THE BASICS
- Title: The Silence of the Girls
- Author: Pat Barker
- Genre: Historical Fiction
- Structure: Linear first-person narrative
- First Line: “Great Achilles.”
Synopsis: From the Booker Prize-winning author of the Regeneration trilogy comes a monumental new masterpiece, set in the midst of literature’s most famous war. Pat Barker turns her attention to the timeless legend of The Iliad, as experienced by the captured women living in the Greek camp in the final weeks of the Trojan War. The ancient city of Troy has withstood a decade under siege of the powerful Greek army, who continue to wage bloody war over a stolen woman—Helen. In the Greek camp, another woman watches and waits for the war’s outcome: Briseis. She was queen of one of Troy’s neighboring kingdoms, until Achilles, Greece’s greatest warrior, sacked her city and murdered her husband and brothers. Briseis becomes Achilles’s concubine, a prize of battle, and must adjust quickly in order to survive a radically different life, as one of the many conquered women who serve the Greek army. When Agamemnon, the brutal political leader of the Greek forces, demands Briseis for himself, she finds herself caught between the two most powerful of the Greeks. Achilles refuses to fight in protest, and the Greeks begin to lose ground to their Trojan opponents. Keenly observant and cooly unflinching about the daily horrors of war, Briseis finds herself in an unprecedented position to observe the two men driving the Greek forces in what will become their final confrontation, deciding the fate, not only of Briseis’s people, but also of the ancient world at large. Briseis is just one among thousands of women living behind the scenes in this war—the slaves and prostitutes, the nurses, the women who lay out the dead—all of them erased by history. With breathtaking historical detail and luminous prose, Pat Barker brings the teeming world of the Greek camp to vivid life. She offers nuanced, complex portraits of characters and stories familiar from mythology, which, seen from Briseis’s perspective, are rife with newfound revelations. Barker’s latest builds on her decades-long study of war and its impact on individual lives—and it is nothing short of magnificent.
THE GOOD
I was really excited about this book to begin with. The synopsis had me hooked. I knew of Pat Barker’s reputation and I was looking forward to reading something great. The first few chapters didn’t disappoint. Barker showed her writing and storytelling chops. But it dwindled from there. There are a couple things I did enjoy about this book, but there are several glaring issues that frustrated the hell out of me. All of that is detailed below.
- This book makes you think. It’s a great novel to contemplate hard issues. I don’t mean things that are hard because of the modern world we live in, but deeper things that we all experience as humans. Things that have consistently been present throughout time and history, despite the horribleness of them. For example, one recurring theme is examining why people keep going and keep choosing life despite facing treacherous and traumatic conditions everyday, especially those who have had multiple situations where they could’ve ended their life, but continued anyway. I think exploring topics like that on a deeper level than “life is precious, do it anyway” really brings to the forefront how to be resilient when the world is against you. These are the conversations and philosophical debates we’ve been needing.
- This story does an exceptional job at bringing how women were effected in history into the light. It’s a rare perspective that we don’t get to see or experience. In the US, history courses in school are all taught from the male perspective. We get a snippet of women when women fought to vote, but most of the time, that’s never covered because there’s “no time”. In ancient history courses, we’re taught that the Trojan War was started because of Helen of Troy, which subliminally labels her as a whore instead of a powerful woman that was treated like a possession and sex slave by men. This book tells the story of the women who were also devastated by the war in a way that leaves no stone unturned. It also points to all the ways that women are still suffering behind the scenes of history.
THE UNFAVORABLE BITS
I wish I could’ve rated this book higher. Truly, I do. When I started reading it, all I could think was that this was going to be amazing. But, the farther along I got, the more it went downhill. For one, it’s a slow book that quickly turned dull, despite the incredibly interesting storyline. The action scenes were great, but sparse. There’s a lot of fluff and fill that had me asking searching for why it was relevant only to discover that it wasn’t relevant at all.
Secondly, it was written like modern-day British people stumbled into a Greek tragedy. I know Barker has already discussed doing this intentionally, but it back-fired and created a story that was hard to follow. I was constantly questioning where and what time period the characters were really set. This is disappointing because Barker is well-studied in Ancient Greece and she could’ve had major breakthroughs in her writing if she stayed true to the time period instead of attempting a contemporary approach. Ultimately, it cheapened her writing and the story.
Lastly, this was a major source of disappointment, and even disgust to be frank, for me. There’s blatant fat shaming. I don’t mean the nod to an overweight character and “gee let’s subtly poke fun at this”. And, I don’t mean the half-assed kind that’s disguised as “caring about health”, but the kind of fat shaming that’s more akin to some snarky anon web forum. Ancient Greeks are known to have celebrated curvy women. There is some commentary on that in the book. However, true colors show not even 50 pages in when the narrator is describing an obese woman and how annoyed and frustrated she is with her. The narrator continues to shed more light by adding, “Well, yes, look at you. If your life’s that bloody marvellous, why do your jaws never stop?”
There is a fine line between narrator and author. It’s immensely disappointing to see such discompassion and contempt for what can be described as binge eating disorder. In addition, if this author is supposedly so well-versed and studied in this time period, then she would know that this narrative is not staying true to the narrator as a character living in a time when large women are considered the most beautiful. And, while you can argue that some people did/do think like this and it’s a reflection of the character, I would argue that I have seen that addressed in fiction books before, but it is followed by some revelation on how this is wrong. It is not thrown in willy-nilly as a fact of life, so to speak. Thus, I think this truly reveals the author’s opinion of modern society. Regardless, I can’t support work that has fat shaming of any kind. We are beyond this. It’s distasteful, rude, and ignorant in any time period.
As always, I give you a heads up about strong language or graphics in case you’re sensitive, or if the person you’re recommending the book to is sensitive. This book does not have intense strong language, but it does depict rape, self-harm, and graphic violence.
CONCLUSION
I rate this book 2/5 stars. I think the story is interesting. I love that it is addressing the women behind history that have been silenced by society throughout time, and are stilling being silenced. However, there are glaring issues with the book. It moves slow. The British slang inserted into an Ancient Greek era is awkward and jerking. There are incidences of fat shaming that I believe speak more astutely to the author’s perspective than what would’ve been true for the era. Overall, I don’t doubt that Pat Barker is a great writer, but this is not one of her best (or even good) pieces.
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