Ithaca The exquisite, gripping tale that breathes life into ancient myth

3.25 stars. Having read several Greek myth retellings by different authors, this one struck me as an outlier. The prose is not nearly as beautiful as Miller's, the atmosphere seems less ... fantastical? North seems to have written with the intention of a more realistic play. It's not a bad book, but I had to go below 4 stars, because of one glaring issue that might turn off a lot of people: the men. The majority of men in this book are written as disgusting, pathetic and arrogant, which may very well be an accurate portrayal of that ancient society, but seemed (and sounded) very preachy. Preachy to an annoying extent. More subtlety would've fit better into the fictional novel. Some positive points though are the well-written cleverness of Penelope and her schemes/tricks, as well as some genuinely funny moments/comments throughout that I didn't expect at all in this genre. Book 2 is an improvement on book 1 though (including the character work).