I have been a fan of Yann Martel ever since I read Life of Pi, his newest effort takes on an old Greek Classic, Homer’s The Iliad or the story of the Trojan War. The siege of the Troy lasted for over ten years at a horrific cost of both human lives and resources all because of a woman, Helen who ran off with Patis.
In this version, Martel changes the perspective a bit and centers on Psoad who is just another warrior in the Greek. There is nothing special about this foot soldier, but his tenacity during battle makes him a hero. Using the background of Canadian professor Donne at Oxford, who has left his wife and daughter, Helen, behind to pursue this fellowship at Oxford’s Magdalen College to review ancient accounts of the war.
As the novel continues we discover a parallel between Donne and Psoad who has abandoned his wife and children in Greece to go off and live a heroic soldier’s life just as Donne is living in the rarified air of an Oxford scholar. As Psoad’s efforts leads to a bloody and violent climax as he battles Mestor, one of Priam’s fifty sons. This final battle between Mestor and Psoad is symbolic of the struggle Donne is facing when his beloved daughter Helen loses as the child battles for her life. In the end we are left with the questions, “What makes a hero?”
Like his previous efforts, Martel does not answer the question as he leaves it up to you, the reader. I found that his refusal to come home to be with his daughter as she struggled unsuccessfully for her next breath. Martel shows his familiarity with the Greek Classic by bringing in all the heroes; Achilles, Odysseus, Menelaus, Agamemnon, Hector, Paris, King Priam of Troy, Mestor. But what makes this different is the fact Psoad is a flawed hero who does not present the heroic image like Achilles in the fact Psoad’s skin has a rash and he is rather small.
Mantel is a master of intertwining stories between this forgotten hero and his tenure at Oxford, and he even touches on comparisons with the New Testament which tells of the life of Jesus.
I did enjoy this book even though I do not have an extensive background on the Iliad, but I some of the holes of my knowledge were filled in nicely by this book. I found Helen’s question to her father before he left for his fellowship added an emotional tone to the narrative, “Daddy, what is the Iliad?” The thing that struck me was the description of the brutality and horror of war that has not changed that much over the course of human history. War is savage and brutal no matter what.
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