2022/097: Ithaca — Claire North

Listen to my voice: I who have been stripped of honour, of power and of that fire which should be mine, I who have nothing to lose that the poets have not already taken from me, only I will tell you the truth. I, who part the veil of time, will tell those stories that only the women tell. [loc. 149]

I was thrilled to discover that Claire North -- whose previous novels (The First 15 Lives of Harry August, Touch, The Sudden Appearance of Hope) I've enjoyed immensely -- was publishing a novel based on Greek mythology. Ithaca, first in a new trilogy, focusses on the women of the island, abandoned these past eighteen years by their king (Odysseus) and by the adult men, all fed to the war in Troy. Now pirates menace Ithaca, and the island has few men to defend it. Penelope, guarding the throne for her husband (of course a woman cannot rule in her own right, unless she is a monster like Penelope's husband-slaying cousin Clytemnestra) is besieged and patronised by suitors, but she has her clever and (mostly) trustworthy maids to help her manage the household, the palace, the unwelcome guests and the economy of the island. And then more guests arrive: Orestes and Elektra, children of murdered Agamemnon, in search of their mother...

I was amused by the homogeneity of the suitors — with the notable exception of Kenamon the Egyptian — and the sheer inability of the island’s elders (male, of course) to accept that their wives, daughters, maids and female slaves are actually pretty competent at keeping the economy going, and even at defending against external threats. The relationships between the women (forceful Elektra, the hateful Trojan captive, the village huntress Teodora, Penelope herself) are, in general, richer and more balanced than those between women and men. Telemachus has an increasingly tempestuous and abrasive relationship with his mother: Orestes, in contrast, is almost catatonic with … something. (Elektra does all the heavy lifting, emotionally, with a belated ‘my brother will issue his orders later’.)

North depicts the culture with a light touch: the guest-laws and the obligations of the hostess, the practicalities of slavery, the little details of domestic life in the palace of Ithaca, the tensions between a goddess and her stepdaughters… What makes this novel so refreshing is the choice of narrator: Hera, who takes queens under her protection, who loves Helen and Penelope and Clytemnestra (but the latter best of all), who snarks and scorns her stepdaughters and her husband, who mocks the men who discount women so utterly that they don't see what's in front of them. Hera sees the wider world as well as the goat-tracks and sea-caves of Ithaca, and her broad perspective and smouldering rage make for a unique voice and an engaging read.

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the advance review copy, in exchange for this honest review. UK publication date is 6th September 2022.