Bright Air Black by David Vann was a difficult one for me. I love the story of Medea and Jason. I had the opportunity to read two Medea narratives while in college and the Medea story stuck with me. A woman who grasps power for her own by slaughtering her own children, after betraying her father and killing her brother, is such a badass story. When I saw this was a first person narrative and retelling of the story, I knew I had to read it.

This is where things might have gotten me in trouble a bit. I had pretty high expectations going into the book and the book was a tiny bit of a letdown. I write this because it seemed like 3/4ths of the book took place at sea. I remember marking my ebook at page 160 of a 200 page ebook, when land is finally hit and Medea and Jason settle. Things happen while at sea, but there were some odd choices.

One choice was to devote a few chapters to their odd orgy scene on an island where it seems like the crew of the ship are devoting themselves to Medea and her god. This gets a few chapters, yet it never really pays off in the narrative. So, I wondered why did it get so much attention?

Another moment happens when Medea watches someone fish, for a whole chapter. Fish.

The writing itself though is hypnotic and it flows. It flows so much that it is hard to put down because there isn't a natural break point within the narrative. There are chapters, but they flow into one another very quickly.

I also felt when Medea hits land and is enslaved, the book became a better read than the 160 pages devoted to the sea trip. I don't want to give spoilers, but she convinces the daughters of her enslaver to do something particularly wicked. I wish there was more of that in this book.

Sadly, I had to give this one 3 stars, but not for the writing, but for the story. Too much time at sea took away from this potentially great book.

*I want to thank NetGalley and Grove Press for the opportunity to read this book early. I received it for free in exchange for an honest review. ( )

I read this on the back of having read Medea by Euripides. This is a modern telling her her story from her perspective. It starts with her & Jason on the Argo, fleeing from her father and throwing the chopped up remains of her brother overboard to distract the pursuing father. We then spend the majority of the book getting to Jason's homeland, where things do not go as Jason intends.
I'm not sure what to make of this. The sentence structure is odd, with some very short clauses and a number of sentences that don't seen to be complete. It is quite unnerving to read and that's before you get to the contents. Jason himself is portrayed as not what he made himself out to be. His behaviour all the way along seems to be to take the easy path through life, I think he's just too easy going to cope with Medea.
Now she's my problem with this. She is portrayed, at times, as so very single minded for something that cannot and does not exist in her world that she seems to be quite one dimensional. Which is odd when we spend the book inside her head. I got the feeling that Euripides admires her, fears her but secretly likes her. I got the impression that in this book the author fears her and that's the dominant emotion. She is such a strong woman that the rest of her psyche barely gets a look in.
I am a sucker for female perspective retellings of ancient myths, but this left me disappointed in the outcome. ( )

Thanks to Netgalley for this ARC!

I knew I was going to get a retelling of Medea from her point of view during the quest of The Golden Fleece and after, with Jason, but I wasn't quite prepared for just how beautiful the lines of the text were. I mean, getting it all from the PoV of Medea was a pretty awesome treat, all by itself, and found myself fully in her camp despite all the awful things she does, but what really caught my attention, even more, was the prose.

This is some true mythopoetical realism, yo.

I will admit that there were some parts during the first half of the text that could have been improved, at least making the text more accessible those who haven't studied up on the old legends and the plays, for so much of the action has already happened right when the prose opens up. I'm not going to complain too much, however, because even though it assumes the audience is conversant with the legend, it doesn't really matter after a certain amount of time.

Yes, we know Medea is a bad-ass, willing to tear the world down to prevent her slide into slavery. She's a beast willing to rend to keep herself out of chains.

I particularly love how the author managed to turn someone like this into a heroic figure even more than half the time, and even when she's doing her most evil deeds, I feel for her and want to cheer her on.

That's a real feat.

Is this niche? Or does this have all the feel of Big Magical Realism for Mainstream? I don't know, but it could certainly go either way. :) I enjoyed it very much, too.

Update 2/3/17:

After some deep reflection, I had to change the rating from a four to a five star. The language keeps with me after all this time and the shape of the story keeps getting better. The aftertaste, so to speak. :)

It has NOTHING (much) to do with complaints from other reviewers (Trish). I do this on my own (mostly). ( )

Bright Air Black requires and rewards rapt attention. Like every other Vann novel the writing is a unique mix of poetry and viscera. There is really no one else who writes like this. There is no one else who could have so deeply imagined Medea murdering her brother on the deck of Jason's ship, as she flees with Jason from her father's wrath. The moment where she cuts her brother's throat, which she does without hesitation but while looking into his eyes, loving him, is moving and also very disturbing. Chapters later she scrapes her brother's remains from where they have congealed on the deck, and Vann's meticulous care in describing this scene would be remarkable all on its own, but these scenes and their remarkableness just keep coming, one following another.

I don't think the style is similar but in its revivification of an ancient and familiar story it reminds me of [b:The Gospel According to Jesus Christ|28859|The Gospel According to Jesus Christ|José Saramago|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1519393758s/28859.jpg|2338253] by Saramago. ( )

Qui ne connait pas Jason et sa quête de la toison d'or, mais qui connait réellement Médée et sa destinée ?
Nous suivons Médée et Jason dans leur fuite après le vol de la toison d'or, Médée avide de pouvoir, rêvant d'être "roi" comme l'égyptienne Hatchepsout.
Pouvoir, manipulation, meurtres, invocation des dieux tout y passe pour accéder au pouvoir.
Un mythe revisité avec brio et une écriture à être déclamée au lieu d'être lue. ( )