Book Review: Stone Blind

   By Natalie Haynes

• Pub Date: 2022

• Where I bought this book: Barnes & Noble, Florence, Ky. 

• Why I bought this book: Retold mythologies are quickly becoming my favorite stories

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    Mythological stories destroy the maxim: It is the tale, not she who tells it.

    In one corner, we have Ovid (First Century BCE and CE, Rome), who describes Medusa as a monster, and Hesiod (Eighth Century BCE, Greece), who tells how Perseus bravely slew her to protect the people of Greece from her wanton ways.

    Decently told tales they are.

     Now, along comes Natalie Haynes (present day, England), to present a different version: Medusa was a kind and loving sister of the Gorgons, Sthenno and Euryale. Perseus, meanwhile, was a silly, scared, and spineless boy who needed help from several gods to carry out his bloody deed.

    Haynes is a witty and sarcastic writer. She breathes new life into these tales with a caustic eye and a feminist perspective. She tells them tale in many voices, from Athene to Euryale to Andromeda. We even hear from Zeus and Poseidon.*

   Oh, and about those gods and goddesses? Haynes doesn't portray them much better than the original writers from back in the day. Zeus, the king of gods? He's pompous, spoiled, and moody.  His wife, Hera, is petulant, angry, and vindictive. Athene? She's easily bored, always wanting, but never satisfied. The rest of the pantheon? A venal and petty group who are dismissive of the mortals who worship them.

    But perhaps the best narrator is the wickedly funny, unapologetic, and brutally honest Gorgonian -- the voice of the slain head of Medusa. She heaps scorn on Perseus (and, in doing so, on the readers for any sympathy they may show him) beginning with the underhanded way he tricked the  Graiai to give him their shared eye and tooth.. 

I suppose you thought he was clever. Clever Perseus using his wits to defeat the disgusting old women? Your own eyes aren't all that, you know. Oh, but at least they're safe inside your head.

    She continues to mock Perseus -- who carries her around in a bag and uses her to kill people to get his way -- for his lack of courage, his cruelty, and his stupidity. She agrees she is the best narrator. "... because I was there for all of it, and because I am not a lying deceitful hateful vicious murderer."

    So there.

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* She also provides us with a glossary of characters at the beginning of the book, which is a handy reference guide throughout.