Helen of Troy by Margaret George

Two years ago, on my birthday, I picked up the book "Helen of Troy" by Margaret George. I was feverishly reading through three other novels, two of which I had reviewed, one of which I gave a short preview, and a summary on the relevancy of the novel. After last week, putting aside my other books, I read the book Helen of Troy, and if you've read my prior acknowledgements on this author, I liked it not only because I like Margaret George, but I like the mystery that this piece of history is shrouded in....very much like a mystic shaman of ancestral tribes, Helen of Troy is only fact to that time, and to those who were there to witness that generation.
The story of Helen of Troy, formerly of Sparta, is a story that we not only know by heart, but it is enriched by our own tellings, especially in America. Helen's desire for her true love Paris may be quested out these days on a Jerry Springer/Maury talk show, but her tale is one that is prone to both anger, frustration, and common sense. Menealus, the character that we are either to despise, or empathize with, is not either a hero or villain, he's actually not much of anything, but is such a crucial part of the tale....why? These days Menealus would be the high-school angst teen that screams hopeless romantic babbling towards the balcony of his "true love" and threatens to kill himself if he cannot be with the hot chick that rather date the jock.

image from http://images.barnesandnoble.com/images/13780000/13780943.JPG


I'm not picking on the story, I think it's a great story, but I know that this was to be a challenge for George to do, after her earlier release of Mary, Called Magdalene, I knew she had to do something to get me out of that rut, it was not even like a real Margaret George experience. Now, Helen of Troy felt like a Margaret George novel, it vitalized my faith in her writing. Is this her best work yet? In my honest opinion, I still feel, in my heart that her most accurately descriptive, although over-dramatized piece has to be "The Memoirs of Cleopatra" this was the first book I've read that was written by George, and the third she's ever written. That behemoth of a novel is to me, the standard George novel. I compare all her other works to that novel, even the earlier works that are The Autobiography of Henry VIII, another great novel I did a short review on that demands to be read, and Mary Queen of Scots and the Isle, a great read that is done a little differently from her first person narratives.
Back on subject, Helen of Troy is that sort of novel I would not recommend unless I was sure it was worth both the time and effort for the average reader to take-on, and it is! This novel is great, and if you're a George fan, you'll love her work. I'm not really into the romance novels, and I just could not really connect with Helen on a deep level as I could've with Cleo, because she sounded like a drama queen teen-aged angst, high-school grad cheerleader, but in a sense, that's sort of what she was, even in the stories by Homer (Iliad, Oddessy, Aneid) Even George left the mythological parts of the story in, but instead of showing the Gods on Olympus, she instead told it through the perspective of the characters, she explains this in the afterward, because many readers, as well I, assumed this to be a close-to-fact retelling of Helen, a way we've never read of her before. We do get the telling of Helen's life in a new way, but we also get more fiction than historical.
I am partial to George, and I may take it too easy on her work at times, but I think that this bulk of a novel *around 620 pages in the hardcover standard print issue* could've been a little better, what novel is perfect in the first edition? That's why even "Ender's Game" has several editions, with new prefaces every reprint with "added chapters" Preface should just be French for: "I fucked up the first time, so I'm going to add nonsense into a great novel just to feel better about myself" or the new hip thing authors do: "Introduction to the new addition" I see that and tear the pages out of the spine. George seems to rush the middle of the second part, as if to spare time, but it's a book, time is always on your side, and making a hundred years span thirty pages can be done well, but George instead cannot allow twenty years to span three hundred pages because she's telling intricate details on Helen using a privy, sorry, but that did piss me off a bit, the most menial tasks that all humans do become enshrined in the midst of the voyage to Troy, and hence we lose decent story over way too much description. I guess if you're the daughter of a God, wiping your ass is more important than oh, say twenty years of war! Granted, it was not about a privy, but because of the load of characters, and that part about the birthday party for the Trojan queen were boring, and long-winded like this run-on sentence. Catch my drift?



Image from http://www.libraryjobpostings.org/covers/george.jpg

I admire details, they're like that little extra effort of a school paper, like making a colorful cover sheet with a powerpoint image of an Delicious Red apple with a worm poking out with a graduate's hat on for the teacher to giggle over.....but it can also look like you're sucking up to the reader, which I've seen in two latest books by Ms. George. The subjects of the past two novels again were more fiction than history, but not only is it hard to chronicle a life that may never have happened, it is also a task for experienced writers to fill those missing gaps responsibly, and Ms. George gives an A- effort, although she's an A+ writer. I love Ms. George's works, and I'm trying to be a tad harsh, but this irritates the hell out of me, and I do hope that Ms. George's next work on the mid life of Elizabeth I will be astounding. Ms. George, keep up the work, for it is great, and I am grateful that you continue to write such novels that inspire.

Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen

Image from http://a4.vox.com/6a00c2251c05e18fdb00cd9709da1c4cd5-500pi. Cover Artwork for "Water for Elephants: A Novel".


Every year, we get one of those novels that comes along, and makes a standard in storytelling. It usually constitutes some thematic events, and the setting itself has some sort of isolated theme. 12 Angry Men, was a play that took place in one isolated room, and was perhaps one of the most dramatic tales ever to grace the stage. The first Saw film was a conversation mainly between two men locked in a room with nothing but fear, and the raw emotional instinct of survival to keep us on the edges of our seats. This time around, a novel of less than four hundered pages, but a lifetime embedded inside takes place in a train car, and a retirement home. This great novel is called "Water for Elephants" by author Sara Gruen.
Perhaps the most amazing thing about this novel, is the fact that it takes place in only two solid settings. Well, three if you count the Big Top Performances described by the lead character Jacob Jankowski. Let's delve more into this character, and just how Sara Gruen uses his life's journey to tell a story of hardships, trial and error, and absolute sacrifices that dawn upon all the important characters.
Jacob's story starts him off at the old folks home. He is "ninety or ninety-three" and is perhaps a grouchy old man, that still has all his marbles in the pouch. Jacob is excited, because the circus is coming to town, and is preparing for several days to go see it. Somehow, he sees this as his last hurrah, and really has not another reason to live in this decrepit state that faith, and old age has thrown him. He hates the food, and would trade anything for a nice corn on the cob, or just to be able to taste an apple, and hear the mechanical sounds, the sweet tastes, and the symbolism of youth once again, so not to feel as old and defenseless as he does now. Jacob is an retired vetrinarian who dropped out of Cornell University after losing everything to blinding bad luck. He is hit with a double whammy, as his parents die in a freak car accident, and the house belongs to the bank, seeing as his parents took out another mortgage loan to pay for his Ivy League education. Seeing as he has nothing to go home to, even though he had but the final exam to take to earn his degree, Jacob walks out without even touching the exam, and jumps aboard an open box cart. Who knew that this cart would lead him into some of the best, and worst incidents of his long life.
Jacob, being the bringer of bad luck throughout the entire novel, seems have boarded a circus train. At first, Blackie, who is sort of the muscle work to keep hobos from jumping trains, seems to at first want to finish off Jacob fast, and toss him from the speeding locomotive. He is saved by one of the only reasonable characters throughout the entire novel, Camel, and is then given a job on the circus tour. To make light of the situation, he is tossed into the privileged cart to mee Uncle Al. Uncle Al is the Ringmaster behind the Circus, aptly named "The Benzini Bros. Most Spectacular Show on Earth". This was also during the Dustball era where Ringling was king of the circus curcuit, and Benzini, was biting at the knees, try to scrounge up all the remaing parts of other circuses, just so they could surrvive. So like vultures, they traved the Midwest, picking away at the dead carcasses of emptied curcuses that have ran out of money, in hopes of one day showing up Ringling Bros. Jacob joins on as a lacky, but his hidden talents as a vetrinarian to the Arabian horses during the show saves him a trip off the train via "redlighting" (Being tossed from the train during a slowing up at a stoplight). After making in good with Uncle Al, and becoming accquainted "friends" of August, the head animal wrangler, and Uncle Al's good friend, he lands a decent job working with the circus animals, and earns much respect from the other workers.
Things are seeminly well considering how life has treated Jacob up to this point, but he goes and does something rather dumb, and falls for August's wife, Marlena. She's a girl in the show that tends to, and does incredibly astounding acts with training the horses, and also being a charmingly beautiful women to boot. Jacob gets first accquainted with her, as he tries to save her horse that has been treated hrrobily, and malnourished ot the poin that his hooves were twisting, making hte pain almost impossible to deal with; so much that he could not even stand. Jacob sees no hopes, and odes away with the animal, but becoming even more attractied to Marlena.
As the story unfolds, we find out secrets about August, and Marlena's past. We meet Kinko the clown, who is vertically challenged, and called Walter by hi good friends. We even meet his agitated little Jack Russell Terrier Queenie. The characters are surreal, astounding, and often scary or hilarious. The dialouge is sometimes cliché, but fits the 30's well, and the roaring climax of the story, Rosie, who gives birth to the very title of the novel, "Water for Elephants" by author Sara Gruen is not one to be missed. If you have yet to read this great work, I do not suggest you hesitate! This was on my list of books to read for a while, and was a great way to start off my summer of reading. This novel is heart-warming, and written in a way that anyone that loved the circus as a child can enjoy. You visualize the way the animals see, you can even feel them, smell them, and hear their bellows throught he words on the paper. Sara's imagery is astounding, and it's amazing she knew nothing about the circuses, until the old pictures she purchased prior to the other novel she was thinking of writing, that inspired her to research and write about the story of Rosie, Marlena, and Jacob, and the loving bond all three had.
Ms. Gruen, I thank you for this work, it truly has depths that many authors wish to obtain. Sara's research pays off, as this was awarded as a New York Times Bestseller in 2006. I enjoy the overall conflicts, such as the internal conflict of Jacob v.s. the realization that he is growing older, and nearing the end, and the external conflicts he has with August throughout the entire novel. Gruen knows how to tell a story, and writes in a way that you are sailing through it, and not wanting to turn back.
To conclude, this novel has everything in it for readers of all genres: suspense, romance, drama, action, and even some sci-fi querks, although the novels underlying theme is the classic "Fact is Stranger than Fiction" , the concepts found to be true in her research are both mystifying, and even add more magic to the Big Top. With an amazing story, and amazing photographs througout the book, you have to give this novel a look-over, and I gurantee you will fall in love for the circus, and empathize much with this great chacter whose roll plays out wonderfully in "Water for Elephants". Again, the name of the book is "Water for Elephants" by Sara Gruen, and can be purchased at your local bookstore, and Amazon.com. Thank you again for your support of Malacast Editorial.

