Circe by Madeline Miller

Back Bay Books, 416 pages, $16.99 (c2018) (pb ed. release date 4/14/20)

“Circe” is not a mystery.

“Circe” was the New York Times/PBS Newshour’s book group pick for December, but because of other reading obligations and general disarray, I didn’t finish it until now. I remember being fascinated that Gregory Maguire would take the fantasy of “The Wizard of Oz” and humanize the witches in his 1995 book, “Wicked.” Creating “real people” from fairy tale characters was a novel, mind-bending thought, one he went on to use again and again. “Circe” also reminded me of “The Mists of Avalon” by Marion Zimmer Bradley. Legendary figures were hampered by human emotions and desires, and humans were burdened by destiny. So it is in “Circe,” fresh on the heels (!) of Madeline Miller’s similarly-worked book, “The Song of Achilles.” 

What must it be like to be immortal? Apparently it’s not all it’s cracked up to be, especially if a god can feel pain and sorrow. And what does one do if exiled to the remote island of Aiaia, to ponder slights, love gone wrong, and mistakes in potion mixing? It’s a long time to think about everything and anything.

“Circe” is a novel for adults, even though the myth of Odysseus and Circe and her habit of turning men into pigs is sometimes fashioned into a story for children to learn some now-lost lesson about manners or pride or something classically appropriate.

Miller has created a spell-binding (!) story of a woman who finds her strength comes from within, not from who her father is (Helios, by the way). Also, it helps to have a bunch of herbs nearby. I enjoyed this book very much and thought it was worth all the fuss generated about it. Reading about gods ripping people apart piece by piece made a nice change from the serial murder mysteries in which people take other people apart piece by piece that I seem to have picked up lately.