This is written almost like a poem. I loved the descriptions of ancient Rome, from the mosaics on the walls to the fierce animals living underneath the city. Interestingly, I liked this book enough to read it twice, but my book club members didn't particularly care for it.

This book had a slow start. But once it took off I couldn’t stop thinking about it. Very suspenseful and dramatic. Which I think is eloquent considering who it’s about. An interesting read.

Yay I finished!

Disappointing. To me, this book was more magical realism than historical fiction--I suppose those who believe in supernatural magic (as opposed to herbs and knowledge) might not get turned off. And I might have enjoyed it more if she had made up her own characters, rather than using actual people.

Not bad per say, but a very slow read. *yawn*

I read this because it was referenced in an online course on historical fiction.

“Two offenses ruined me,” wrote Ovid, “a poem and an error.”

Using the technique of many successful historical novelists, Jane Alison takes a mystery that has remained unsolved through the ages and provides an intriguing solution. Ovid, the Roman poet best known for his masterwork The Metamorphoses, was exiled to the remote island of Tomis in 8 AD for reasons unknown. In Alison’s haunting interpretation, the poem is Medea, of which only two lines remain, and the error involves a witch and mystic from the far reaches of the Empire who becomes Ovid’s tragic muse.

After incurring the wrath of Emperor Augustus, who was upset by the indecency of his recently published erotic book, The Art of Love, Ovid travels to the Black Sea’s eastern shores for respite and inspiration. There he meets Xenia, a young woman with yellow-grey eyes and wild, glassy hair who seems to personify his most heartfelt fictional creations. Xenia, who lives apart from the native Phasians in this already isolated country, has the ability to glimpse the future, and what she foresees for Ovid’s legacy is extraordinary.

Enraptured by his poetry as well as by the man himself, Xenia wonders what it might be like to be “loved by the love-artist,” to be the woman who inspires his next masterpiece. She’ll soon get her wish. Ovid, craving the immortality that Xenia seems to promise, brings her back with him to Rome. There he'll craft his new work under the secret patronage of the emperor’s granddaughter, Julia, who hates Augustus for forcing her into an unwanted marriage. Ovid has never written a tragedy before. But with Julia’s vengeful ambition urging him on, and Xenia’s apparent willingness to serve his interests, he believes he may have what it takes…

Ovid has the name recognition to attract readers to the story, but the novel as a whole belongs to Xenia. Trapped in a web of mutual obsession, she finds herself led towards a devastating finale -- unless she can use her mystical talents and innate intelligence to break away and save herself. Her journey, as she slowly awakens to Ovid’s plans, is suspenseful and engrossing. The atmosphere is dark, eerie, and electrically charged.

Alison shapes her language in ways that create striking and sensual impressions in the mind. Her carefully chosen images brilliantly illustrate Ovid’s hunger for the theatre of Rome: “The stage would be glowing saffron red, and there would be the murmur of all the voices, and the intricate hairstyles, and the bare shoulders, and the messages flying, and the swift, appreciative glances, and the limb-weakening applause, which has often been for him…”

In exploring the dangerous intersections between art and life, between the poem and the poet, Alison has created a highly original work that evokes the majesty of the imperial Roman world and the price exacted in the quest for literary fame.

Originally posted at Reading the Past.

I normally enjoy fiction that brings literary figures to life, but this novel about the Roman poet Ovid was a great disappointment. The prose was overwrought and I didn't care a whit about any of the characters!

I’m not sure why it’s taken almost the entire book for me to realize I’m not enjoying this book. Plus I have a tendency to speed read books I feel this about, which only makes it worse because I miss details. But I think there is a tad bit more inference happening for me to thoroughly grasp with my current attention span. I’m reading just to finish the last maybe 50 ish pages. I mean imma gonna finish it doesn’t suck. And there’s your quote, people. Imma gonna finish it doesn’t suck. I think I was hoping for more Ovid and his writing process and inspiration. Not so much. Both characters walk around slowly falling farther and farther apart just a natural progression in a relationship that should have never been. And I mean that because as far as I can tell neither of them is really plot thickening material.

Favorite quotes, phrases, moments:

- [re Athens] “but the weariness of it all irritated him, how handled it had been. All the monuments, artifacts, sightseers, guides.”
- Ovid likes (wants to relate to??) Paris; of course he does
- “Unreal characters, part fantasy, part myth, flirting through transformation: girls who, running, became water or trees, boys who dissolve into their reflections”
- Ovids objectification of the Amazon’s. Very on brand (with Alison’s Ovid).
- “What is it that makes the prehistoric - the pristine - seem not old but new.”
- How myth is imbedded into the landscape of the Black Sea
- “What he makes of me must be … heroic”
- “He asked after Ovid’s work but spoke of his own”
- “A windy sentence”
- “Seeing and hearing … the mirrors and echoes of things”
- Philomela’s tongue. Lacewings says that the tongue - cut out but still alive - symbolizes Ovid’s words living on. But in the now it could seem more ironic, him  writing about the experience of being virtually voiceless.
- “Who willed herself reckless into art”
- “To break the laws of nature … so much more than the laws of men.”
- The LIVED EXPERIENCE of landscape paintings and wall art “good for silences those walls; all the stories were distracting.”
- “A statues disdainful marble expression”
- “Gifts are always dense with significance, their ribbons trailing back to the finger of the bestower”
- “She was at the bottom of history. So much was still to come.”
- “Caged in his own laughing self”
- “Perhaps she’d fly” !!!

I got about thirds of the way through this before giving up. I had read enough real history, as well as book reviews, to understand what would happen and finally decided I didn't care.

This was an ambitious first novel for Ms. Alison, and I praise her for doing such a wonderful job in constructing so rich a tale from the mysteries of long ago. Hers is a fascinating account of Ovid, his fate, and the fate of his lost Medea. Culminating with the simultaneous exile of Ovid and Julia from Rome, this novel is hugely imaginative while ever-so-gently exploring immortality and power from the male and female perspective. The prose is beautiful and eloquent. Not once did I feel it to be overdone or heavily laden with the knowledge and references of a classicist. The Love-Artist lyrically breathes life into the mysteries surrounding Ovid as Pygmalion brought life to his Galatea. It is THAT captivating. Ms. Alison herself is brilliantly mysterious in her writing, making the story even more enchanting. This is a story that will not soon leave me, and will have me thinking for many years to come: what if?

I look forward to reading more of Ms. Alison's work and will be following this up with Malouf's An Imaginary Life!

Loved the first two parts. The narrative voice was so unique and perfect for this fantastical story. I was completely immersed in the world created by Alison. Part three was thematically tough, and so the narrative style didn't flow as freely, but the ending was satisfying. A unique book that I won't soon forget.

An extravagant story about the quest for immortality, through art. Ovid sees himself gaining immortality as an artist and Xenia sees herself gaining immortality through his depiction of her in his art. He suffers banishment from all he adores, as a result of his ruthless pursuit of the powerful but horrendous story of Medea. Xenia successfully protects herself from Ovid's unholy plans and returns to her self-exile, wiser and satisfied that his earlier work may be immortal, but his Medea is still-born. The language is remarkable and the exploration of the celebrity artist as a hobbled human being is quite haunting. The story suffers from the theatricality of the relationship between the two main characters, a marble cold distance that lust and common need cannot bridge. This is effective, but the lack of touching human moments keeps the reader at a distance as well.