Review: Ripper

By Isabel Allende
Translated by Ollie Brock and Frank Wynne
Available now from Harper (HarperCollins)
Review copy

Isabel Allende has a tremendous reputation, and I was excited to see that her latest novel was genre: a thriller.  However, her literary roots are obvious.  The crimes and their investigation tend to take a background to character vignettes and digressions.

At first, I thought that RIPPER would focus on teenage Amanda and her leadership of a group of kids (and her grandfather) determined to research true crimes.  But the book quickly turns its focus to her mother, Indiana, and Indiana's various loves, customers/patients, and friends.  Although Indiana seems entirely peripheral to the crimes, it doesn't take a great detective to realize she'll be central at the end.  (It's that fact that gave away who the killer was for me, although there was a brief moment where I doubted my own guess.)

Thus, RIPPER took awhile to capture my attention.  There was much flipping between a large cast, and I didn't find Indiana all that compelling.  She's a touch too beloved by every other character.  However, I read it while waiting for car repairs, which forced me to push through and eventually fall into the rhythm of the novel.

I particularly liked the setting.  RIPPER is set in San Francisco and makes good use of the city's various neighborhoods, social classes, gay friendliness, and reputation for hippie-ness.  Also, the various characters seemed to connect in natural ways, although it took awhile to put together who knew who and how.  To be fair, that seemed to be Allende's design.

I think that RIPPER has a bit too much literary fiction in its blood to be a truly compelling thriller.  The same details about the crimes are endlessly rehashed, and since the police characters aren't the focus, there's rarely an actual scene with someone discovering a new clue, just reporting it.  I must admit, I'd also rather read a novel about ambitious, morbid Amanda than healing, maternal-except-with-her-daughter Indiana.  It was fun to read a thriller that didn't pay much attention to the conventions of its genre.   I enjoyed RIPPER by the end, but think I'd've given up if I had more with me to read.

Review: The Iliad

Companion to The Odyssey
By Homer
Translation by Barry B. Powell
Foreward by Ian Morris
Available now from Oxford UP
Review copy

How do you review a new translation of a classic?  What do you focus on?  I've really struggled with this review, which I thought would be simple.

First, the story of THE ILIAD is as good as ever.  If you've never read it before, you might not know exactly where the story begins and ends since so many episodes (some told in THE ODYSSEY) have become associated with THE ILIAD.  If you've never read any version before, Barry B. Powell's translation is a good one.  The language is modern, although it doesn't try too hard to be modern.  There are plenty of footnotes giving insight into the meanings of certain lines, which helps alleviate the imperfections of translation.

I definitely feel that the introduction, where a new edition can really stand out, is aimed at new readers.  It covers the geography, history of Greek writing, and other historical tidbits that contextualize THE ILIAD and are helpful to understanding the story and the style.  There's nothing too deep, and Powell makes a baffling reference to the Dark Ages.  There is also a brief history of Homeric scholarship, covering such things as the Homeric question and the proof that THE ILIAD was composed orally.  It's a decent overview of the most important bits.

Powell also explains his choices about the translation, which is nice.  His goal was to hew as closely to the Greek as possible, but he left some of the familiar Latin names because it would be too distracting to change them.  It's definitely information that would help a student out.  I think the balance between faithfulness and modernization was well done, but your mileage may vary.  

I am a fan of the Robert Fagles' translation (1990), which still sounds contemporary and has a nice emphasis on action.  I know some people feel that Fagles takes too many liberties, but I like it.  The other modern translation people are likely to be familiar with, Robert Fitzgerald (1974), I don't like.  I find it way too stiff.  I felt that Powell's was closer to Fagles' in readability, which is a good thing.  But no two people translate THE ILIAD the same way, and there are plenty of differences.  I think it would be fun to read both simultaneously and compare their interpretations, but I personally don't have the time.

I though Powell's version of Homer's THE ILIAD was fresh and easy to read.  The introductory matter will have the most appeal to readers who are totally unfamiliar with THE ILIAD, but hey, it is just an introduction.  The footnotes are nice and the prose flows easily.  I'm sure many classes will adopt this text, especially after Powell's translation of THE ODYSSEY comes out next year.