Lavinia

[Patrick Mahon]

So, who's read Ursula Le Guin's latest novel, 'Lavinia'?

It has just been shortlisted for the BSFA Best Novel Award, so I'm planning on getting it this weekend, to see what all the fuss is about.

Anyone want to enlighten me first?

 

[Jayaprakash Satyamurthy]

I started reading Lavinia yesterday,better late than never. I'm already halfway through.

It's an imagining of the life of Lavinia, a minor character in Virgil's Aeneid, although she is the woman Aeneas marries after reaching Italy.

This sort of quasi-historical novel is often a hard sell for me, but so far I'm pretty hooked by LevGuin's vivid, thoughtful prose and unique approach to her subject - she has Lavinia narrate her life as something that has really happened, but also as a fictional character grappling with her posterity. It isn't strictly revisionist - Lavinia and Le Guin evince great affection and respect for Virgil and his epic, but it is an attempt to fill the blanks and give a little-known character her due. More when I finish this, which should be pretty soon at this rate.

 

[PrinceAshitaka]

I really loved this book - and it's not usually the sort of thing I liked, but Le Guin bought so much life and love into these characters.. It was amazing..
Though it's also essentially Fan Fiction that Le Guin wrote about the Aeneid, but it it truly wirth the read nonetheless.