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S'està carregant… Ransom (2009)de David Malouf
![]() No hi ha cap discussió a Converses sobre aquesta obra. This slim book is a lyrically written story that zooms in on one small portion of The Iliad. It focuses on the episode in which Achilles kills Hector in battle after Hector has killed Achilles’ beloved friend Patroclus. Malouf has constructed a detailed story around King Priam’s journey from Troy to Achilles’ camp to retrieve Hector’s body, which is only mentioned in a few lines of The Iliad. It illuminates storytelling – the way stories are told, repeated, and linger in memory. I particularly enjoyed the characterization of the carter and his mules. It emphasizes our common humanity no matter our differences. To fully appreciate it, the reader may want to be at least familiar with the story of Achilles. I found it a beautiful story of grief and redemption, and will be checking out Malouf’s catalogue. Very interesting reworking of The Iliad. Beautiful as always, Malouf. Underappreciated. An incredible book. David Malouf has built a thing of beauty, from the sentence up.
"While Malouf can write brilliantly in the "low" register of a Somax or describe nature with a Wordsworthian attentiveness, he is equally convincing in suggesting the grave diction of epic, as when Priam reflects on what the immortal gods can never experience -- the sweetness inherent in our transient human lives, but also the sorrow..." That this tender novel lingers so long and hauntingly in the mind is a testament both to Malouf’s poetry and to his reverence for the endless power of myth. "As it is, Ransom falls between the two stools: neither true enough to Homer, nor sufficiently untrue to him either."
David Malouf shines new light on Homer's Iliad, adding twists and reflections, as well as flashes of earthy humour, to surprise and enchant. In this exquisite gem of a novel, Achilles is maddened by grief at the death of his friend Patroclus. From the walls of Troy, King Priam watches the body of his son, Hector, being dragged behind Achilles's chariot. There must be a way, he thinks, of reclaiming the body - of pitting compromise against heroics, new ways against the old, and of forcing the hand of fate. Dressed simply and in a cart pulled by a mule, an old man sets off for the Greek camp ...Lyrical, immediate and heartbreaking Malouf's fable engraves the epic themes of the Trojan war onto a perfect miniature - themes of war and heroics, hubris and humanity, chance and fate, the bonds between soldiers, fathers and sons, all newly burnished and brilliantly recast for our times. No s'han trobat descripcions de biblioteca. |
Cobertes populars
![]() GèneresClassificació Decimal de Dewey (DDC)823.914 — Literature English {except North American} English fiction Modern Period 1901-1999 1945-1999LCC (Clas. Bibl. Congrés EUA)ValoracióMitjana:![]()
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David Malouf’s Ransom is a spectacular, moving novel. It is set at the siege of Troy, following the duel between Hector and Achilles, which resulted in Hector’s death. In a rage, Achilles hooked Hector’s body to a cart and dragged it across the ground for several days in view of Troy. After much reflection, Troy’s King Priam sets off in an old ox-cart laden with treasure to ransom and beg back the body of his son from Achilles. Driven by Somax and his team of mules, the remarkable Beauty and the plain Shock, the book entreats the reader with reflections of life and death, what is it to be in the moment and to embrace our tragic ends foretold by our very being. (