Response to Troy

I enjoyed this book, slow-moving though it could be at times, for many of the same reasons I enjoyed the books in historical fiction. It seemed very realistic and true to the history of the time. Well, as true to the history as a story about a mythical war can be. But even so, there seemed to be a lot of truth in the book as far as how people lived, and I appreciated that aspect of it.
I’m going to go in a direction that I don’t think I have gone in to this point in my responses, and that is to talk about how I think adolescents will respond to this book, which I think is a little more complicated with this book than some of the others we’ve read. First, I thought boys would really enjoy this book because of the war aspect (of course this is a huge stereotype, but sometimes we have to speak generally). But then I got into it a little bit and realized all of the love triangles and cupid’s arrows and everything would probably appeal to girls more. Also, I think the inclusion of all the gods and goddesses would appeal to girls as well. This is, of course, based on my limited experience with high school students. As I think about my own students, I can pick out students that I think would enjoy this book, and there are both girls and boys who I know would like this book.
As for the book itself, I liked the setting of Troy before the war comes to an end. Of course, a lot of people know how the war ended so the suspense is gone as far as that goes, but to watch it play out on the side of the Trojans is really interesting. Even though many readers know what’s going to happen, that’s not really the point of the story. It’s not a story about how the war was won and lost, it’s a story about people and relationships, so the fact that many readers know how the war turns out doesn’t much matter because we don’t know how the stories of these individuals will turn out.
One thing I liked about the book was that it seemed sort of like a play. For one thing, there is the dramatic irony of the reader knowing how the war goes and the characters in the book not knowing, and there is also the fact that each chapter is set like a “scene” in a specific location. That especially helps the reader picture the events and people in the book, which I think invokes thoughts of John Steinbeck with the detail and the imagery.
One thing I did not understand about the book was how nobody would ever remember when they spoke to a god or goddess, at least if they knew it was a god. There were times when Ares would show himself, but someone like Alastor didn’t know it was Ares, so he would remember and see him in various places. But that didn’t even happen every time the person didn’t know it was a god. It would sometimes still end in forgetting about the encounter. I don’t understand that. What’s the point of the gods showing themselves if the person they are speaking to doesn’t remember speaking to the gods and the conversation is often forgotten as well? The only thing I could think of is that the author was trying to create a sort of “other worldly” type of feel but construct an idea that perhaps this still happens. Perhaps there are other-worldly beings that interfere with our lives and we just don’t remember. I don’t think this is a good explanation, but it’s all I came up with.