Making It New

by Terence Hawkins

When you write an historical novel the first question is whether the book is to be driven by the plot or the context. With The Rage of Achilles, the question answered itself: the plot I was given by Homer—okay, the plot I stole from Homer—-is the foundation of Western literature, the ur-story and proved to be so rich and so deeply human that its setting was a distant second. Take that together with the fact that we know comparatively little about the context; Greek cultural continuity from the time of the Trojan War—-1190 BCE or so—-was interrupted by a barbarian invasion and subsequent dark age. So we have this wonderful story with little means to determine how accurate it is. Story wins.

Now, the story. The outline is something we dimly remember from our senior year in high school or freshman year in college: Paris steals Helen, Greece invades Troy, Achilles kills Hector and isn’t particularly careful about what he does with his body. And maybe Achilles gets killed too but maybe that’s the Odyssey or something else.

Yes, Paris—-a younger son of Troy’s King Priam—“stole” Helen from her husband, Menelaus, King of Sparta, younger brother of Agamamnon, High King of all Greece. Agamemnon leads an avenging Greek Army against Troy, defended by Paris’ older brother Hector. So it’s a war in which big brother fights for the kid. In my book, I imagine the resentments, tensions, and humiliations that must have soaked the relationships between the players like blood in the Illyrian sand. Further, I show the relationship between Helen and Paris, a subject on which Homer is strangely silent. And that is a relationship all about sex; whether he acquired Helen through seduction or abduction, Paris wanted that girl enough to start a war.

Speaking of sex: The other relationship that drives the story is that between Achilles and Patroclus. Achilles, who decides to sit out the war when humiliated by Agamemnon, allows his “great friend” Patroclus to wear his armor in a raid against Troy. When Patroclus falls to Hector, Achilles re-enters the war to have his revenge. Such historic evidence that we have strongly suggests that the two warriors were lovers. In The Rage of Achilles I try to make it clear that Achilles’ thirst for vengeance flows not just from pride, but real grief over the death of a lover.

Tom Perrotta, among his generous comments on my novel, remarks on the “deep strangeness” of the original. And that is something I want to emphasize: the craziest, most brutal things in Rage come not from me, but Homer, formerly locked away in academic prose and stiff translations. As I wrote the book, with the original open before me, I was astounded by what I found in a text I’d once thought dry: human sacrifice, a king sobbing his fear that his dogs will eat his genitals, an aged mother urging a son to stay out of war by offering him her breast again, on the walls of Troy, while all the court watches.

If you’re familiar with the Iliad I hope The Rage of Achilles helps to make it new; if you’re not, I hope Rage leads you to make acquaintances with the original.

The Rage of Achilles
by Terence Hawkins

Book information:

Fiction: Paperback, 198 pages, List Price: $13.50

ISBN: 978-1-934081-20-4

Releases November 1st, 2009

Back cover and blurbs:

Blood. Guts. Pride. Wrath.

The ancient clash of armies outside the walls of Troy is a cornerstone of Western literature. In The Rage of Achilles, Terence Hawkins brilliantly reimagines that titanic encounter. His stunningly original telling captures the brutality of the battlefield, the glory and the gore, in language that never relents.

Raw and compelling, The Rage of Achilles tells the story of Achilles, a monstrous hero, by turns vain and selfish, cruel and noble; of Paris, weak and consumed by lust for his stolen bride; of Agamemnon, driven nearly to insanity by the voices of the gods; and of Trojans and Achaeans, warriors and peasants, caught up in the conflict, their families torn apart by a decade-long war. The Rage of Achilles is an exhilarating story that has captured the imaginations of readers for thousands of years restored to immediacy.

About Terence Hawkins:

Terence Hawkins was born in Uniontown, Pennsylvania, and graduated from Yale. His work has appeared in Poor Mojo’s Almanac(k), Keyhole, Pindeldyboz, Ape Culture, Eclectica, Megaera, the Binnacle, and the New Haven Register. It has also appeared on Connecticut Public Radio. He is a trial lawyer in Connecticut. His website can be found at www.terencehawkins.net.

Giveaway Info: 1 copy of The Rage of Achilles. Open to U.S. only. Ends November 17, 2009.