Read the upcoming iPhone Review whenver I get a hold of one. I do not intend of buying one, because I despise cell phones, as mentioned in my two previews done earlier in the year. Stay tuned also for my upcoming previews of several books coming out in late 2007, and very early 2008. My next review is a toss-up: Either Manhunt 2 the video game for the PS2, or the long-awaited book review of "Helen of Troy" by my favorite author Margret George, so expected an honest, but rather bias review. I will try to be fair, but I am a huge fan, and rwas mos honest on her novel "Mary, Called Magdalene".

Mary Mary Quite Contrary

As I sat and read "Mary, Called Magdalane" by Margret George over the past few weeks, I looked at the book with promise to the objective view of Christianity that most people in this day and age do,in hopes that I would pass through it quickly, and without haste. Alas, my hopes were crushed knwoing that one of my personal favorite writers has once again pulled off a decent book, and did it through the eyes of someone who has been a mystery in time.
Mary of Magdala has bee called a Saint, Apostle and Disciple, a whore, and many other titles that prmote and denote the "Apostle of the Apostles." She was considered the first to see Jesus after crucifixtion, was the first woman he saved from demons, and many other mythos that surround the ancient text. SHe supposedly was given the power to heal, and exorcise demons like the others whom followed Jesus the prophet.
The story is fiction of course, but much to the opinion and theory of this woman, George has stuck very well with the basics, and has written a novel that is quite contrary to what I expected. She captured the idealology that holds her up higher than the other women that followed in the path of Jesus of Nazereth.
This novel came out around 2002, and was a good read, but not my favorite of George's works so far. I have only read the "Memoirs of Cleopatra", and found it to be much more intersting than this piece. Nevertheless, Margaret George continues to amaze me with her in-depth look on history more denounced indivduals, and pities them in a manner that seems more motherly than the straight-forward writer's of Historical fiction.
I am now venturing into "THe Autobiography of Henry VIII, and so far, it is good. I believe this was George's first novel that was written to the general public, and is world-renowned to be one of the best fiction texts written on the tyrant king. I love the fact that it is written in the view of the king himself, recounting his life from start to the very end, and look forward to finishing it soon, and to report further on whether you should read it or not.
Afterwards, I plan to read "The Kite Runner" by Khallad Hosseni, and will report further on that work as well.