I like the idea of retelling or retelling myths in and of itself - it's not an outmoded ancient tradition that doesn't lose its relevance. Retelling myths on behalf of heroines who were originally very minor seems like a potentially good idea to me, too, though if you don't make those very heroines infinitely much feeling and infinitely little thinking.
"Ariadne" - begins with an uncomfortable reminder that women have been commodities since ancient times - to be married off, to be paid off, that women had no voice and that violence against women was as much the norm as offering a guest wine. And this is the story Ariadne tells with a sorrowful look - my mother was punished by the gods: it was my father's fault, and she has to suffer; I am to be married to a disgusting (disgusting only because it is not sympathetic) man; what a nightmarishly beautiful dress - everyone will look at me.
Jennifer Saint is a Sunday Times bestselling author. Her debut novel, ARIADNE, was shortlisted for Waterstones Book of the Year 2021 and was a finalist in the Goodreads Choice Awards Fantasy category in 2021. Her second novel, ELEKTRA, comes out in 2022 and is another retelling of Greek mythology told in the voices of the women at the heart of the ancient legends.
However, at this point Ariadne is already something of a stereotypical woman who may not have much brains, but has plenty of heart. Thus, Ariadne falls in love with Theseus after seeing his broad shoulders, his victory in a physical contest, and his reckless bravery, i.e. the female chooses the male based on strength. Ariadne helps Theseus, and this help devalues Theseus's feat as the narrative progresses, until eventually Phaedra openly announces to Theseus that he did nothing himself, it was all Ariadne.
I admit that when I started reading, I treated Ariadne very harshly - after all, she is a young girl, naive, confident that her love is mutual and that one should lay down one's whole life at the feet of this love. I had to look into myself very deeply to admit that at eighteen I had something of Ariadne in me. However, I note that the author does not actually help me to feel good feelings for the heroine - firstly, Ariadne feels something all the time, her whole monologue is one continuous feeling, which is generously dumped on the reader. Secondly, when Ariadne does start thinking, it's not thinking, but whining. And thirdly, the whole part of the myth about Theseus' rescue from Crete is unbearably boring.
There was a very cool moment in the book - when Ariadne grows up sharply and copes with her grief of an abandoned woman, and Phaedra, who initially is a bit smarter than her older sister, also realizes what situation she is in and quickly figures out how to live with it. There is something reassuring in this, something strong, something saying that women are actually different and their different choices are normal. However, the magic of the word quickly ends, the narrative sinks, spectacularly choking at the end.
Whether on purpose or by accident, Sainte compares Ariadne and Phaedra, giving one white chips and the other black. Ariadne, in her proper family values, turns out to be all righteously disappointed in her husband. She has lived fifteen years, changed and her changes seem normal to her, but she expects her husband to be the same as he was fifteen years ago. Finding that her husband has changed, Ariadne can only lament - when did this happen, how could I not notice, how can he do this? She does not reproach herself, of course, for anything, for example, in the narrowness of her own interests, in insincerity, in unwillingness to do something for her husband, since it seems to her that he is wrong. Ariadne's narrative is tediously stretched by the repetition of the same ideas and feelings.
Fedra, on the other hand, is as if she had no luck with her husband at once, and since she has decided to tolerate him, the author tells her to tolerate him to the end. And now she no longer loves her children, but only tolerates them, tolerates her sister, tolerates her newfound love for Hippolytus, which the author reduces to the level of empty bliss of a woman never loved by anyone. Her explanation with Hippolytus and her untimely death are mercilessly crumpled, again as if to counterbalance Ariadne's noble suffering.
The men in the book, of course, turn out to be an endless source of evil for women. With the exception of Daedalus - apparently, if a man is handy and savvy, his benefits outweigh the potential damage. Minos is a tyrant and despot, Theseus is a wastrel and a dullard, Dionysus - in the end, turns out to be "just like everyone else". In none of them, the author does not even try to show the other side, to find something good. In addition, there are countless cruel invisible husbands from whom poor women flee to seek solace in the cult of Dionysus. Admittedly, I never realized whether this is a euphemism for saying that women drink themselves to sleep because of men, or if it just happened to be the plot.
Another thing that is very unclear to me is the gods. Why there are gods in myths I understand, but how exactly the gods are reinterpreted in retellings of the myth I can only guess roughly. The gods are some hostile force that makes people, especially women, suffer innocently. Poseidon is a very terrible god: Medusa, Pasiphae and even Hippolytus suffered because of him. Whether the author has the idea that human prejudices are hidden behind the gods - I'm not sure, it seems like I'm making this up to make some sense.
Bottom line, my aspirations are not fulfilled - boring, I don't see a new look at an old story here, I see unpleasant stereotypes, division into black and white, very much emotion and very little brains.
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