Ransom

I was motivated to read Ransom by David Malouf as it features on the ABC's list of Aussie Books to Read Before You Die.  As a part of Australia's National Year of Reading, readers have the opportunity to browse and vote for their 3 favourite books that they believe should form part of the top 10 list.   

What surprises me most about the list is that although it features great Australian authors it doesn't fairly represent great Australian stories.  I find myself snagged between a rock and a hard place because my favourite stories within the list of choices are not Australian.  What to do?  

VOTE FOR TIM WINTON'S 'THE RIDERS' FOR ONE!  
AT LEAST THE PROTAGONIST IS AN AUSSIE!

But back to David Malouf's, Ransom . . .  I would like to preface this review by stating emphatically that I think that David Malouf is a bloody legend!  AND that belief stems from a piece that he wrote for Quarterly Essays, entitled The Happy Life: The Search for Contentment in the Modern World.

So it was, that I took on my first Malouf novel.  I was happy to dive into its pages as the Classics and Western Canon Group on GoodReads have spent the better part of 2012 reading and discussing The Iliad.

I was not brave enough to participate in the reading or discussion and figured that Ransom, would be a gentle introduction to the great story of the Trojan War.  Because . . . Let's face it . . .  My exposure to the story thus far was limited to Monty Python and the Holy Grail and the Brad Pitt / Eric Bana film, Troy which was a pile of donkey dung!

Ransom is an 'imagined' account of the King of Troy's attempt to ransom the body of his defeated, slaughtered and desecrated son, Hector.  GoodReads does a better job of relating the book's contents than I can ever do, so I shall hand you over . . .

"Ransom by David Malouf, is a novel of suffering, sorrow, and redemption. 'Ransom' tells the story of the relationship between two grieving men at war: fierce Achilles, who has lost his beloved Patroclus in the siege of Troy; and Priam, king of Troy, whose son Hector killed Patroclus and was in turn savaged by Achilles. Each man's grief demands a confrontation with the other's if it is to be resolved: a resolution more compelling to both than the demands of war. And when the aged father and the murderer of his son meet, "the past and present blend, enemies exchange places, hatred turns to understanding, youth pities age mourning youth."


From Malouf's style, it is easy to see that he is a published poet.  His prose is lovely and I am willing to bet that most blokes {and ladies} who love a bit of fictional warfare will struggle and be left wanting.  This story is 3-Dimensional with scratch-and-sniff text.  I was there.  I was meandering in the countryside as Priam made his way to confront Achilles.   It is beautiful!  I can't wait to read more by David Malouf.