BOOK REVIEW: The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker

Hello everyone. Welcome back to Bibliophilia Book Reviews. Today I’m reviewing The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker.

When talking about Troy, we inevitably think about Helen, the daughter of Zeus and once wife of Menelaus, king of Sparta, and all the deaths that were laid out at her feet. But was it really her fault? After all, she was promised to a man other than her husband against her will, and there is not much you can do when the goddess of love forces you upon another. Why did no one launch a war for the aggrieved nymph Oonone, Paris’s first wife, after he left her for Helen? Why is it frowned upon when a woman leaves her husband for another man but completely fine for a man to leave his wife for another woman? What is more, I don’t think that a lot of people know about Oonone. So, was it really Helen’s fault that Aphrodite promised Paris the most beautiful woman in the world (even though she was already married) if he chose her as the most beautiful goddess over her rivals Athena and Hera? Was it her fault that Paris’s choice provoked the kings of Greece into attacking Troy? Why is it only Menelaus, and his honor, who must be avenged?

Nobody mentions the women. And a lot of women’s lives were affected by the Trojan War, not just Helen’s. Nobody says that when a city falls, the women and children of that city lose everything; their husbands and family, their homes, their status, and their freedom; some even lose their lives but for many, dying is preferable than living hell. Women are plunder, and this is something that Pat Barker brings to the forefront in The Silence of the Girls. Following the intent of giving a voice to the women of Troy, this book attempts to show us that war is something more than the glory and renown men fight for; more than the reputation it will give to those who kill and conquer. War is about the women too, and the suffering, grief, fear, and death that they experience by it.

Great Achilles. Brilliant Achilles, shining Achilles, godlike Achilles…How the epithets pile up. We never called him any of those things; we called him “the butcher.”

Briseis, the captured queen of Lyrnessus, a vassal kingdom of Troy, and Achilles’s war prize after he kills the king of Lyrnessus and burns the city, is the main character of The Silence of the Girls, and it is through her point of view that we experience events related in the original poem. Briseis is the perfect narrator for a story such as this, but at the same time she is not. Here’s why. She is a noble Trojan woman, so she represents all other royal women of Troy who will become trophies of war, yet, at the same time, she is none of those other women. She is not Helen, Andromache, Hecuba, Polyxena, or any of the other women living inside the walls of Troy at the time of the city’s fall. She is a woman who has already been through what the women of Troy will experience once the Greeks capture them as spoils of war, and this gives her a perspective that the women inside the city do not have; that of a slave. But Briseis is none of those other women in the sense that the women of Troy are the ultimate prize, the prize that signifies the end of the war.

Particularly, I liked Briseis’ character well enough and watching the events of The Iliad occur from her perspective (as a slave in the Greek camp) was a refreshing take from the source material itself, which focused primarily on Achilles’ wrath over Agamenon’s poor leadership and for appropriating Briseis as his own, an affront that Achilles likened to Paris stealing away Helen from Menelaus, on the fighting (when there was fighting), and on how the gods intervened in those battles on behalf of their favorites. In the second part of the book, however, we get Achilles’ point of view (in third person limited), and I must confess I wasn’t a big fan of these chapters. Though I understand their importance. After all, this is a retelling of Homer’s epic poem, and the main character of The Iliad is Achilles. But if the author’s intent is to give a voice to the women of Troy, then making Achilles a point of view character in the book ultimately deters from this. However, The Iliad is about the wrath of Achilles and some of the passages in the poem, such as the funeral games for Patroclus, need to be told from Achilles’s point of view because women in antiquity couldn’t attend funerals. However, these chapters change the book. Henceforth, it is no longer about the women trying to get out the straitjacket of silence thrust upon them and tell the story in their own voice, it is about how that silence was imposed on them.

The focus of the story shifts. The main character now is Achilles. And the narration suffers for it. Like I said, I understand that some passages of the poem need to be told from a male perspective, but in this case, adding Achilles as a point of view character did not help the purpose of the book. Briseis shifts to the background and her perspective as Agamemnon’s slave adds no value to the story. She spends most of her time as such helping Ritsa with the injured in the hospital tent or wallowing and hoping that Agamemnon doesn’t give her to his men. Ultimately, I understand why this happened. The Silence of the Girls is a retelling of The Iliad, and Homer’s epic poem is a treaty on warfare. Briseis is a slave, and her position as such doesn’t make her the best narrator for passages like the one where Patroclus talks to Nestor and the old king suggests to Patroclus that he don Achilles’s armor to push the Trojans back from the Achaean ships or where Patroclus asks Achilles for permission to lead the Myrmidons into battle. The Iliad is about avenging Achilles’s honor and giving him the glory that was promised to him if he sailed to Troy and fought to get Helen back. In the poem, Achilles’s anger “over a girl” changes in the later books of the poem to grief and wrath over the loss of Patroclus and revenge for his best friend’s death. Briseis is given back to Achilles, yes, but Achilles’s affront at losing his “wife” is nothing compared to losing Patroclus, and the hero’s anger at being dishonored by Agamemnon is easily put aside for his wrath and want of revenge for losing Patroclus.

This book is a re-read for me, and the last couple of times I read it I gave it a New Favorite rating. However, this time I picked it up when I was also reading The Iliad and I was able to see how Pat Barker recounted the most important parts of the poem in The Silence of the Girls, and hands down the best part of the entire book is Part I. Sadly, the inclusion of Achilles’ point of view from Part II onwards changed the rating for me and it went down to I Like It And Will Probably Read It Again. The book isn’t bad, and I did not dislike it but this was my lowest rated book this month. I will, however, continue on with the series.