In this post, my goal is to explain an overall summary of the book, House of Names and its author, Colm Tóibín. Colm, an Irishman who began writing shortly after the death of his father, at the age of 12 according to, https://www.chipublib.org/colm-toibin-biography/. He spent some time in Barcelona, but returned to Ireland where his career as a travel writer and journalist took off according to https://www.britannica.com/biography/Colm-Toibin.
In 2017, he wrote The House of Names, which is a retelling of the ancient Greek play,The Oresteia. In this article, https://www.supersummary.com/house-of-names/summary/, we see that Colm tells the story of Agamemnon and the curse followed by the family but with a modern twist to it. Although Tóibín makes this his own version, the theme of female struggle and desire to be heard is still very prominent according to https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/House-of-Names/Colm-Toibin/9781501140228. Though she was previously on the hunt for vengeance, in the House of Names, Clytemnestra is a distraught and grieving mother in Colm’s version of the story. Through readings of https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/may/27/house-of-names-colm-toibin-review,we learn about Tóibín’s modern take on this book still holds true to the storyline from the Aeschylus play. This is done in order for Clytemnestra to tell her story as she awaits for Agamemnon's return from Troy so that she can murder him. A very intense storyline, in my opinion. Through research, I also found that Tóibín’s works often depict similar themes including the depiction of Irish Society, and the preservation of personal identity. These themes are prominent in his work and probably impactful to him as an openly gay man and as an Irish man. In the House of Names, Tóibín further demonstrates the use of these commonly used themes by giving Clytemnestra the opportunity to really show her personal identity and to tell her story, according to, https://www.litlovers.com/reading-guides/fiction/10975-house-of-names-toibin?start=3 .
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In this post, I aim to explain a brief summary of the book Cassandra by Christa Wolf as well as briefly summarizing her impact as an author. In this article, https://spartacus-educational.com/Christa_Wolf.htm we read about Christa Wolf's background and her life in Nazi Germany, which I feel greatly contributes to her writing style and stories. Her experiences certainly impact what and how she writes. https://thebookbindersdaughter.com/2016/12/07/review-cassandra-by-christa-wolf/ Through the above article, we learn about the gift of prophecy which is what has made Cassandra so popular and well known in Greek mythology. This novel by Wolf is "an ambitious novel" as it tries to cover the entirety of the Trojan epic cycle. This article also gives us more insight about the other as a "committed socialist" and discusses awards she has received for her work over the years. According to the article, the jury praised her life's work for "critically questioning hopes and errors of her time and portraying them with deep moral seriousness and narrative power". It is clear that Christa Wolf had a great impact on the world through her work. |
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