a blog about a novel about Aristotle's daughter ~ by Annabel Lyon
On Monday, April 19 at 7:30PM, I'll be reading at the West Vancouver Memorial Library as part of the North Shore Writers Festival. The event is free but seating is limited. For more information, please click here.
An exhilarating book, both brilliant and profound. Annabel Lyon’s spare, fluid, utterly convincing prose pulls us headlong into Aristotle’s original mind. Only Lyon’s great-hearted intelligence could have imagined and achieved the brave ambition of this book. Vital, ferocious and true, The Golden Mean is an oracular vision of the past made present.
--Marina Endicott, author of Good to a Fault
In Lyon’s clever hands, more than two thousand years of difference are made to disappear and Aristotle feels as real and accessible as the man next door. With this powerful, readable act of the imagination, Annabel Lyon proves that she can go anywhere it pleases her to go.
2 comments:
Loved "The Golden Mean". Also enjoyed your talk at the West Van Library last night. Living currently as I am in Doha, Qatar where marriage to your cousin is common, (though increasingly becoming frowned upon,) where doing what your parents suggest/order is expected and invariably the young conform due to the tight family circle and your lineage being so important, I wonder that a 16 year old daughter of Aristotle would even have the remotest inclination to have 20th century feminist views living as she did 2300 years ago? Studying the Middle East norms today is not a bad way to understand the norms of life centuries ago. Even 19th century England valued modesty, chastity, having servants (even slaves before the abolition) nannies, chauffeurs, tutors and chaperones if you were high born. Putting too much 21st century, Canadian thinking into Aristotle's women may be expecting too much. Just some thoughts I had. P.S. Your speaking manner is delightful and refreshing. Sue
Thanks so much for this, Sue! Good food for thought -
Annabel
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