The Children of Jocasta

 Book Title: The Children of Jocasta

Author: Natalie Haynes

Date Started: December 16th 2021

Date Completed: January 31st 2022

Genres: Historical, Mythology

Quality Rating: Five Stars

Enjoyment Rating: Four Star

Final Rating: Five Stars

Review:

I love Natalie Haynes, and Antione is my favourite play full stop (let alone Greek Tragedy), so a retelling of the Oedipus cycle was always going to score well for me. Ironically, Antigone isn't painted especially well but how nice to see her sister Ismene, who is so belittled and overlooked in the originals, take centre stage along with their mother. The Children of Jocasta was definitely slow to start off, but then it became impossible to put down.

This book definitely goes down the 'logical explanation' route of retellings, and both loses and gains assets by doing so. There's less of the wonder and righteousness for me, but there was more humanity and of course acknowledgement of the women's stories - however less divine or 'exciting' they may be. What I really loved was how Haynes retold the story, allowing for a bittersweet ending and a more fleshed out narrative than the few fragments of primary research literature have allowed us.

Something that I often find with classical retellings is that writers really like to exaggerate the depressing tragedy and often overlook the moments of magic and love that any human being experiences even in the worst of circumstances. I don't think many people would argue that the Oedipus cycle isn't one of the most depressing out there. But there's a balance that makes these stories timeless, and that's the thing a lot of modern authors don't seem to get. Natalie Haynes does, and it sets her above the rest.

Her afterwords are always so good. Haynes has such an engaging and witty tone, such an understanding of the role Classics has in our modern society - its failings as well as its strengths. I do ultimately prefer her non-fiction to her fiction just because of this marvellous tone she achieves (I wish I could write like that), but The Children of Jocasta is still far and away one of the best classical retellings out there at the moment. Natalie Haynes is the modern face of Classicism that I was so sorely missing when I studied the subject in sixth form, and is undeniably one of the reasons I have continued to learn more as an adult.

I imagine you would probably get more out of the book if you're familiar with the original stories - that's not a strict rule as Haynes weaves together a couple of different versions of the story and retells it in her own way. But I have seen a chunk of other people saying they would've preferred to know the original myth, and I can see why. A lot of the enjoyment for me came from the dramatic irony and understanding of the characters before their fates befell them - and the gentle, nuanced way Haynes adapted little details probably felt so empowering because I understood as a reader how they differ and improve on the classical tale.

The Secret Commonwealth

 Book Title: The Secret Commonwealth

Author: Philip Pullman

Series: The Book of Dust #2

Date Started: December 28th 2021

Date Completed: January 16th 2022

Genres: Fantasy, Adventure

Quality Rating: Five Stars

Enjoyment Rating: Five Star

Final Rating: Five Stars

Review:

How well this series has aged. The Book of Dust, particularly in The Secret Commonwealth, is complex but so accessible. I'm always amazed by how Pullman can communicate such complicated systems, politics and emotions in a genuine and understandable way regardless of who's reading.

This book is a masterclass not in writing sequels but in revisiting an existing character's journey in a new way. Many of the themes from His Dark Materials are present, but the narrative is different; Lyra's goal has changed, her world has moved on, but most importantly we remember everything and everyone that has come before but they aren't shoehorned into this one for the sake of gratuitous references. And so everything is allowed to feel new. I often talk about books that serendipitously find you at exactly the right time. The Secret Commonwealth is absolutely one of those, as well as being another series that has grown up with me as I have grown and just happens to deal with my crises when I am faced with them.

Narrative-wise, of course there's the big world-changing plot here but, as always with Pullman's writing, there's an additional emotional story going on about how we seem to lose conviction as we grow older (that one hit home hard) despite the fact we seem to have more agency and knowledge at our fingertips. As we're able to reach for things further away, the further they seem to drift. There's also the wider socio-political refugee crisis that Pullman doesn't shy away from, and the growing indoctrination of bad religious practice, how politics become less about helping communities of people and more about propelling one or two to power. And, on the internal level, there's the exploration of how our troubles and concerns feel small and insignificant so we hide them away, and how so many others face their mirror, and the ripples caused by ignoring them as problems. All of this is underneath the story - and the story is thrilling enough without having to read into it. But I'm amazed at how Pullman can put so much depth and layers in, and with so much conviction.

The Secret Commonwealth has all the wonder and whimsy of the original series, colliding with the morality and mess of adulthood. I love how Pullman tied it back to La Belle Sauvage - though that book, while enjoyable, felt a little random at the time, it all makes sense now. Our understanding of the now-older characters and the politics established empowers us to be able to read the subtext intuitively. In many ways, Pullman has deliberately and consciously avoided the downfall of many sequels who fill their pages with bringing back old beloved characters for cameos but ultimately having to tell their story in the same parameters of perspective they did before. By establishing these new characters, allowing us to grow to love them and understand how their stories interact with Lyra's, our heroine is faced with a completely new challenge with new allies and new perspectives that she has to come to understand. That's how you write a sequel.