I received this book as a Christmas present in 2021 and picked it up to read last year, but DNF’d at about 50 pages and it’s been sat on my TBR shelf ever since. I mention this because the exact same thing happened with the first book of this series, The Silence of the Girls, and I ended up reading it months later and actually enjoying it. Well, this is the reason I didn’t get rid of The Women of Troy when I had a clear out a few months ago; I had a feeling that there would be a point in time where I would actually get into it and lo and behold, I did.
The Women of Troy continues the story of Briseis, a woman taken captive by Achilles and whose ownership became a source of contention between him and Agamemnon. Troy has fallen, the Greek armies are triumphant and the Trojan women remain enslaved or in forced marriages, their futures uncertain. There is nothing heroic about the Greek victory though; the weather is holding the armies captive on the beaches of Troy and they are unable to set sail for home, the camps are filthy, there is contention and fighting amongst the men as their frustration grows and the priest Calchus tells them they are being punished for not burying King Priam’s body, as ordered by Pyrrhus, son of Achilles.
The language Barker uses to describe these events is sharp and modern and probably the thing that jarred me the most when I first picked up this book. I’m not entirely sure why, maybe because it isn’t what I expect of the subject matter? I think I was expecting more flowery prose and old-fashioned language which is ridiculous when I think about it, because the rawness of the language used, the slang, the visceral energy created by it evokes the harsh atmosphere of the setting and the horrific abuse the women suffer at the hands of these men. There is absolutely no comfort to be found for these captured women, even within female relationships and community as these all depend on the whims of the men too.
I do love a feminist retelling of Greek myth (might have mentioned this before!) but I have found with both of the books in this series that there is still too much input from the men. Half of Silence of the Girls was narrated by Achilles and though Briseis gets far more space in this narrative, there are still chapters narrated from male perspectives and I’m not sure what they add and whether they were needed. Obviously this is just my personal opinion, but I can’t help feeling if the goal is to give a voice to the women of the story it might not be helpful to take space from them.
Overall though, another great retelling to add to the read pile!
All is Full of Books 