Journal Entry 1 by DrCris from Templestowe, Victoria Australia on Wednesday, February 18, 2009

I am sending this book to a friend who is having a rough time at the moment. Not sure if she will like this one, but I expect she will appreciate the gesture. We tend to have similar tastes on literature, so I guessed that she might like anything I had on TBR, I picked this one because I guessed she might not have already read it.

BLURB:
An aged prophetess at Delphi, the most sacred oracle in ancient Greece, looks back over her strnge life as the Pythia, the First Lady adnt he voice of the God Apollo.
...
This extraordinary short novel, left in draft at the author's sudden death in 1993, is a psychological adn historical triumph. And absolutely convincing portrait of a woman's experience, something rare in Golding's oeuvre, Arieka the Pythia is one of his finest creations. 

Journal Entry 2 by livrecache from Hobart, Tasmania Australia on Friday, March 27, 2009

Thank you very much for your kind thought. You must have thought me so rude! As you'll know by my earlier entry on Sorry, Australia Post does not re-direct parcels. Who knew. I look forward to reading this once I dispense with the bookrings that appeared this afternoon.

Thanks again. Life is certainly brighter because of this. This looks to be a fascinating book. I'd always wanted to read more of Golding's work. 

Journal Entry 3 by livrecache from Hobart, Tasmania Australia on Sunday, June 07, 2009

I read this book last weekend, and I thought it was really interesting. I'd just finished William Golding's first book, the ubiquitous Lord of the Flies, so it was almost serendipity that the next book I happened to pick up was his last, published posthumously. I did find it a bit frustrating to be told 'parts of manuscript' missing when it was at a crucial bit. Because it was in draft form, it wasn't particularly polished but nonetheless fascinating and has sent me back into the world of ancient civilisations.

From a review: Golding's final novel, left in draft at his death, tells the story of a priestess of Apollo. Arieka is one of the last to prophesy at Delphi, in the shadowy years when the Romans were securing their grip on the tribes and cities of Greece. The plain, unloved daughter of a local grandee, she is rescued from the contempt and neglect of her family by her Delphic role. Her attitude to the god and her belief in him, ambiguous in expression and conviction, seem to move in parallel to the decline of the god himself - but as always in Golding's novels things are more complex than they appear. Golding's portrayal of his female narrator -- downtrodden, bullied, unadmired and yet independent -- shows him embarking, at the end of his life, on a new imaginative realisation, set nevertheless in the context of his lifelong fascination with Greece and the Greeks.

Offered to the Oz VBB Round 15.