Lavinia (Le Guin, Ursula) 2008

In Lavinia, Le Guin does for a minor character in Vergil's Aeneid what Jean Rhys does for a minor character in Bronte's Jane Eyre: give her a life beyond the quick sketch written by the original author, while also providing an alternative viewpoint on the "main" story.


Very roughly, the first third of the novel describes Lavinia's life prior to her entrance in the Aeneid, the middle third recounts events of the Aeneid from her point of view (though this is really more like a fourth or fifth of the book rather than a full third), and the latter third shows her life after the Aeneid.  Most of the novel is a perfectly fine if unexceptional semi-historical fiction, and I was put in mind of Renault's books on Alexander the Great, though Le Guin is a far more accomplished author.  The novel really shines during Lavinia's encounters with a shadow of Vergil: these are beautifully written musings on the connections between the living and the (not-quite) dead, reality and fiction and vision, and across boundaries of time and place.

[reading completed 9/7/9]