*A New York Times Book Review EditorsтАЩ Choice Pick*
тАЬBy turns hilarious and provocative, itтАЩs an affecting character study and modern mythic retelling.тАЭ тАФPublishers Weekly, Books That Should Be on Your Radar in 2025
Part myth retelling, part character study, this sharp, visceral debut poetry collection reimagines Helen of Troy from HomerтАЩs Iliad as a disgruntled housewife in 1990s Tennessee.
In the hills of Sparta, Tennessee, during the early nineties, Helen decides to break free from the life that stifles her: marriage, motherhood, the monotonous duties of a Southern housewife. But leaving isnтАЩt the same thing as staying goneтАж
Rooted in a lush natural landscape, this stunning poetry collection explores HelenтАЩs isolation and rebellion as her expansive personality clashes with the social rigidity of her small town. In richly layered poems with settings that range from football games to Chuck E. Cheese to the bathroom of a Motel 6, Helen enters adulthood as a disaffected homemaker grasping for agency. She marries the wrong man, gives birth to a child she is not ready to parent, and embarks on an affair that throws her life into chaos. But she never surrenders ownership of her story or her choices, insisting to the reader: тАЬif you never owned a bone-sharp biographyтАж / i donтАЩt want to hear it. i want you silent. / i want you listening to me.тАЭ
Blurring the line between mythology and modernity, Helen of Troy, 1993 is an unforgettable collection that shows the Homeric Helen like sheтАЩs never been seen before.