Review: The Silence of the Grils

Title:  The Silence of the Girls

Author: Pat Barker

Publisher: 30th August 2018 by Penguin Books

Pages: 336 pages
How I Read It: ARC book
Genre: historical fiction, Greek mythology, retelling

My Rating: 4.5 cups

Synopsis:

From the Booker Prize-winning author of Regeneration and one of our greatest contemporary writers on war comes a reimagining of the most famous conflict in literature - the legendary Trojan War.

When her city falls to the Greeks, Briseis's old life is shattered. She is transformed from queen to captive, from free woman to slave, awarded to the god-like warrior Achilles as a prize of war. And she's not alone. On the same day, and on many others in the course of a long and bitter war, innumerable women have been wrested from their homes and flung to the fighters.

The Trojan War is known as a man's story: a quarrel between men over a woman, stolen from her home and spirited across the sea. But what of the other women in this story, silenced by history? What words did they speak when alone with each other, in the laundry, at the loom, when laying out the dead?

In this magnificent historical novel, Pat Barker charts one woman's journey through the chaos of the most famous war in history, as she struggles to free herself and to become the author of her own story.

My Thoughts

In The Silence of the Girls, women who up until now were mostly ‘silenced’ regarding the story of the Trojan War, are given a voice. How wonderful! So for all Greek tragedy lovers out there, this is basically a re-telling of the final few scenes from, The Iliad’s Trojan War but from the voice of a Greek slave. The voice here is that of Briseis, a Trojan captive given to Achilles as a war prize.

“I was no longer the outward and visible sign of Agamemnon’s power and Achilles’ humiliation. No, I’d become something altogether more sinister: I was the girl who’d caused the quarrel. Oh, yes, I’d caused it – in much the same way, I suppose, as a bone is responsible for a dogfight.”

The author tells the story of the female characters who lie in the background of this ancient Greek epic. The women who normally we never hear from, are now given a voice - their thoughts and feelings. These are the women who are at the mercy of their captors, the very men who killed their fathers, brothers, husbands and now find themselves trying to survive and make an existence (I won’t say ‘life’) for themselves. Through Briseis eyes, the reader is given front row seats to not only the support network among other female captives, but also the rift between Agamemnon and Achilles and the impact of their fallout, not only on the war, but also to pertinent individuals.

“Something else, something I couldn’t put my finger on, had made me turn back. Perhaps no more than a feeling that this was my place now, that I had to make my life work here.”

I feel this really is sublime writing in portraying not only the resilience but also determination, healing and angst of both sides of this tragic tale - Greek and Trojan. The everyday brutalities are front and centre as you are faced with not only war, violence and ensuing slavery, but the pertinent issues of rape, slavery and death. This is just so unique as this previously male dominated story is now given the yin to its yang, the light to its shade- the female voice has been awaken.

“...we spent the nights curled up like spiders at the centre of our webs. Only we weren’t the spiders; we were the flies.”

If you have read and loved, The Song of Achilles or The Iliad, you will be entranced by this haunting tale. The horror of war, the mistreatment of women matched against the love and strength of characters is truly moving. The Silence of the Girls sheds light on a well told Greek tale and will leave you richer for the experience.

There was nothing to be gained by clinging to a past that no longer existed. But I did cling to it, because in that lost world I’d been somebody, a person with a role in life. And I felt if I let that go, I’d be losing the last vestige of myself.

This review is based on a complimentary copy from the publisher and provided through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. The quoted material may have changed in the final release