I read so many books it's hard to keep up.
This particular book captured my attention in a downtown Sarasota, FL bookstore. I had 2 weeks off from school over the holidays, and books and characters become fast friends.
An old myth you may know is revitalized in such a realistic way that you seem to be able to touch the gods. Ariadne falls in love with Theseus who has come to Crete to kill the Minotaur imprisoned in her father's labyrinth. She is the one who allows him to become the hero. Watching the evolution of the characters, in a realistic manner in which we find ourselves so familiar, feels mysterious as well. The archetypal energy that moves through the gods and humans pulls me in deeply.
The other compelling piece for me is that you get a modern woman's perspective projected onto this old Greek story. It's funny, we project ourselves into the mythical stories of old and we see newly and we discover relevant gems to grace our world today. We see what we want to see. We see what we are. We see the drama play out.
Ariadne pleaded, "I wanted the world to go back to what it was before Phaedra [her sister] had come here, before I had known anything at all." (p. 276) Much like today, I've heard it said, we want to go back to the way things were. We cannot; neither could she.
For me, one of Ariadne's most passionate statements was the following. "I had known that I had lost him, maybe even before the night in the woods. But I hadn't known how the loss tore him apart just as much as it did me, if not more so. I had fallen in love with his vulnerability all those years ago. I had thought it made him different from all other men and gods alike. But it was his misery that made me so uneasy now. Because if I had learned anything, I had learned enough to know that a god in pain is dangerous." (p. 292) I can so relate to this experience as I ponder a past relationship. Oh, that we might all find our own way to heal.
If you like Greek mythology, a woman's perspective, or a passionate story, I hope you enjoy this as much as I did. If you just enjoy my rendering, please let me know.
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