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Ursula K. Le Guin: Lavinia (Hardcover, 2008, Harcourt)

In The Aeneid, Vergil's hero fights to claim the king's daughter, Lavinia, with whom he …

Review of 'Lavinia' on 'Goodreads'

An interesting book. As usual, Le Guin's prose is nearly flawless, and her ability to convey complex ideas simply is unparalleled.

If there's anything to criticize about this book, it's that Le Guin doesn't take her ideas far enough. The most interesting part, the part where she could have delved further I think, is the meta nature of Lavinia's conversations with "the poet" and the implications on free will, destiny, etc. She does of course touch these topics, but they are explored only tangentially. And of course she could have gone even further — but possibly not without devolving to a frivolous fictional solipsism a la King's Dark Tower VII.

But that I feel she could have done more does not make the story she told unworthy in any way. It is an interesting tale about a marginal character in the popular (though as Le Guin explains in her Afterword, much less known than it should be) story of the Aeneid. It is, in a way, the contrapositive of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead — and if that means nothing to you, all I can say is that I wish I had Le Guin's trick of stating things more clearly.

I doubt this well ever be my favorite Le Guin story, but it was well worth the time spent reading it, nonetheless.