Like most genres, historical fiction spans the range from the well-researched but boring to the boring and badly researched, and on to those that are really rather interesting and make you want to know more about that time and place. Every now and then, however, you come across one that truly stands out. Ferdia Lennon’s debut novel, Glorious Exploits, stands out like Mount Etna.
The action takes place in Syracuse, Sicily in 412BC, towards the end of the Peloponnesian war. The story centres around two unemployed potters. It is narrated by the breezy, easy-going Lampo, who walks with a limp. And who, somewhat unexpectedly, speaks with a strong Dublin inflection. His best friend is the reserved, thoughtful Gelon (everyone needs a more intellectual friend).
They spend their days visiting the quarries, where captured Athenian soldiers are kept. Gelon is a huge fan of Greek tragedy, and he starts offering the Athenians food if they will perform extracts from the plays of Euripides. This soon escalates, and they come up with the idea of staging the whole of Medea, proudly pronouncing themselves as co-directors.
The men find a producer to fund the show, set up auditions, organise costumes and begin to learn more about their new-found actors (not so much a captive audience as a captive cast). Relationships between the Syracusans and Athenians vary: while Gelon treats Athenians with a humane respect and Lampo sees them as a way to pass the time, many citizens do not share their view.
In one scene, Gelon convinces some local kids to stop playing with the bone of an Athenian that they have found in a nearby forest and tries to persuade them to say a prayer over this Athenian’s remains. After some discussion, it becomes clear that many of the little boys have lost their fathers and brothers in the war.
As such, they are at first very much against the idea of treating their enemy with respect, but eventually they agree. And while most of the locals treat Athenians with detachment and simply avoid the quarries where they are kept, there are also the more hurtful and vengeful ones, those who come to the quarries to beat Athenians to death, trying to relieve their universal rage.
Lampo narrates with humour, but his observations turn more and more towards the philosophical as the story goes on. His interpretations of Gelon’s wisdom are sometimes unexpected, differing from how the reader is likely to understand what Gelon is saying — but this works well, revealing more about the character than what is openly said.
During the first day of auditions, Lampo gets to know an Athenian called Pachez, whom he ends up saving from a vengeful Syracusan whose sons were murdered in the war and had already murdered Pachez’s friend. After this, Pachez and Lampo form a bond that is somewhere between Stockholm syndrome, friendship and common fascination with the art of theatre.
As the story develops, the initially carefree Lampo experiences a sort of personal growth. He makes friends, falls in love, lives through the various life-altering events taking place in Syracuse, and his outlook on life gradually matures. But it is when a person he barely knows sacrifices his life for him that he really ‘grows up’. He is struck with the understanding that had their places been reversed, he would not have done the same for the other man, and this heavy revelation provokes a series of changes to his worldview, driving the story forward.
Lennon is amazing at depicting a scene, and Lampo’s Irish accent works much better than you can imagine, both giving the book a whimsical quality and drawing a connection between ancient Sicily and modern everyday life. That said, at times it becomes a bit too much, and Lampo’s tendency to eff and blind throughout his narration, which starts off being quite arresting, eventually becomes so commonplace that the swear words do not even register and lose their charm a little. Moreover, some of the book’s themes and observations sometimes seem rather strained. And although Lennon spent seven years writing it, the final quarter of the book loses its way slightly, a bit scrambled and rushed after such an impressive build-up.
For the most part, however, Glorious Exploits is a unique and fascinating book. It sucks the reader in and doesn’t let go, like a Harlan Coben thriller, but 100 times less ridiculous. The plot is infinitely entertaining, and Lennon’s way with words paints one vivid image after another. On one level, the characters’ obsession — especially Gelon’s endless fascination — with Euripides makes this another book about the importance of storytelling and the place of stories in our lives. But it is much, much more than that. Like Euripides’ plays themselves, Glorious Exploits is an exploration of human suffering through art, the relationship between life and art, and an excavation of humanity itself: at its worst, its best, and everywhere in between.
Fiction: Glorious Exploits by Ferdia Lennon
Fig Tree, 288 pages, hardcover €23.80, e-book £7.99
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