Customer Reviews

The Goat Song

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Frank Yerby's 'Goat Song' is a book I would describe as 'almost perfect'. Not since Mary Renault's 'Last of the Wine' have I encountered such a complete telling of the life of a man in Ancient Greece.

Born to a Spartan General and his beautiful wife; who maintains that her son was truly sired by the God Dionysus, Ariston discovers his true parentage, and his first love, only to lose them to cruel fates.

Surviving these loses, Ariston is then sold into slavery, taken to Athens, and given over to a brothel to have his 'favors' sold time and again. Here in his life he develops a deep, loving friendship with Orchomenus; who remains a constant figure in his life for many years to come. Ariston and Orchomenus' friendship is reminiscent of many others that I have read of from the time period; in terms of the depth of the love between two men, and how once their lives were tied together by their great affection for one another, the bond was difficult, if not impossible, to break.

Once Ariston is freed from his service to the brothel,and adopted by a wealthy figure in Athens; his life takes a more favorable turn. Ariston; through virture of his unparallelled looks or kindly nature, draws many friends and loves to him. Danaeus; Autolykos; Chryseius; all people who will play important roles in his life.

But Ariston; too haunted by the loss of his first love, finds himself unable to return their affections fully. Though he takes Chryseius into his home and bed, his is not free to marry her; under Athenian law, as he is a 'metic', or free citizen, but not of birth, to the city of his residence. Therefore he builds his life as a businessman, philanthropist, athlete, and student in Athens, all the while hoping for eventual citizenship to fulfill his promise to Chryseius and one day marry her.

The book is sweeping in its scope; and epic in it's storytelling capability. The first few chapters virtually turned me away, as the tone and 'repetition' of Ariston losing his first love, Phryne, were tedius to say the least. The discovery of girls in general to him, as well as Phryne herself entering his life, seem contrived, as if they were hastily added to give Ariston a foundation for the 'loner' quality he maintains throughout most of the rest of his life.

However, once through these few almost unpalpable chapters, the story unfolds; page after page, without ever slowing. Yerby's pacing is excellent; his character development full and believable; and his painstaking attention to the everyday detail of life in Athens and Sparta in classical times is rich and rewarding to read. Ariston's own character and character flaws are well played out against the backdrop of the supporting and secondary players to the story. And while the 500 page novel is full of well-developed, interesting persons, Yerby never loses sight of his protagonist, even against such famed historical figures as Sokrates, Sophokles, Alkibiades, etc, etc, etc.....each of these persons influences Ariston, but never overshadows him.

For that I give Yerby 5 stars, and label the book as almost perfect. Although a bit difficult to involve myself in it initially, I was greatly rewarded for my tenacity. Hopefully other readers will agree. I highly recommend this story along with my other favorites written about the time period; Mary Renault, Homer himself, and newer author Steven Pressfield. Though Yerby leans more toward Renault in overall tone, his style and quality of storytelling are all his own.

The story of a young man that suffers all kind of pains in his life and remains incorruptible in his mind, with capacity of loving and learning. Yerby makes a unforgetable story of the life of young Ariston with a master style. I have read a lot of Yerby's novels, but this one is on the top, in my opinion. Iam very sad to tell you that this book was stolen from my house almost ten years ago and that it has been imposibble for me to find it again. If you have the fortune to get it, read it and take care of it.

This work is incredible; I couldn't put the book down! He portrays ancient Sparta/Athens in ways that make me feel like I've visited there. His descriptions are wonderful, as well as his dialogue. The hero, Arison, is all I could want in a hero. I strongly recommend reading this book!

Yerby's sweeping historical novels are famous. This novel covers ancient Greece, a facinating time when the ground rules of Western democracy and society were formed.

Ariston is a pubescent lad from Sparta. He is captured by the Athenians in one of the wars that dotted this period in history. Trained from birth in the Spartan tradition of enduring physical hardships, he will need all of his strength to survive in Athens.

He is sold into slavery as a boy prostitute in a brothel. Comely of body, he becomes a star attraction for the customers. Yet while his body is broken, his mind remains whole. His life in the brothel is authentic, such were the customs of ancient Greece.

