Review: Circe

Circe by Madeline Miller
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is the first of Miller's work I've read and it is a masterful retelling of Circe and her mythos. I'm not sure what readers complaining in other reviews about lack of story-driven plot were expecting but iterations of Circe's story are told in Homer's Odyssey, Hesiod's Telegony, Virgil's Aeneid, and Hyginus' Fabulae. Miller has faithfully stitched together these fragments, creating a moving tapestry of Circe's long life.

Depicting Circe as a survivor of much familial abuse, a minor goddess who fights for herself, her son, her freedom, Miller gives us a woman who grows into her powers out of necessity rather than any true malevolent desire. (Other than her jealous treachery with Scylla.) Even the origin of her turning men into pigs lies in a heinous act, perpetrated upon her when she is exiled on the island of Aeaea by her father Helios. Living as a woman, plausibly alone and vulnerable in her exile, she grows to feel that the best defense is a good offense. And yet she still is capable of evaluating men as individuals because Odysseus survives (in part thanks to Hermes), as do his men. Miller has given us a Circe whose loneliness and longing for love and affection are palpable, as is her anger and outrage. I listened to the audiobook, read by Perdita Weeks, whose narration is pitch perfect. She relates even the most terrible of Circe's acts in a sympathetic and sometimes confidential tone. I highly recommend this audio edition.

This is a marvelous adaptation. I am looking forward to exploring Miller's other work.

View all my reviews