Mary Renault

a novel

The charioteer

Sarah Sammis

Due 10/17/12

I'm just not in the mood for this book right now.

Dani

Generally speaking, my review system isn’t very consistent. But if I give a book 5 stars, it means that in way or another I will be thinking about it for a long time. It is indeed the case with this book. I read it right after in memoriam and it was an excellent transition. I have the feeling that I will be revisiting it for years to come, and it will end up becoming a classic piece in the library of my life. 

Mary Renault’s writing is sharp, impenetrable, poignant. I found myself having to reread dialogue and discovering more meaning embedded in each word every single time. I do not know how one can achieve such a feat: to say it all, to still withhold, to sharpen the edges and still slide seamlessly into the next line. I love Laurie as a narrator and I immediately felt myself soften for him: his worldview and his resolve, his way of making sense of feeling. I love the choice of a metaphor as a guiding thread for the plot, and I love the breathing spaces scattered across the main events. Rarely does one find a writer so compelling and so able to convey the many intricacies of human nature, of feeling, of the passage of time. 

This is a queer bildungsroman, so I was bound to like it, but I didn’t know just how much: I felt it reshaping itself in the hours after finishing it, and I am sure it will be reshape me in the days and months to come. It is difficult to explain just how deep it reaches, just how much it settles in your bones. I will definitely be reading the rest of Mary Renault’s work, and I would recommend it if you enjoyed In Memoriam by Alice Winn, Maurice by E.M Forster, and Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin. 

Renault’s writing demands the reader’s full attention, and wastes not a second of it. I will be thinking of this book for a long, long time.

The charioteer a novel

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