Rating: 3 out of 5
It’s clear that Ms Miller has a knack for getting Greek myths right—yet, though this short story spoke to me, I was not as taken in as with the either ‘Circe’ or ‘The Song of Achilles’. I think that this is because even though the name of Galatea was broadly familiar to me, this story seems to expect a greater familiarity with the myth.
Many of the references that the author makes in the story imply that the reader knows more than they do: which would be the case if this myth was in the fore of one’s mind. That was definitely not the case with me, and I found that the hints the author dropped were too vague for me to make perfect sense of what was going on.
This is the least favourite of the three of the Greek stories of Ms Miller I’ve read, but I will read whatever else she writes in that vein—because even though it took me time to understand what was going on, the author portrays her mythological heroes and heroines so very well!
