Natalie Haynes asks what if the myth of Jason and the Argonauts was told from a woman's perspective?
Book of the week
'No Friend to This House' by Natalie Haynes
Consider for a moment that mythology has given Medea a bad rap. Often portrayed with a bloody knife in her hands and her dead children in her arms, it’s worth wondering whether her story has been distorted because it was more arousing to portray her as a lusty, vengeful, violent woman married to a golden-boy good guy.
“The essential conundrum,” writes author and mythologist Natalie Haynes, ”is the shift between super-powered witch and helpless abandoned wife.”
Medea is the central character of Haynes’ new novel, “No Friend to This House” in which she retells the story of Jason and his Argonauts’ quest for the golden fleece, which brings him, ultimately, into Medea’s arms.
It is ill-fated from the beginning.
— Kerri Miller, MPR News
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🤔 What's the newsroom reading?
I've been a fan of Patrick Radden Keefe's reporting and writing since I read his book "Rogues," which is a collection of his profiles and stories on criminals and con men, and, later, his amazing book "Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland" about the The Troubles. The book was eventually made into a Hulu series.
Keefe, a nonfiction writer and reporter, has an amazing talent for writing deeply reported stories in an immensely engaging style. His latest book, "London Falling: A Mysterious Death in a Gilded City and a Family's Search for Truth," keeps that tradition.
It follows the complicated and heartbreaking story of a London-born teenager whose penchant for lying and yearning to be rich pulls him into the London underworld where his lies tangle him into a murky scene with criminals, shady businessmen and grifters, and a tragic end.
But Keefe's book does not just dwell there, it also explores the pain of the boy's parents, the arc of their family story and the international and cultural factors that weave a fascinating, broader context for the teenager's tragic end. The stories truest to life usually live in the gray area where a confluence of factors that are sometimes so tightly tangled it's hard to find clear answers. This book paints that grayness with humanity, empathy and curiousity.
Amazon Prime's new show "Off campus" and the earlier premiere of "Heated Rivalry" show that hockey and romance can coexist. But in Minnesota we already knew that. Some of our favorite romance books that feature Minnesota authors or settings include, "Canadian Boyfriend" by Jenny Holiday, the "Sleet" series by S.J. Tilly and the "Lakes Hockey" series by Sloane St. James.
Are you a local author, bookstore or literary lover? Send your book news to sstroozas@mpr.org and we'll add it to the newsleter.
Dohrn's parents, Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn, helped found the the Weather Underground. “I knew that the FBI was chasing us,” he says. His memoir is “Dangerous, Dirty, Violent, and Young.”
