the lions, the loom, and the men who don't deserve her

okay so I came to this after literally everybody else and I get it, I do.

what's brilliant: Miller takes a woman who is about four lines in the Odyssey (witch, island, turns the men into pigs, minor obstacle, moving on) and gives her a whole life with a shape to it. and the pig business gets recontextualised so hard that I went oh. OH. I'm not spoiling it, you will know the paragraph when you hit it.

the middle section where she's simply alone on the island for actual centuries, learning her herbs, getting extremely good at something nobody asked her to be good at, is my favourite part of the book and I think it's the part most people find slow. sorry! I like a woman alone with a project.

what keeps it at eight: the last third gets busy. suddenly it's all plot, arrivals, a son, and the pace changes completely from the dreamy thing I'd settled into. and Odysseus turns up and the novel is noticeably more alive whenever he's on the page, which I don't think it wants to be.

Steph said it reads like a very good fanfic and she meant it as an insult and I've decided to take it as a compliment on Miller's behalf.

eight. mum's borrowed it and I would like it back.