Ransom: A Novel

David Malouf, who first visited the classical world near the start of his career with  AN IMAGINARY LIFE  (1978), about the poet Ovid, now returns to it with his latest novel RANSOM, a retelling of the last book of  THE ILIAD . This short book, its small beautiful pages fitting easily into the hand, is nonetheless vast in scale, fully worthy of its original. Malouf writes as a poet, beginning with Homeric grandeur, but moving towards simple humanity. He strikes the heroic tone early in describing Achilles, his life shaped by foreknowledge of his certain death: "He had entered the rough world of men, where a man's acts follow him wherever he goes in the form of a story. A world of pain, loss, dependency, bursts of violence and elation; of fatality and fatal contradictions, breathless leaps into the unknown; at last of death -- a hero's death out there in the full sunlight under the gaze of gods and men, for which the hardened self, the hardened body, had daily to be exercised and prepared."By the end of Homer's epic, Achilles has slain the Trojan hero Hector, in revenge for the killing of his best friend Patroclus. Not content with that, he degrades the body by tying it by the heels to his chariot axle and dragging it around the camp. By evening, the corpse is bloodied and unrecognizable, but each night it is magically restored to its former purity. This goes on for eleven days. Homer then describes how Priam, the Trojan king and Hector's father, goes alone to Achilles with a cart laden with treasure, which he offers in ransom for the body of his son. Malouf's novel is the story of that single incident, the same in every important detail, but how different in tone!As he does throughout THE ILIAD, Homer opens this final book with a scene for the gods in Olympus. They argue about the situation on earth, and eventually dispatch various deities to prepare Achilles, command Priam, and guide him safely on his way. Homer's mortals are effectively the puppets of the gods. But Malouf sees the story entirely in human terms (though one god does make a cameo appearance). Priam, who had himself been ransomed as a child, conceives the idea himself, over the opposition of his courtiers. As a king, he had always served as a remote ceremonial figurehead; his intent now is to put off all signs of rank and grandeur, and travel in a mule cart with a simple peasant as driver. For me, the heart of this deeply moving novel is this journey shared by the two old men, the one in his element, the other learning about it for the first time. "The water, the fish, the flocks of snub-tailed swifts had always been here, engaged in their own lives and the small activities that were proper to them, pursuing their own busy ends. But till now he had had no occasion to take notice of them. They were not in the royal sphere." For the first time Priam finds himself talking with a man who is not constrained by ceremony or rank, and he finds himself first interested in and then moved by the story of his small joys and many sorrows.With his newfound humanity as a shield, Priam approaches Achilles as man to man, father to father, mourner to fellow mourner. And his entreaty succeeds, as Homer tells. It buys only a short respite, but it lays down a marker for human beings taking their destiny out of the hands the gods. Perhaps only in small things: Troy will yet fall, Priam will die, and Achilles also. But the acceptance of death is a form of grandeur, and to cling to simple humanity in a cruel world is true nobility.

Ransom is based on a small part of the Iliad saga. Piam the King of Troy travels to the Greek camp to retrieve the body of his son Hector who was killed by the great warrior Achilles.Beautifully written, the story supports what James Campbell describes as the Power Of Myth. The characters in the novel are larger than life figures but with human characteristics. So in that sense the novel is about all of us even in the 21st Century at least 3000 years after the Trojan War. It's a story about loss and grief, fathers and sons, youth and old age, love and duty. It's relived in some way, every day, everywhere. It's about brotherly love, living in the moment, understanding your mortality and joy. It's also very sad, describing ultimate and devastating loss.Piam as King is remote from everyday life. His guide Samos brings him back to earth. Piam decides however to do something himself beyond the role and life the Gods and his position has designated for him. This something is to retrieve his son’s body. Achilles also is trapped in a situation where his love for Patroclus has driven him. The ransom provides a way out for both of them. Both will die soon but al least they had lived. It raises the question of how far we are free to choose the path that our lives take. Both Achilles and Piam are creating stories about themselves that will allow themselves to live on in the minds of men. Piam know he will die soon and his fate will be for his naked body to be dragged into the streets where dogs will tear him apart. Rather than his death being the story he has created a better story of his life. These issues we all can ponder upon.The Gods or fate or chance, whatever you call it, can affect the world but they don’t change human nature.That this tender novel lingers so long and hauntingly in the mind is a testament both to Malouf’s poetry and to his reverence for the endless power of myth.

Malouf's retelling of Priam going to Achilles to ransom the body of his dead son is both delightful and sad at the same time. The episode when they stop to dangle their feet in the river and break bread together is truly a delight - wonderful uplifting slant on this episode before the horror and killing at the conclusion of the siege of Troy

Fabulous in both senses of the word - a slender novel that entrancingly re-imagines the events and characters of Homer's Iliad at the point when Achilles takes revenge on Hector for having killed Patroclus. How interesting that both the Iliad and the Odyssey (see also The Lost Books of the Odyssey by Zachary Mason) continue to generate first-class literature! Ransom is particularly captivating because of the re-visioning of Troy and the Trojans, humanising them and rescuing them from the opprobrium heaped on them in classical Greek and even Roman literature (Aeneas doesn't really count as a Trojan, does he?). This is beautifully written prose that taps into deep-rooted mythical narrative without being entombed by it. Highly recommended.

Beautifully written short fictional reworking of a section of The Iliad. Don’t worry if that doesn’t sound like your thing, it’s about people, love, loss and reflection - and could be set anywhere in today’s war-torn lands. Like all of David Malouf’s works, it’s well worth it.

Malouf is a great writer and he tells this story with his usual simplicity and elegance. But I wondered for a long time why he had written it. He explains why in his postscript - he loved the story of Troy when he heard it as a child, he was fascinated by the ancient tradition of story-telling, and he wanted to express the uncertainy of life during a war which he had experienced growing up during WW2. I felt it was a good book but not one of his better books.

Have always been intrigued by Iliad-related stories and this was no exception. A beautiful and brief look at the grief of Achilles and Priam.