A Novel Idea

February 1, 2006
Gr 9 Up -Just as Geras -s "Troy" (Harcourt, 2001) didn -t actually re-create the "Iliad", "Ithaka" doesn -t tell the story of Odysseus -s voyages. Instead, it focuses on Klymene, a girl in Penelope -s household. She loves Telemachus, who loves Melanthro, a maid; Ikarios, Klymene -s twin, also loves the girl; and a Trojan lad, who has come to Ithaka with one of Penelope -s suitors, loves Klymene. So Aphrodite rules, and she -s so powerful that even Penelope isn -t faithful in this novel. Telemachus doesn -t mature and is manipulated by bad girl Melanthro, who sleeps with the suitors. Despite the length of the book, the ending is rushed. At one point Odysseus and Penelope -s bed, carved out of the trunk of a rooted olive tree, is described as far-famed; how then can it function as the test of Odysseus -s identity when he returns? Penelope sleeps with Odysseus while thinking of her lover, and Klymene tells her Trojan fiancé that she -ll never love any creature as much as she loved the dog Argos. No character is three-dimensional, and setting and language are equally flat. Still, readers looking for a romance novel set in ancient Greece (with pages of Argos -s dreams) will be as pleased with "Ithaka" as they were with "Troy". Others will much prefer Margaret Atwood -s marvelously readable "The Penelopiad" (Canongate, 2005)." -Patricia D. Lothrop, St. George -s School, Newport, RI"

Copyright 2006 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.