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The War That Killed Achilles: The True Story Of Homer's Iliad And The Trojan War (2009)

by Caroline Alexander(Favorite Author)

3.77 of 5 Votes: 1

ISBN

0670021121 (ISBN13: 9780670021123)

languge

English

genre

History & Biography

publisher

Viking Adult

review 1: The War That Killed Achilles by Caroline Alexander was a three star read for me. I am not sure what I was expecting. But, I can tell you this was a very close reading of the Illiad. Alexander did A LOT of quoting from the Illiad and even went so far as to quote passages that she translated herself. I am impressed she was able to translate it. I don't believe she included her own translations to be showy, I truly agree she probably could not have quoted entire books of another persons translation. However, it should give you an idea of how much she quoted. I felt as if I was simply reading an heavily annotated version of the Illiad. She did offer some guidance on Greek myth and provided a lot of background information on the characters in the epic. As a reader, you... more can definitely tell that Ms. Alexander has a love affair with Homer's Illiad. For me, that was one highlight of the book.. She writes with a love, care and passion for the epic that certainly comes through in her work and makes the reader appreciate her book, her research effort, and her labor of love. It is an okay recourse book on the Illiad, but I am not sure that it is awe inspiring in anyway. There is nothing in Alexander's book that really stands out for me. There is nothing in the book that will resonate with me in the long term.
review 2: There is less history to be had in this work than there is literary extrapolation. Some of it is very much historical, as this extrapolation comes from earlier tribes and traditions, keeping in mind there are hundreds of years between the Trojan War and Homer's Iliad. If you're looking for pure history, you won't find it here. There is history to be had, but it's more breakdown of the characters and themes that make The Iliad the great work that it is. As a literary analysis, this book is a home run. Having read both prose and poetic verse translations of the classic epic, this book operates more like a college thesis on Homer's tale. For the scholastically-inclined, this isn't a bad thing. I might even suggest that for those who couldn't finish The Iliad (you know who you are), this book might be the catalyst for higher appreciation that's needed. less

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