Eventually he is purchased by a rich man for his personal use, saving him from the tortures of the brothel. Ariston grows up to become an actor on the Greek stage, where his physical beauty is appreciated.

Yerby's novel is a good read. It is sweeping in scope, set in interesting times, with strong characters. All of the minutae of ancient Greek life are captured here. This one is for all lovers of historical fiction.

Frank Yerby's 1967 novel "Goat Song" is an odd mixture for today's reader. From the Frank Yerby site:
"Ariston, a young heroic Spartan, is cursed and blessed by the Hellenic ideal of male beauty. The time of the Peloponnesian War is a period of dynamic energy, of burgeoning culture and festering decadence. Greeks witness Sparta's excessive cruelty and Athen's male sexuality. This is ancient Greece. On battlefield and slave market, temple and brothel, are found Socrates' discourses and Alcibiades' revels. The brutalizing code of Sparta competes with the brilliant sophistication of Athens. Caught between these contradictions, Ariston is enslaved and brought to Athens where these competing philosophies force the Spartan youth must choose between his home and his passions."

Yerby clearly did his historical and literary research on ancient Greece for this novel. He weaves in even more history (accurate, too) than Mary Renault's Greek novels, but without the subtlety. With an excess of excesses - of violence, death, gore, heroism, desirability, depravity - it sometimes borders on an adult comic book sensibility. Yet it is fascinating, like a train wreck is fascinating. I haven't read other books by the author, so I don't know if excess is a general characteristic of his writing, or if it is an ambiance that he wants to attribute to Socratic Greece.

The hero's homophobia is at once off-putting and incongruous. I don't usually indulge in psychoanalyzing an author, but one can't help but notice the lingering descriptions of male beauty, the hero's infatuation with another adonis-like teenage boy at the beginning of the book, the near-sexual intensity of his later male friendships, and the unaccountable venom toward homosexual and bisexual characters, both in the narrative and out of the mouth of the hero.

The homophobia would be inexcusable in a modern writer, but it is possible to disregard it as a chronological tic in a black writer (bi-racial, actually) born in 1916 in the American South. Publishing from 1946 to 1985, Yerby was the first black writer to appear on the NY Times best seller list, and the first black writer to have a story put on screen by Hollywood, with three other novel adaptations following. An expatriate to Spain in 1955, with 60 million sales, yet he is virtually unknown today in the U.S.

Frank Yerby was an outstanding author and this is another example of his great writing.

This is the only Frank Yerby I've ever read. I first read Goat Song in 1973, & recently found it at a yard sale & figured I'd see if it had held up. I was very happy to see that this has stood the test of time, and since far more is now known about the ancient Greeks and their neighbors than there was in the '70's, I think I may have enjoyed this even more than 35 years ago. My best friend is a Mists Of Avalon series junkie, & I'm looking forward to her reading this. This would really be an great movie, just without a Steve Reeves or other talentless Hollywood Hunk-Ra as Ariston.

I read this book when I was a teenager & instantly identified with the hero & the characters. The characterisation of the Spartan & Athenian lifestyles is excellent and the intermingling of historical figures such as Socrates, Plato, Euripides, Alcibiades, Demosthenes etc is superb. This book alone forms a significant portion of my knowledge of ancient Greece. If you enjoyed the movie "300" then you should read this book. Even if you didn't enjoy the movie "300" still read this book. It is a tragedy that the author Frank Yerby did not achieve the acclaim he deserved for his novels as this definitely ranks among the best I have ever read. I am greatly surprised that he was an African American and disappointed that his great talent went virtually unheralded by the "critics". Read this book. You will not be disappointed.

This book was stunning, harsh, real, and violent as well as beautiful, romantic, and poignant. The story of a man's life is always complex, but Yerby demonstrates that so wonderfully in this classic. I can't believe that this book isn't more popular. Goat Song literally took my breath away and the characters lingered with me long after I closed this book. I would highly recommend this epic tale to everyone.