The first sixth is dreadful. Keep reading, give it a chance: it gets better. I promise.

I almost ditched it during that first part. It’s all about the gods, who are a tedious, shallow, capricious bunch of pricks without the slightest hint of self-awareness or intelligence. Republicans, basically. Circe, the narrator, is born of them and spends her youth in such an environment. Given the ratings of this book we have to trust that she becomes interesting, but the signs of that in this first part of the book are faint; the dullness of the deities so heavy that I was constantly tempted to just give up. Two friends convinced me to keep trying, and I’m thankful to them.

She (Circe) does become interesting. She grows; develops a moral sense; learns regret, honor, decency, humility. Eventually she associates with other insightful and worthwhile characters (not Odysseus) (that’s not a spoiler. Nobody who’s read the Odyssey could imagine Odysseus being worthwhile). How and who and why, I’ll leave for you to discover.

Three and a half stars, not a full four, because the first sixth is so annoying and because, really, gods and immortals just aren’t that engaging. I know it’s the material Miller had to work with, and yes she wove the best she could out of it, but still, it’s hard to make life out of caricatures.