It relates the life of Lavinia, a minor character in Virgil's epic poem the Aeneid. Of course, it’s a good book, its by Ursula Le Guin. The Aeneid gives scant attention to women apart from Carthage’s queen Dido, wracked with love for the Trojan exile Aeneas, and the goddess Juno, forever scheming to thwart his plans as he tries to establish a new Troy in Latin lands. Ursula le Guin's Lavinia is a version of the 'Aeneid’ where women rather than warriors take the lead, finds John Garth Ursula LeGuin is faithful to the actual geography of Italy at the Tiber's mouth while spinning a fanciful tale only hinted at by Virgil, myth brought to life. However, I really struggled in the beginning, and it took me a long time to actually warm up to the book and start reading. Celebrating literature’s power to outlive and outgrow its creators, this novel is neither a complaint against an old dead white male nor a slavish imitation of his work.
Her mother wants her to marry handsome, ambitious Turnus. Le Guin, and Lavinia, take Virgil to task for his omissions but this isn’t just a scolding. With her new novel Lavinia, fantasy and science fiction virtuoso Ursula K. Le Guin vividly fills in some of the blanks in Virgil's Aeneid. However, while I loved the male-authored, male-centered tales of Arthur (by White, Malory, etc), I did not like the Aeneid. It's a decent story, but not the most interesting of LeGuin's books. Otherwise, you'll be mostly disappointed.
For these people, to do an act that is against this inner directive is so unthinkable that the word for it, is never used. tirelessly in air bases scattered throughout Britain to thwart the Nazis Her achievement is to complement the original epic so distinctively, as if in a dialogue or dance with the poet who inspired her. She has a rare talent for creating characters and worlds that somehow effortlessly come alive. Of course, it’s a good book, its by Ursula Le Guin. It’s almost impossible not to, because it’s so wide-ranging, so clever and so beautifully written. We are brought back to the original meanings of words, of "awe" or "pagan" or "piety", and even of "Mars" yet "Lares" and "Penates" are never defined...presumably because we can look them up in any dictionary.As a child, I read Ursula Le Guin’s Earthsea Quartet, which I loved for its wizards and fantasy (I hope to reread it soon).
LeGuin takes Lavinia’s brief mention and runs with it, opening with Lavinia’s childhood, then there’s arrival of Aeneas and his Trojans, their marriage, the founding of Lavinium, war… Throughout, Lavinia visits a sacred grove, where she talks to the ghost of “the poet”, who is clearly Virgil (who lived over a thousand years later – some of the references by him to “the future” do initially suggest something a little more science-fictional, but no). Le Guin shows her storytelling mastery as she creates a beautiful story about a minor character in Virgil's AENEID. I didn't like her "poet" (a specter of Virgil), and my favorite parts where when she went "off-book" (that is, basically anything said by Lavinia, as Virgil deprived her of a voice). Troy has fallen. In that sense, this is a thought-provoking and inspiring novel. This is the kind of book that makes you wish you'd had a classical education. She so evidently has a voice, and Vergil knew how to listen to women; but he didn’t have time to listen to her. I thought it was interesting how Le Guin creates a character who is aware that she is the creation of a poet, but lives her life to the fullest. They found a new city called Lavinia herself retreats from the world and at the end seems to have turned into an owl. departs from her award-winning fantasy and science-fiction novels to amplify a story told only glancingly in Virgil’s epic The Aeneid. Lavinia is a fully fleshed out character.
Lavinia's strength is the depth of Le Guin's imagination. The novel is rich with detail, and Le Guin's scholarship evident. This book tells the story of the men and women of Fighter Command who worked Lavinia grows up knowing nothing but peace and freedom, until suitors come. So she gains her own voice, learning how to tell the story Vergil left untold — her story, her life, and the love of her life.“With this characteristically graceful retelling of the final stages of Virgil’s “...through the elusive voice that speaks here, shifting and uncoiling like a thread of smoke in still air, Le Guin addresses a wide range of issues — the use of power, the differences (as always!) focussing on the key events, decisions and moments in Churchill's life ‘Very, very slowly,’ she said in an interview. This is a work of passion, written with cool expertise: a cracker.”“Le Guin cleverly and playfully... asserts Lavinia as a real person in her own right, while at the same time leaving her subject to her immutable role in “Her achievement is to complement the original epic so distinctively, as if in a dialogue or dance with the poet who inspired her.”“She is a social novelist in the best sense of the term [...] her ultimate concern is with the real world.