Helen of Troy by Margaret George

I don't consider myself a fan of mythology, which is odd considering how much I enjoyed the survey we had of Roman & Greek mythology in high school. But I've forgotten much of it, and I never read any of the Greek classics--I felt that their synopses were quite enough.

This book is enough to get me to change my mind--to at least go and find a palatable version of Bullfinch's Mythology and trace the different families and family trees. I really enjoyed the humanized Helen, and how Margaret George chose to re-work the Iliad and Odyssey to include the humans' voices, but exclude the gods'.

I loved the perspective that it wasn't undying love that started the Trojan War, but a war-hungry king anxious for his own glory.

I loved its explanation of how the Trojans could be fooled by a giant wooden horse.

I think I actually benefitted from NOT knowing the stories of Helen or Paris or Menelaus (except from the movie Troy--and I had a hard time imagining Achilles as not having the face of Brad Pitt, though it was easy to not picture Orlando Bloom as Paris)--each unfolding element in the story was new and surprising and had literary integrity.