jnkay01's review against another edition
challenging
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
a brilliant reinvention of a classic, and it's humanity's loss that Logue didn't live long enough to finish his epic project
circularcubes's review against another edition
3.0
This was interesting, but I'm afraid I couldn't recommend it whole-heartedly, as I am very much not a poetry person. I read this as a companion piece of sorts to the original Iliad, which I finished reading earlier this year (not original as in the original Greek, of course, but a translation). Although I found the character motivations clearer in this version of the story, I can't quite tell if it's because I found Logue's language a little easier to understand, or if it's just because I'm more familiar with the story after having finished the original.
kiramke's review against another edition
5.0
Fantastic retelling; incisive, poetic, thoughtful, and I think faithful.
ktrain3900's review against another edition
3.0
At the same time both unputdownable, yet still made me feel like "aren't there other things you should be reading?" if that makes sense. The Iliad has been done to death (as The Inferno has, as another example) yet there's plenty of image and action here to make this a worthy read. If you're looking for examples of how to incorporate movement into your writing, look no further.
jasonfurman's review against another edition
5.0
What an amazing, stunning, beautiful, mesmerizing, spellbinding, thrilling, epic poem. The subtitle says War Music is "An Account" of Homer's Iliad. I don't know exactly what an account is but might as well use it because certainly none of the other words one might use make sense. It follows the story and trajectory of the Iliad but is not a "translation" with a direct mapping of lines or groups of lines. A "retelling" would belittle something that really does a lot more than just tell the story. It is certainly not a "modernization" even though the language is deliberately modern and anachronistic in some places.
I read this on and off slowly over nearly four weeks, probably longer than I've spent on the Iliad itself. But it was really worth a slow and careful reading--even if it was all so fluent that it never felt difficult.
Christopher Logue wrote this and published parts on and off over the course of his life. Sadly he did not finish it, it includes and "account" of Books 1 through 9 and then of Books 16-19 (Patroclus entering the action, getting killed, and Achilles mourning his death and vowing vengeance). I would love nothing more than to have Logue's "account" of the rest of the Iliad, especially the death of Hector and the ransoming of his body. Sadly, it is not be. But what we do have is extraordinary.
I read this on and off slowly over nearly four weeks, probably longer than I've spent on the Iliad itself. But it was really worth a slow and careful reading--even if it was all so fluent that it never felt difficult.
Christopher Logue wrote this and published parts on and off over the course of his life. Sadly he did not finish it, it includes and "account" of Books 1 through 9 and then of Books 16-19 (Patroclus entering the action, getting killed, and Achilles mourning his death and vowing vengeance). I would love nothing more than to have Logue's "account" of the rest of the Iliad, especially the death of Hector and the ransoming of his body. Sadly, it is not be. But what we do have is extraordinary.
daximus's review against another edition
5.0
He's a genius, and I'm ashamed by how stylistically similar to his my writing had become to his before ever reading this. Back to the drawing board.
Almost certainly the best modern rendition of Homer, in my opinion War Music ought to take precedence over Fagles, Lattimore, or Pope in any course that wishes to maintain the Iliad's spirit.
Almost certainly the best modern rendition of Homer, in my opinion War Music ought to take precedence over Fagles, Lattimore, or Pope in any course that wishes to maintain the Iliad's spirit.
spacestationtrustfund's review against another edition
3.0
Him with an upright finger, saying:
Don't show your face again, Patroclus,
Unless it's red with Hector's blood."
And Patroclus,
Shaking the voice out of his body, says:
"Big mouth.
Remember it took three of you to kill me.
A god, a boy, and, last and least, a hero.
I can hear Death pronounce my name, and yet
Somehow it sounds like Hector.
And as I close my eyes I see Achilles' face
With Death's voice coming out of it."
Saying these things Patroclus died.
And as his soul went through the sand
Hector withdrew his spear and said:
"Perhaps."
Don't show your face again, Patroclus,
Unless it's red with Hector's blood."
And Patroclus,
Shaking the voice out of his body, says:
"Big mouth.
Remember it took three of you to kill me.
A god, a boy, and, last and least, a hero.
I can hear Death pronounce my name, and yet
Somehow it sounds like Hector.
And as I close my eyes I see Achilles' face
With Death's voice coming out of it."
Saying these things Patroclus died.
And as his soul went through the sand
Hector withdrew his spear and said:
"Perhaps."
rixx's review against another edition
4.0
War Music is *art*. Christopher Logue transformed the Iliad into a modern poem, and it's all kinds of awesome. The story is the real deal: Heroes of old, clad in bronze, fighting for a city and for honour and most of all for an honourable way back home. And yet, it's clearly written by somebody living in our age. Free-form poetry, modern comparisons – but all steeped in the awe of a gigantic, real, old story. I'm extremely into it. You might be too! This book might be more enjoyable when you can place all the names and comments (like "Dido might have become a grandmother / And Rome not had its day"), but it's still a lot of fun when you're just into the language and the story.
Of course, if you wanted to defend the choices made in creating this version of the Iliad, you could: Homer's own work was recorded and spoken long after any (hypthentical) real Trojan war, and was similarly modernised in the retelling. Logue didn't know Ancient Greek himself, but studied different translations and secondary literature, which seems to me nearly like a prerequisite to writing good translations – I don't know any philologic translation that retains poetry instead of grammar.
