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Title: The Athenian Murders by Jose Carlos Somoza, Sonia Soto ISBN: 0-374-10677-0 Publisher: Farrar Straus & Giroux Pub. Date: 03 June, 2002 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $24.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.33 (6 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Much more than a mystery novel
Comment: One of the most original new works of fiction of this past year is THE ATHENIAN MURDERS. It is a multifaceted and multilayered novel that is much more than an historical mystery. The story concerns the translator as much as the Greek characters. Ultimately, it asks the question, what is reality?
In Ancient Greece, the body of a young man turns up in a field and is initially assumed to be the result of a hunting accident. The body was consumed by wolves. However, Diogoros, the youth's tutor at the academy, wants the death investigated. He hires Heracles Pontor who is called "the Decipherer of Enigmas" to look into the matter. Diogoros decides to accompany Herakcles and so we have the investigator and his foil (or Watson). As more bodies start turning up, it soon becomes apparent that there is no question that a murder did occur .
At the same time, the translator begins to notice more and more of the text is aimed almost directly at himself and conveys that to the reader by his use of footnotes. This subplot eventually becomes as critical as the actual text of the novel.
THE ATHENIAN MURDERS is not simply a murder mystery. It is much deeper than that. It questions our very existence and, as such, becomes almost a philosophical treatise. The presence of Plato lends added weight to the ideas espoused. This unique novel was nominated for two separate dagger awards by the CWA of Great Britain. It was nominated for the Gold Dagger for crime fiction, as well as, the Ellis Peters Award for best historical mystery novel. This should indicate how hard it is to truly categorize. However, one thing in which there is little doubt is that it is a truly superior reading experience albeit somewhat unfocused.
Rating: 5
Summary: Brilliant! Stunningly intelligent
Comment: "The Cave of Ideas", this book's title in the original Spanish, is actually a far better one; certainly more apt. "The Athenian Murders" doesn't quite bring across the right tone that of a viciously intelligent piece of a philosophy. It more creates the impression of a simple historical whodunit, which is rather misleading. For it is FAR more than that, and anyone who picks up this book just wanting an enjoyable historical novel may find themselves confounded. Because this book is, as that original title suggests, a novel of ideas. It is not just a piece of philosophy, this book IS philosophy.
It's set-up is original and brilliant, leading to the fact that we actually have here TWO first-person narrators. One, Diagoras, is a contemporary of Plato, a pedagogue at his academy in Athens. He is writing an account concerning the brutal murder of one of the sons of a leading Athenian dignitary. His body was found on a wooden hillside, and the condition of the corpse initially leads the discovers to think he has been savaged by wolves. Diagoras calls in the "Decipherer of Enigmas", Heracles Pontor (note the initials!) to help investigate the murder. Our second narrator is the modern-day translator of this ancient Greek manuscript, who speaks to us only through his footnotes as he translates the text. Gradually, as he works, another story appears to be emerging in the writing, buried in layers of hidden meaning. It seems that there is a message beneath the main story, and the unnamed translator grows obsessed by it. The more he translates, the deeper the roots seem to extend, until eventually the astonishing, confounding truth is revealed...
This is probably the most important literary thriller since Donna Tartt's The Secret History, or Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose. It won the UK's CWA Gold Dagger for Best Crime Novel of the year, and I don't think there has ever been a more deserving winner. This is the writer's sixth novel, but his English language debut, and it marks out a remarkable, astounding talent. It is incredibly hard to convey the sheer quality of this text (somehow that word seems more appropriate than "novel") is without revealing its brilliance, the stunning, jaw-dropping final revelation which shafts this novel into the stratosphere of brilliant works of literature and ideas. As I say, though this starts as a philosophical novel, with meaning within meaning, with its end it actually BECOMES a genuine piece of actual philosophy itself. It's ending explodes it into the category, "masterpiece". It's definitely a book for the thinking-reader, though, some of the ideas explored take time to get your head around, and I'm sure that the end can provoke hours of thought, cogs turning round and round in the brain. It did for me, certainly. However, there is more to this brilliant mystery than just its end; don't let my effusive praise deceive you!
The historical sections are fascinating, wonderfully detailed; crafted with the love of a scholar. They're not overbearing, though, and they only add to the story and the characters. It's also worth assuring you that Somoza balances the two parallel stories brilliantly. Never is there more importance placed on the truth of the ancient mystery than there is on the truth of the modern one, so effortless does he temper them, balance them. Nor does he allow the interjections of the "translator" to interrupt the flow of the mystery too much. It happens a little, but that is to be expected, I suppose.
This is a brilliant novel of stories within stories, circles within circles. It isn't for you if you like your crime fiction straightforward and cosy (as well as being complex, there are one or two slightly brutal themes), but if you like to be forced to think, then this is the best novel you could have the wisdom to select!
Rating: 4
Summary: Into the Cave of Ideas
Comment: Readers who love historical mysteries set in ancient times, such as Stephen Saylor or Lindsey Davis's Roman series, may well find themselves adrift in this postmodern metafiction riddle whose original Spanish title, "The Cave of Ideas" more accurately presages the contents. At first, the book appears to be a translation of an ancient whodunit. The mutilated body of one of Plato's students is discovered outside Athens and his tutor engages Heracles, The Decipherer of Enigmas (i.e. detective), to find out what happened. However, the anonymous translator's notes soon start to intrude, as he excitedly notes that the ancient whodunit apparently contains "eidesis", a literary technique allegedly used by the ancient Greeks to convey secret messages in texts.
As the book progresses, the two narratives become more an more entwined. It's difficult to describe further without spoiling it, but essentially, the translator grows increasingly convinced the manuscript contains a personal message for him, and his footnotes grow correspondingly lengthy and agitated. The mystery in ancient Greece progresses in relatively pedestrian fashion, with more bodies following the first, and a running argument concerning the merits of empirical reason vs. Platonic philosophy as additional food for thought. However, the mystery of the tale's translator begins to eclipse it. Switching back and forth between the two narrative lines takes some getting used to, but the device will be familiar to readers of Eco and Borges, among others and is integral to the book.
Somoza is plays a tricky game, stringing the reader along with the dual narratives, only to land a wallop of a suckerpunch at the end. His literary devices are nothing new, and nor is his ultimate point (which can't be revealed here), but it's a clever book, bound to entertain and please plenty of folks, especially those with an interest in ancient Greek philosophy.
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Title: All Roads Lead to Murder: A Case from the Notebooks of Pliny the Younger by Albert A. Bell Jr., William Martin Johnson ISBN: 097130453X Publisher: High Country Publishers, Ltd. Pub. Date: October, 2002 List Price(USD): $21.95 |
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Title: The Winter Queen : A Novel by Boris Akunin, Andrew Bromfield ISBN: 1400060494 Publisher: Random House Pub. Date: 06 May, 2003 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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Title: The Evening of the World: A Novel of the Dark Ages by Allan Massie ISBN: 0753813106 Publisher: Phoenix Pub. Date: March, 2003 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
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Title: The Dante Club : A Novel by Matthew Pearl ISBN: 0375505296 Publisher: Random House Pub. Date: 04 February, 2003 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title: Dark Matter: The Private Life of Sir Isaac Newton by Philip Kerr ISBN: 0609609815 Publisher: Crown Pub. Date: 01 October, 2002 List Price(USD): $24.00 |
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