypes found in our unconscious, which stories “triggered” me,
and which really had no effect was part of the fascination of reading these
tales. Moreover, my interest in mythology being re-written in a modern context
with that unique style that Gaiman uses also fascinated me.
The stories that
triggered me the most were “A Lunar Labyrinth,” a story about a werewolf and an
old man who guides the narrator to the center of his fears in the labyrinth,
and “Feminine Endings,” a story about a stalker who has something to learn from
what he thinks is his victim.
In Trigger Warning, global phenomenon and Sunday Times bestselling author Neil Gaiman returns to dazzle, captivate, haunt, and entertain with this third collection of short fiction, which includes a Doctor Who adventure, the David Bowie-inspired The Return of the Thin White Duke and a never-before published American Gods story, Black Dog.
The Truth is a Cave in the Black Mountains was serialised on BBC Radio 4's Book at Bedtime in November 2015.
'We are all wearing masks. That is what makes us interesting. These are stories about those masks, and the people we are underneath them.' Neil Gaiman, writing from…
“The Myth of the Year fills both my mind and spirit. It explains, graphically, the intersection of myth and ritual, giving a celestial backdrop for both. It speaks of balances¬ of lunar and solar cycles, of myth and astronomy. It explains, in a broader way than has been explained before, how the writers of myth are really attempting to chart the world around them, peopling both the planet and the skies with the divine and the heroic, and in so doing, bringing all into harmony with the wheel of the year.” Miriam Robbins Dexter
“Since prehistory, mankind has recognized and responded to the sacral element of the female. No single image is sufficient to embody something which transcends time and space. The Morrigan, Celtic goddess of war, is Aphrodite, goddess of love. Her terrible, tender face in a hundred different guises peers out at us from our collective memory. Embodiment of the life force, hers is the name men cry aloud in their death throes. She is the goddess.” Morgan Llywelyn