Greek mythology – and the Iliad in particular – is steeped in pettiness, in snark, in jealousy and insults. Logue absolutely excels at these. Odysseus calling Achilles "Wondersulk" and the insults Menelaos and Achilles trade are hilarious – but things only really take off when the gods get involved. Just look at this scene where Aphrodite on the one side and Hera and Athene on the other plead with Zeus to side with them:
In many places, Logue keeps his lyrical expressions to a form that resonates with ancient works: "Briseis in their midst / Her breasts so lovely that they envy one another." wouldn't have been written by Homer, but I can see it in an Aristophanes comedy or a lewd Latin poem. Similarly, "And it was here that Thestor, Enop’s boy / Met that circumstance in nature / Gods call Fate, and on this day, men called Patroclus." is just the right amount of wordplay and gravitas. And "O my Lord / Please do not fart. You are a powerful man / And perished sails blow out." is pure Greek comedy.
And then there's the spot-on characterisations that betray the modern grounding. What better to describe the mounting tension before a battle, than "The armies hum / As power-station outflow cables do.". Hear "As many arrows on his posy shield / As microphones on politicians’ stands:", and you know exactly what to picture. ‘Laid his trunk open from shoulder to hip – / Like a beauty-queen’s sash.’ is brutal, yes (the whole book shows that Logue knows how brutal and unappetising war is), and wonderfully evocative. And these modern comparisons mix very well with the epic nature of the book: Describing gods as "With faces like NO ENTRY signs they hurried through the clouds." feels *good*. Or maybe my favourite example:
And all that is hilarious and cool and fun – but don't get me wrong: Logue also knows that he's telling an epic history, and he does it well. An early commentary on Achilles is: "And he for whom / Fighting was breath, was bread / Remained beside his ships / And hurt his honour as he nursed his wrong." – and when the gods decide to take an active part among humans, the poem – as it should – conveys honest awe. Logue understood the myth and produced a true translation – true in spirit, and I'm very sad it had to remain unfinished.
Of course, if you wanted to defend the choices made in creating this version of the Iliad, you could: Homer's own work was recorded and spoken long after any (hypthentical) real Trojan war, and was similarly modernised in the retelling. Logue didn't know Ancient Greek himself, but studied different translations and secondary literature, which seems to me nearly like a prerequisite to writing good translations – I don't know any philologic translation that retains poetry instead of grammar.
Greek mythology – and the Iliad in particular – is steeped in pettiness, in snark, in jealousy and insults. Logue absolutely excels at these. Odysseus calling Achilles "Wondersulk" and the insults Menelaos and Achilles trade are hilarious – but things only really take off when the gods get involved. Just look at this scene where Aphrodite on the one side and Hera and Athene on the other plead with Zeus to side with them:
‘Stuff Greece,’ Love said.
‘Your blubber-bummed wife with her gobstopper nipples
Cannot stand Troy because Troy’s Paris put her last
When we stripped off for him.
As for the Ithacan boat-boy’s undercurved preceptatrix,
She hates Troy because my statue stands on its acropolis.’
Hera: ‘The cities’ whores were taxed to pay for it.’
Love (Dropping onto her knees before Himself):
‘Please … stop them harming Troy. The greatest city in the world.’While Hera and Athene sang:
‘Cleavage! Cleavage!
Queen of the Foaming Hole.
Mammoth or man or midge
She sucks from pole to pole.’
In many places, Logue keeps his lyrical expressions to a form that resonates with ancient works: "Briseis in their midst / Her breasts so lovely that they envy one another." wouldn't have been written by Homer, but I can see it in an Aristophanes comedy or a lewd Latin poem. Similarly, "And it was here that Thestor, Enop’s boy / Met that circumstance in nature / Gods call Fate, and on this day, men called Patroclus." is just the right amount of wordplay and gravitas. And "O my Lord / Please do not fart. You are a powerful man / And perished sails blow out." is pure Greek comedy.
And then there's the spot-on characterisations that betray the modern grounding. What better to describe the mounting tension before a battle, than "The armies hum / As power-station outflow cables do.". Hear "As many arrows on his posy shield / As microphones on politicians’ stands:", and you know exactly what to picture. ‘Laid his trunk open from shoulder to hip – / Like a beauty-queen’s sash.’ is brutal, yes (the whole book shows that Logue knows how brutal and unappetising war is), and wonderfully evocative. And these modern comparisons mix very well with the epic nature of the book: Describing gods as "With faces like NO ENTRY signs they hurried through the clouds." feels *good*. Or maybe my favourite example:
Picture a yacht
Canting at speed
Over ripple-ribbed sand.
Change its mast to a man,
Change its boom to a bow,
Change its sail to a shield:
Notice Merionez.
And all that is hilarious and cool and fun – but don't get me wrong: Logue also knows that he's telling an epic history, and he does it well. An early commentary on Achilles is: "And he for whom / Fighting was breath, was bread / Remained beside his ships / And hurt his honour as he nursed his wrong." – and when the gods decide to take an active part among humans, the poem – as it should – conveys honest awe. Logue understood the myth and produced a true translation – true in spirit, and I'm very sad it had to remain unfinished.
italo_carlvino's review against another edition
5.0
War Music is an original, dynamic, anachronistic, stylish, tongue-and-cheek, and striking version of the Iliad. I loved the retelling. Though some sections in the middle were a bit underwhelming compared to to the beginning and ending sections, but a fantastic poem overall.