Helen of Troy by Margaret George book review

 Helen of Troy 

By Margaret George (2006)

(800 pages Kindle Digital Edition)

Rating : 2/5 

Genres : Historical,  Mythology,  Greeks, Trojan war.

WARNING!!! STAY AWAY FROM THIS PIECE OF DESPICABLE WORK !! 

The worst book on the Trojan war I have come across!! 🤢🤢🤢

I stopped reading and decided to shelve this at 50 percent of the book.(I am glad I didn't splurge money on buying a hardcopy like I initially intended to!) 

It is an understatement to say that I am just disappointed! I feel cheated and played. I had such high hopes for this! Having read her 'Memoirs of Cleopatra', I wanted to get dragged hopelessly into the world of ancient Greece and get a new look at this most retold old tale. Such books are like fiction within fiction - because the existence of Helen and the occurrence of Trojan War could have been artistic creations of Homer. The intricate details within the story are the added speculation,fantasy - adding layers and putting pieces of puzzle together. This is where Margaret George has to show her imagination/creative potential and in my opinion she utterly failed to impress!

What I thought went wrong? 

The length of the book is over 800 pages. I would have appreciated if it was much shorter. I didn't need all the nitty gritty details of what preparations regularly went into the war and the casualties suffered by either side. I merely wanted to see how Helen would be portrayed. Some call her selfish and cruel(Margaret Atwood), some assumed her to be indifferent and totally hedonistic (Pat Barker), but she ultimately is a demi-goddess. She has to be endowed with something, some ethereal and transcendental quality that can't be defined/captured on paper. But Margaret George has reduced her to the stature of a normal woman with the most beautiful face. That's the only divine trait defining her. I just couldn't accept this degradation. She is a goddess and should behave like one! 

This book is well readable until it hits the point where the greek ships arrive on the shores of Troy and hardly after that. She got lost in the details and missed highlighting the main points. Its like getting lost in the trees and missing the view of the forest. The story of Troy eschewing the roles played by Gods is inconceivable and yet the divine Helen doesnt even seem perceptible to their presence and the sides they favored. 

I didnt feel interested in the fate of Trojans or Helen with the descriptive superficiality and shallowness of the war. I would have liked to see raw and genuine Helen even in a part of selfish and self serving splendor  - like a version of Cersei Lannister of GOT series or Amazing Amy from the Gone Girl book. Who said a heroine can't be negative? Can't be the villain? Why make her good and spoil the fun of an accepted perspective? How wildly entertaining that could have been! Alas, I can only think!