Natalie Haynes' "The Children of Jocasta": An Epic Tale of Family and Fate

NC Arizona: I bought this for a Christmas gift for my daughter. She loves this author so I am sure she will love it.

United States on Dec 02, 2023

Andrea Pattinson: Jocasta
Having read and studied versions of the Oedipus myth by Sophocles and Homer and encountered him in The Odyssey Natalie Haynes’ version putting Jocasta centre stage still made me gasp as the novel reached its conclusion. Sometimes however a story is altered or presented the power and shock of a true tragedy is by no means diminished by a good retelling.

United Kingdom on Sep 09, 2023

Ms. V: The Children of Jocasta is an interesting take on the Oedipus and the Antigone myths. Haynes humanizes the characters, dispelling rumor and turning the myths on their head. It is inventive, but no doubt, rooted in some research as all of Haynes' books are. Overall, I enjoyed the foray into Greek life.

United States on Aug 30, 2023

Amazonian Customer: The Children of Jocasta is a retelling of the ancient tale of Oedipus.

There are two strands to the story, told in alternate chapters. The first concerns Jocasta herself, traded as a young girl to be married to the king of Thebes, many years her senior. King Laius needs a wife, or more importantly an heir. But he only wants a daughter, fearful as he is of a prophecy that claims he will be killed by his son.

The alternate chapters are set slightly further forward in the future and follow Jocasta's children from the point of view of Isy, the youngest. Starting on the day she is attacked by a masked man in the royal palace she calls home, we follow the siblings through tragedy and heartbreak.

I knew nothing of Oedipus before reading this (apart from the obvious of course), but the timeless story of these womens' lives is gripping and expertly told.

United Kingdom on Mar 18, 2023

Mr Greenfingers: Excellent story! I was always keen on the Greek myths as a kid, but I only knew the basics of Oedipus and Jocasta. Although a classic Greek tragedy the key elements always seemed a bit overblown and far-fetched to me. However this is a great retelling - one of those books that really takes you back and makes you think 'this is how it could actually have happened, and then spawned a legend'. In that sense it really made me think of the Mary Renault books - in particular the stories about Theseus 'The King must Die' and 'The Bull from the Sea'. Those books were really special too, some of the best I have ever read so I can think of no higher compliment really. It also reminds you of a Shakespearian tragedy, in particular Romeo and Juliet. Although some of the events in the book are of course tragic Haynes does a great job of interweaving the story of Jocasta and Oedipus's children, and also telling it from the point of view of Jocasta and Ismene rather than just the male protagonists. She provides a lot of humanity to the characters and the story in fact has some bittersweet facets to the ending - not quite as grim as I feared and also that made it ring more true, as if this was a...

United Kingdom on Apr 18, 2022

Emma: First of all, the product itself came promptly and in perfect condition… now onto the review itself. I LOVED this book so much. I had already read Madeline Miller’s two novels and “A Thousand Ships” by Natalie Haynes before reading this, and I can confidently say that this book lived up to those three and I loved it just as much. The thing I think this book does even better than the other novels is I felt like I was there in Ancient Thebes. The way Haynes described the Palace and the Courtyards, it felt like that was MY home and not the characters’. I loved both the protagonists so much, they were both so different and yet you could tell they were related. I also loved the ending and how it subverts your expectations based on the original Oedipus myth. Beautiful prose, beautiful setting, and beautiful novel!!!

United States on Dec 29, 2021

Sharon Lutz: Natalie Haynes has created a retelling of Oedipus from the fresh and enlightened views of Jocasta and her daughter Ismene!
Each character reveals a new perception of the themes and plots of the various versions of the myth! In her unique style, that brings ancient myths into the forefront of our modern world, Ms. Haynes has created a mesmerizing image of women who controlled their destinies despite the confines of the ancient world!
The representation of the plague mirrors the devastation and emotional impact of Covid 19! This was a brilliant motif that brought this amazing novel to an enlightening conclusion !

United States on Aug 22, 2021

BookWorm: I imagine a reader's opinion of this book is bound to be influenced by their feelings about the original Greek plays by Sophocles that this novel retells. I came to the novel without any knowledge of the story of Oedipus or Antigone (the major characters in the plays) other than a vague idea about Oedipus via the Freudian named 'Oedipus complex'. So I was able to read with fresh eyes, no idea what was going to happen, enjoying the story as though it was an original. But I couldn't then appreciate the ways in which it deviated from or reimagined the originals.

The story is told in alternating chapters by two women, both more minor characters in the originals. Jocasta is a merchant's daughter who as a teenager is sent to marry an elderly king. Ismene is her youngest daughter, who picks up the story ten years after Jocasta's death. Both are interesting and sympathetic characters, but I particularly liked Ismene. The story they tell is not a happy one (they don't call them Greek tragedies for nothing) but is compelling and well spun out.

Haynes writes really well, with an easy, accessible style that is always enjoyable. There's no need to know anything about ancient...

United Kingdom on Jul 04, 2021

Voice of Reason & Concern: I bought this book having listened to an interview between the author, Natalie Haynes, and Tim Taylor, a producer of BBC's Time Team on Time Team Official on YouTube. She's clearly bright, brilliant and engaging. The work sounded fantastic. I literally paused about midway through the interview to come here and order a copy.

Like a kid in a candy shop, I waited with baited breath for it to arrive and once it had, dove into it immediately. No mean feat considering everything else I had to get done that day. Reading is always a priority.

I was almost immediately put off by the author's assumptions about the reader. Including the Prologue and first two chapters, she dumps you into a series of tales and time lines. I'm no Classics scholar, but my undergraduate electives in a rather conservative Jesuit University included Greek History and Greek Literature in Translation and I felt challenged. There were no indications that the story was changing from one time or character to another. I found myself muttering, "Oh, she's talking about someone else now."

Feeling a bit of a git does not endear the author to the reader. Being lost or confused may cause casual readers...

United States on Apr 25, 2021

James Brydon: Natalie Haynes is probably best known for her BBC Radio 4 programmes, Natalie Haynes Stands Up for the Classics, in which she talks amusingly yet also very informatively about ancient Greek and Latin texts. An accomplished classics scholar herself, she has helped salvage them from the hinterland of public awareness, highlighting the richness of their observations of human relationships and their enduring relevance to modern life.

In this marvellous novel she revisits the Oedipus story, telling it from the perspective of Jocasta. (Do I need to offer a spoiler alert before suggesting that it doesn’t end happily? Ah, well, too late now …)

Indeed, in Natalie Haynes’s version, Oedipus himself is an almost peripheral character, not appearing until more than half way through at the time of the death of Laius, Jocasta’s husband and King of Thebes, and thereafter playing a relatively minor role. This is a reversal of the emphasis in the original, in which Jocasta has only 120 lines (although they do include all the prescient understanding of the enormity of the gradually unfolding catastrophe). Haynes does, however, retain the essential smugness that Oedipus exudes in...

United Kingdom on Apr 21, 2018