Customer Reviews

The Double Tongue

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is Golding at his gentlest. As with The Inheritors, Golding goes into the ancient past for his material, choosing as his protagonist the reluctant Oracle at Delphi in a time when Greek culture and political power were waning, and Roman influence under Julius Caesar was fast becoming a juggernaut. Her agon is the nature of her faith in Greek religious tradition, caught as she is between the economics, ethics, and metaphysics of religious and priestly praxis.
Golding has freed himself from the contraints of his earnest and often spellbinding Christianity here: the Oracle is a Greek Matty Windrover/Pincher Martin in some ways, though not as intensely immersed in the spiritual. But Golding also christianizes his subject in subtle and, for Christian readers at any rate, engaging ways. Paul's statue "to the unknown god" figures here, as does the Apollo/Christ connection so often discussed in myth criticism and anthropology. That Christ may not be easily recognizeable, however. He has more akin with Donne's "three-personed God"--at least as Donne would want Him--than he does with the persona of the NT.
My chief complaint is that the novel is too short. It lacks a substantial middle, in Aristotelian terms, so that the rising action feels a bit malformed and hurried. I imagine that, had he lived, Golding would have shaped and expanded it considerably. But overall, the premise is interesting, and the text works aesthetically. Golding had lost none of his ability to "see through to the heart of things" eschatological and ontological, and to represent those experiences in language in intense and ultimately rewarding ways. I recommend it unreservedly to readers familiar with Golding's oeuvre beyond Lord of the Flies.

I must agree with other reviewers on this work: while certainly an interesting read, it is not quite as satisfying as one might hope -- especially if familiar with the author's other works.

It must be kept in mind that this book is but a draft, unfinished upon Golding's untimely death. Yet for that very reason it is of interest to those who are intrigued by the workings of the writing process: here is a text that is but in 'draft form', and offers a none-too-often seen glimplse into a writer's mind, before revisions and editing have cleared away all the excess stone from the statue.

Golding's grasp of the Classical world lends a nice touch of familiarity to this short novella, which I would recommend for fans of his works, and those curious of the writing process.

Set in the times of Greeks and Romans, this is a story of a prodigy with in one way, divine powers and perspective, but in another, a broken view of pagan faith. In no way Goldings best work, but certainly a finely written and unique perspective to the less critical approach of introspective reasoning about the existence of god(s).

It should be mentioned that, like it's hardcover counterpart, this is a draft. Golding's unexpected death in 1993 left this piece of fiction somewhere in between a second and third draft.

Regardless, I would recommend this to anyone interested in a) Golding's later work, and/or b) what exactly a draft of a novel sounds like. A quick, light-hearted discussion, certainly worth your time.

The Double Tongue is well crafted novel that I have come to expect from William Golding. I have read many if not all of his fiction works and even his later works has the elements of character studies that his famous works like Lord of the Flies possess. Read this book and everything that Golding wrote.

An aged prophetess at Delphi, the most sacred oracle in ancient Greece, looks back over her strange life as the Pythia, the First Lady and voice of the god Apollo. As a young virgin with disturbing psychic powers, Aricka was handed over to the sevice of the shrine by her parents. She has now spent sixty years as the very medium, the thorn mouthpiece , of equivocal mantic utterances from the bronze tripod in the sanctuary beneath the temple. Over a lifetime at the mercy of god and people and priests she has watched the decay of Delphi's fortunes and its influence in the world. Her reflections on the mysteries of the oracle, which her own weird gifts have embodied are matched by her feminine insight into the human frailties of the High Priest himself, a true Athenian, who's intriguing against the Romans brings about humiliatian and desasters.

This extraordinary short novel, left in draft at the author's sudden dead in 1993 is a psychological and historical triumph. An absolutely convincing portrait of a woman's experiance, something rare in Golding's work. Aricka the Pythia is one of his finest creation.

This book gives a feel of ancient Greek times, the era of the setting.
A very detailed perspective on serving the Gods, and how a young girl, Arieka finds her place in the world.
It takes serious concentration to keep up with the story, sometimes rambling on a bit. Perhaps because it was printed from the author's second draft. Due to his sudden death, he never actually finished the book.
However, I think anyone interested in Greek mythology would love this story.

this is a beautiful creation that shows the emptiness of paganism and makes an attempt to show us that mankind does have a spiritual side. Arieka the pythia is one of the finest characters that golding has created. she ranks right up their with piggy and ralph. it is a beautiful story but it is no lord of the flies.