On the day of his daughter's wedding, Agamemnon orders her sacrifice.
His daughter is led to her death, and Agamemnon leads his army into battle, where he is rewarded with glorious victory.
Three years later, he returns home and his murderous action has set the entire family - mother, brother, sister - on a path of intimate violence, as they enter a world of hushed commands and soundless journeys through the palace's dungeons and bedchambers. As his wife seeks his death, his daughter, Electra, is the silent observer to the family's game of innocence while his son, Orestes, is sent into bewildering, frightening exile where survival is far from certain. Out of their desolating loss, Electra and Orestes must find a way to right these wrongs of the past even if it means committing themselves to a terrible, barbarous act.
*** [I have been acquainted with the smell of death]***
(Penguin Books Ltd, 18 May 2017, ebook, 260 pages, borrowed from my library)
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This is my first time reading the author. House of Names was a big disappointment. I found the book very uneven with some sections really well written and powerful and other sections just dull and tepid as tap water. The first parts, narrated by Clytemnestra, Agamemnon's wife deals with the sacrifice and the aftermath. This section is powerful, emotional and well written. The second, third, fourth and final sixth part is narrated by their children, Orestes and Electra. I found these parts very dull, like watching paint dry for many hours. Orestes returns from exile and sulks about and I couldn't care less. Electra features in one section but she is so dull she has no presence. Her section could have been cut completely with nothing lost. Towards the end Orestes meets his mother's ghost. This could have been a great section, really chilling. But it's not. Dull and insipid. There is no depth to this encounter. The first chapter starts really well suggesting greatness come but this vanishes. For most of the time it's even unclear the book is set in an ancient Greek palace.
