The Persian Boy by Mary Renault Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of The Persian Boy
Book Review: Good, but lacking compared to 'Fire From Heaven'
Summary: 3 Stars
Let me just say that 'The Persian Boy' is a great book. Mary Renault is an excellent writer, and she managed to chew through the history of Alexander with excellent pacing and in such a way as to keep even war-wary reader entertained.
However, I often felt frustrated while reading this book because of the set POV. In 'Fire From Heaven', Book I in her Alexander the Great series, we have a POV which jumps from character to character throughout the novel, giving a wide view of the events and a greater understanding of how different people came to see Alexander.
In 'The Persian Boy' we get the POV of Bagoas, Alexander's eunuch lover, and after reading 'Fire From Heaven' the restricted experiences/opinions of this one character is extremely noticeable. I found myself frustrated at the "off camera" scenes in which we miss because Bagoas is not present, especially those involving Alexander and Hephaestion, his life-long best friend and lover.
Because Bagoas is competition to Hephaestion, we get a new view of the relationship between these two men, but we also get a limited one. Of course Bagoas is not going to be present during the more intimate exchanges between Alexander and Hephaestion, so the book simply doesn't go over it - Alexander and Hephaestion's relationship is relegated to "and then he spoke with Hephaestion for a time" one-liners, giving us very little beyond the affirmation that Hephaestion still exists.
I often had to put the book down and take a breath when certain pivotal moments occured within the novel that were wrongly glazed over because the character of Bagoas simply didn't care, or wasn't present.
I suppose I went in with an Hephaestion-bias - I do love him so - but besides my grumblings, the book really was well written, though I wish a parellel novel existed telling the same story from Hephaestion's angle!
Book Review: Great Novel, Questionable History
Summary: 4 Stars
I've always enjoyed Renault's novels, and though this one is not my favorite, its atmospheric and character descriptions hold up well. My real concern is over the depiction of Alexander. Renault is not to be blamed here--it is historians who created Alexander's image--but she further embellishes and glorifies Alexander's "mystical" image and his alleged humanitarian and cosmopolitan interest in various cultures and peoples. The historical evidence is not so pretty. In the last ten years or so, historians have begun to come clean about Alexander's real accomplishments and legacy, and the real character behind them. Alexander was a ruthless butcher of the highest order, slaughtering large numbers of people and depopulating whole areas he campaigned in. He probably killed well over 1.5 million people over his 10 years of campaigning (Julius Ceasar probably killed about 1 million Gauls out of an estimated population of 5 million in his 10 year campaign-he has never, however, had a popular image as a great mystical "visionary" and enlightened world leader). This killing was done without bombs, machine guns or poison gas--mostly close in with swords (and later famine due to destroyed crops). He was as harsh with his own people. His megolomania and overwheening will mixed with drunken, ungovernable rages led him to order the deaths of his closest friends and officers, one of which he strangled with his own hands. It was probably well for the ancient world that Alexander died at 33 (mostly attributable to his own excesses). Remember this when Renault's character portrayal of Alexander become misty and glowing.Book Review: HE'S KING OF THE WORLD!
Summary: 5 Stars
THE PERSIAN BOY is the centerpiece of Mary Renault's famed fictional trilogy on the life of Alexander the Great, preceded by FIRE FROM HEAVEN and followed by FUNERAL GAMES. This one is probably the best.Narrated by Bagoas, the Persian eunuch "inherited" by Alexander from the entourage of the defeated King Darius, PERSIAN BOY portrays the great Macedonian as both as demi-god and as all too human. He is at once gigantic, fearless, vainglorious, unstoppable,and ruthless on the one hand and tender, solicitous, sentimental (he names a city after his dead dog Perditas), compassionate, and loyal to a fault on the other. Friendship he seems to value above all else, evidenced by his reaction to the death of his boyhood companion and most trusted confidante, Hephaistion. He hangs the doctor who could not save his friend and then plunges into an orgy of despair. Still he never loses sight of his great ambition to remake the entire world in his own image and, like any truly great man, moves ahead despite grief and his own physical impairments.
This is an amazing recreation of the ancient world. If any book succeeds in relaying the sights, sounds, smells, customs, dress, mating habits, etc., of a distant time and place, this is it. Bagoas makes for an engaging storyteller. He holds nothing back, and if he turns out to be a bit of a snob, well, what else would one expect from the world's most beautiful eunuch, one who can give no less than the King of the World such sensual fulfillment?
Like any snob, Bagoas favors excellence over mediocrity, and in Alexander excellence is given human form. No wonder Bagoas loves him so! And that love story provides this novel its center, its tender heart. It is subtle, suggestive, and very real. Male writers should be as adept as Renault in their depictions of male male relationships, demphasizing the physical and giving more attention to the emotional.
The novel bogs down in places and becomes repetitious, but it is well worth sticking with till the end.
Book Review: Hero Worship
Summary: 5 Stars
My hero in life is Alexander the Great. He was a fearless warrior king who united the Eastern and Western World. My fascination with him has inspired the reading of several books of historical fiction. None compare with Mary Renault's well researched, lyrical and eerily detailed accounts of his life in her novels Fire From Heaven, The Persian Boy and Funeral Games. Though the language and ancient names can take a few chapters to get your tongue around once immersed Renault spins a world around you in a way that you'd swear she was witness to the events.
The Persian Boy is my favorite in the triad because it examines a unique time in Alexander's life. He and his life partner Hephaestion have an unbreakable bond and yet in Greek style he has taken a Persian Boy, Bagoas as a second lover. As fascinating as his adventures in the discovery of the East are the finely woven relations in this ancient love triangle between Alexander, Hephaestion and Bagoas. As one can imagine dating the King of the Known World at the time was ripe with both jealousy and love. A superb accomplishment and true labor of love.
Book Review: Heroic portrait of a hero.
Summary: 4 Stars
There are many interpretations of Alexander the Great, from an alcoholic megalomaniac & murderous military genius at one extreme to Mary Renault's interpretation at the other. But whether Mary Renault's interpretation is the right one or not is beside the point. Her poertrayal is entirely convincing within the limits set by her, and her Alexander and his supporting caste is entirely convincing. Being true to the inner world of her novels makes her a great historical novelist. Hence I reccommend highly her trilogy (particularly this and the previous one). Those interested in a contrary interpretation should try Peter Green's biography 'Alexander of Macedon', also an excellent read.