Title Weight Series --- Author Jeanette Winterson Cover Art Marion Deuchars Publisher Alfred A. Knopf - 2005 First Printing Alfred A. Knopf - 2005 Category Mythology Warnings Explicit sexual refrences Main Characters Atlas, Heracles Main Elements Gods, heroes

The free man never thinks of escape...

In ancient Greece mythology, Atlas, a member of the original race of gods called Titans, leads a rebellion against the new deities, the Olympians. For this he incurs divine wrath: the victorious Olympians force Atlas, guardian of the Garden of the Hesperides and its golden apples of life, to bear the weight of the earth and the heavens for eternity. When the hero Heracles is tasked with stealing these apples, as one of his famous twelve labours, he seeks out Atlas, offering to shoulder the world temporarily if the Titan will bring him the fruit. Knowing that Heracles is the only person with the strength to take his burden, and enticed by the prospect of even a short-lived freedom, Atlas agrees and an uneasy partnership is born.

With her typical wit and verve, Jeanette Winterson brings Atlas into the twenty-first century. Simultaneously, she asks her own difficult questions about the nature of choice and coercion, and how we forge our own destiny. Visionay and inventive, yet completely believable and relevant to our lives today, Winterson's skill in turning the familiar on its head and showing us a different truth is once more put to dazzling effect.

It starts beautifully, describing how the ocean (here called Poseidon which makes no sense, Poseidon comes much later) and the earth (Gaia) fall in love and produce the Titan Atlas. Now, neither of them are Atlas' parents, and Atlas doesn't hold up the earth, rather he holds the sky (though I suppose it's hard to depict that in art so one generally sees him holding the globe, the Matterhorn can be annoying, poking into the back of the neck there...), and Atlas is not even remotely half man (men are created later), and there are few other inconsistencies, but then who says the myths that came down to us are the right ones. Winterson says clearly that she wants to "Tell the story again", so I didn't mind a little quirk here and there.

I enjoyed the conversations between Atlas and Heracles, I mean what do you say to a guy who has been condemned to spend eternity holding up the world, not even able to move enough to scratch his nose? Their discussions can get a little dirty, like when Heracles masturbates and suggest "adding snow to the Himalayas", but it was often funny or thought provoking. Heracles is more brawn than brain, and Atlas, well, he's had a lot of time to think. And much as Heracles got the better of the two curses, you have to admit his life kinda sucked, Hera made certain of that.

At its core it is a discussion of loneliness, regret, responsibility, shame, as seen from the point of view of these two characters. Even questioning if the burdens we bear may be self-imposed. There are moments when the author reflects on her own life as an orphan, but these diversions do not take away from the overall book, it blended very nicely.

It does get a little weird when we get to the present day, see Atlas was kind of alone up there in the heavens until the Russians launch a little dog named Laika into space. After a few days a needle was to come out and euthanize her, but, it is a nice thought that maybe Atlas reached out, cracked open her craft and adopted her, letting her run around his body curling up in his hair (is there any air for her to breath, she's still in space?). Atlas may not be able to interact with the world but he can observe it, as he can observe our other planets. And yet with all that strength of his, his greatest desire is to build a garden, like the one one he built for his daughter, the Hesperades (that's where Hera's tree with the golden apples are, which is why Heracles stopped for a visit in the first place).

The book is short, but it was beautifully written, and giving a voice to characters that often don't get to speak for themselves.

As an aside though, if Heracles is strong enough to hold up the entire planet, you'd think he could flick is pinky finger and defeat monsters like the Hydra or the Nemean Lion, oh well, who said ancient myths needed to make actual sense :)