Customer Reviews

The Laughter of Aphrodite: A Novel about Sappho of Lesbos

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Peter Green has created an insightful portrait of Sappho and the world in which she lived. This first person narrative is written with abundant poetic imagery -- great for giving you the feeling that Sappho is really the author, but not so great for following the storyline. Written by a reminiscing middle-aged Sappho, the plot continually shifts time frames, making it hard to keep up with what's going on. Like fragments of Sappho's poetry itself, the pieces *do* eventually come together, but only after many, many pages of frustrating reading.

One caveat: One of the back cover reviewers describes this as "an explicitly erotic modern novel," and maybe that was true when it was originally published in 1965. What sex there is is far from graphic, although it is sensual. ... .

in reading "The Laughter of Aphrodite", i was very pleasantly surprised. generally, i am not a fan of fiction. given how difficult it is for a great many people to accept irrefutable fact, i find it somewhat alarming that an author would intentionally write an entire work of fiction.

but, because i have found several of the classical historian Peter Green's other works to be so worthwhile, and because Plato called Sappho the 10th Muse, i decided to give "The Laughter of Aphrodite" a read.

i am very glad i did. to begin with, Green is an accomplished storyteller. he seamlessly weaves the political and cultural history of the island of Lesbos in the early 6th century BCE with an imaginative construction of Sappho's life from what survives of her poems, and what the ancients themselves wrote about her. and, though i am usually impatient with descriptive detail, i was enchanted by Green's 'proetic' evocations of sights, sounds, and scents ranging from articles in Sappho's bedroom to the Lesbian landscape.

further, i've never read a more convincing account of the emotional relationships between a woman and her relatives, friends, lovers, and adversaries.

further yet, i've never read the equal of Green's account of the internal life an artist.

oh, and as a bonus for the fictive-phobic (such as myself), in the back of this volume there is a chronology that indicates which elements are believed to be historical fact, which are reasonable conjectures, and which are the creative interpolations of the author.

so far, i have gotten 4 friends to (gratefully) read this book.

I've been touched by this powerful novel. What amaze me most is the way Sappho's character is revealed in all her plain and complex humanity. Is not a Sappho's personal account only . Besides the novel recreates its world with such authority and ease that makes a real pleasure to read it.

I was first made familiar with Green's skills as a writer through his more historical works on the age of Alexander. I opened this book with high expectations, and was generally satisfied. The work presents a writer with excellent voice and talent in storytelling. I really appreciate the historical detail of this work (even if occasional oversights occur... can Sappho describe a poker-face?). My one criticism: I thought the sexual element was overplayed; the work is seems first a story of sexual expression, and only then one of a Sappho the poet.