The Memoirs of Helen of Troy

October 3, 2005
Actress and author Leslie Carroll (Miss Match ) checks in under an assumed name for her debut historical. Writing for her abandoned daughter, Hermione, in a rich but sometimes overwrought prose, Helen of Troy recalls her girlhood as a Spartan princess. Her stepfather, Tyndareus, doesn't love her (Helen is the daughter of Leda and Zeus); her sister, Clytemnestra, is jealous of her; her mother introduces her to the old ways of "the Goddess" and then kills herself. Helen grows into a lovely young woman; at 14, she's kidnapped by Theseus. At first miffed he has done so for ransom (she fancies herself the prize), she later falls in love with him, and when her brothers come to save her, she's pregnant with his child. Giving her daughter to Clytemnestra and married off to Menelaus--a rocky union from the start--Helen then falls for visiting Paris. When she runs away with him, it's almost convenient for Menelaus and his brother, Agamemnon--the perfect reason to attack Troy. Though divinely conceived, this Helen is skeptical of those she calls "the sky gods"; she's a study in contrasts generally, all cool analysis and white-hot passion. The problem is that she's not quite convincing as either one or the other, though the story is engrossing.

October 15, 2005
Too often Helen, daughter of Zeus and the woman whose face launched a thousand ships, has been portrayed as an ornamental pawn of the gods. Yet Elyot, drawing on a relativist understanding of early religions and some feminist sympathy, depicts her as a woman of intelligence. This Helen is never oblivious to the violence and devastation but refuses to accept all the blame. Writing her memoirs to her estranged daughter, Hermione, Helen argues that before she was Helen of Troy, she was Helen of Sparta. Her family constellation included her tragic mother, Leda; belligerent sister Clytemnestra; and brothers later known as Castor and Pollex, just for starters. Paris enters the story nearly halfway through the book, adding to the effect that her love affair with him, while intense, was not the focus of her life. Considering that the story of the Trojan War is familiar to many readers, Elyot keeps the action moving with lots of exciting drama. Readers who enjoyed Margaret George's "Memoirs of Cleopatra" will enjoy this fresh take on a legendary woman. The author also writes chick-lit fiction ("Miss Match") under her own name, Leslie Carroll. For all public libraries." -Mary Kay Bird-Guilliams, Wichita P.L., KS"

Copyright 2005 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

September 1, 2005
(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2005, American Library Association.)