The Silence of the Girls

The silence of the girls / Pat Barker, 291 p. (Advance readers edition)

Barker's Regeneration trilogy, a WWI story, is one of my longtime favorites.  Silence looks again at women, men, and war, this time at a slice of the Iliad story.  The Trojan war is nearly at an end when Briseis, a young Trojan noblewoman, is captured and given to Achilles as a prize.  Told primarily from Briseis' viewpoint with occasional chapters given to Achilles,  the novel at first feels like fairly conventional historical fiction meant (laudably) to illuminate the experience of women in places where those stories have been neglected.  Barker even indulges in an almost-cliche, that of the strong, smart downtrodden woman who carves a small place for herself as a skilled nurse or healer.

So I was underwhelmed for the first two thirds.  Then, as the action intensifies and Briseis becomes a pawn in a dispute between Achilles and Agamemnon, which dispute leads to the death of Achilles' dear friend and lover Patroclus, Barker finds her way to something fresh and good. 

Featuring other Barker trademarks: relentless but realistic gore, a bisexual leading man (Regeneration readers, remember Billy Pryor?), and subtle characterization, especially where Achilles is concerned. I ended up enjoying this thoroughly.