Shining Pages

“'Silence becomes a woman.'” Every woman I’ve ever known was brought up on that saying. 

Author: Pat Barker

Publication: September 4, 2018 by Doubleday Books

At a Glance:

The ancient city of Troy has withstood a decade under siege of the powerful Greek army, which continues to wage bloody war over a stolen woman—Helen. In the Greek camp, another woman—Briseis—watches and waits for the war's outcome. She was queen of one of Troy's neighboring kingdoms, until Achilles, Greece's greatest warrior, sacked her city and murdered her husband and brothers. Briseis becomes Achilles's concubine, a prize of battle, and must adjust quickly in order to survive a radically different life, as one of the many conquered women who serve the Greek army.

When Agamemnon, the brutal political leader of the Greek forces, demands Briseis for himself, she finds herself caught between the two most powerful of the Greeks. Achilles refuses to fight in protest, and the Greeks begin to lose ground to their Trojan opponents. Keenly observant and coolly unflinching about the daily horrors of war, Briseis finds herself in an unprecedented position, able to observe the two men driving the Greek army in what will become their final confrontation, deciding the fate not only of Briseis's people but also of the ancient world at large.

Briseis is just one among thousands of women living behind the scenes in this war—the slaves and prostitutes, the nurses, the women who lay out the dead—all of them erased by history. With breathtaking historical detail and luminous prose, Pat Barker brings the teeming world of the Greek camp to vivid life. She offers nuanced, complex portraits of characters and stories familiar from mythology, which, seen from Briseis's perspective, are rife with newfound revelations. Barker's latest builds on her decades-long study of war and its impact on individual lives—and it is nothing short of magnificent.

My Thoughts:

This isn't a story for men to feel better about themselves. It's a story reminding readers that women were in the story, despite the lack of references to them in the original legend. The Silence of the Girls is a retelling of Homer's The Iliad, illustrating the Trojan War through the eyes of Briseis, the concubine that Achilles wins during his sack of Lyrnessus. Rather than depicting Achilles as the hero, Briseis views him as a ferocious animal or even a sociopath. I  struggled finding parts of the story where Achilles could even be called a hero at all. 

The symbol of water throughout the novel was interesting in showing how the same sea could be perceived differently by Achilles and Briseis. To Achilles, it's a source of resentment and a reminder of his mother's constant disappointment in Achilles being mortal. To Briseis, it's a source of escape and gives her the power to cleanse the hatred she stifles as a slave. When Patroclus tells Briseis that she reminds Achilles of his mother, it's a simple explanation for why Achilles treats Briseis the way he does. I think their affinity for water also creates parallels between Achilles and Briseis, coupled with the immense grief that both individuals feel from their respective losses. However, the fact that Briseis can endure so much pain and carry on living, while Achilles cannot, signifies Briseis' courage.

My main takeaway from the novel was Briseis' strength in staying true to herself. She didn't want to forget her past life and forget that the men of this camp were the ones who killed her brothers and destroyed her city. As time passes, she is surprised by the women who can fall in love with men who Briseis considers to be captors. She can be likened to a stone that she finds on the beach:

“So many pebbles on that beach—millions—all of them worn smooth by the sea’s relentless grinding, but not this one. This one had stayed sharp.”

Briseis knows that she would probably be happier forgetting her past life, but she makes it her mission to remember and not falter. She sees the disparity between the treatment of men versus women - even when a man is a sworn enemy, he is still treated with more respect than given to a woman. In an interview, Pat Barker is quoted, "Nothing happens in the book that is not happening in the contemporary world." I think that is quite profound that a legend that spans to 762 B.C. can still portray the treatment of women as if it were written today, speaking to the universality of the text. However, Barker endeavors to rewrite the legend, giving a voice to a woman once voiceless, and proving that it's time to embed changing gender roles into literature.

Quotables:

"Somebody once said to me: You never mention his looks. And it’s true, I don’t, I find it difficult. At that time, he was probably the most beautiful man alive, as he was certainly the most violent, but that’s the problem. How do you separate a tiger’s beauty from its ferocity? Or a cheetah’s elegance from the speed of its attack? Achilles was like that – the beauty and the terror were two sides of a single coin." - page 49

"It’s strange, but just then, when I said “I watched him” I very nearly added “like a hawk,” because that’s what people say, isn’t it? That’s how you describe an intent, unblinking stare. But it was nothing like that. Achilles was the hawk. I was his slave to do what he liked with; I was completely in his power. If he’d woken up one morning and decided to beat me to death, nobody would have intervened. Oh, I watched him all right, I watched him like a mouse." - page 33

"He cried; I didn’t. Now, years later, when none of it matters anymore, I’m still proud of that." - page 98, Briseis on Achilles crying about Briseis going back to Agamemnon

My Rating: 🌊🌊🌊

I enjoyed Pat Barker's lyrical writing and Briseis' "stick-it-to-the-man" quotes, but I don't know - something still felt like it was missing for me. Maybe I was hoping for some larger reaction from Briseis against the men, but at the same time, would that have been realistic? Probably not.

If You Like This, Read This:

Circe - Madeline Miller

As the other feminist retelling of Greek mythology nominated for the Women's Prize for Fiction, it is easy to give this as a recommendation after reading The Silence of the Girls. Both have themes of misogyny, showing it doesn't really matter if you are a mortal or a goddess - men will treat you the same.

I think this also segues to a conversation about how The Silence of the Girls portrays gods. The humans of the novel treat the gods with defiance and use them to their benefit, as Briseis calls upon Apollo to bring the plague to the camp. With Circe, the gods are treated as all-powerful, but also in a similar fashion, depicts how humans have the power of choice in their lifetime and can wield that to bring meaning to their finite lives.

My Review of Circe

Who Inspires the Author?

The Telling - Miranda Seymour

The Porpoise - Mark Haddon

(from Fantastic Fiction)

For Further Reading Pleasure:

• The Silence of Classical Literature's Women
• How women are rewriting the literary canon
• The Waterstone Interview: Pat Barker on The Silence of the Girls

Book Awards

Women's Prize for Fiction 2019 Shortlist

Costa Book Awards 2018 Shortlist