Goatsong: A Novel of Ancient Athens (Walled Orchard Series, Vol 1)

Rating:
Summary: Goatsong: a shrewd historical primer on Athens' foibles
Review: Well researched and screamingly funny, Goatsong parades a century of literary, political, and philosophical heroes before the unsympathetic gaze of a goatherd and finds them wanting. Eupolis of Pallene, an up and coming playwright, usually finds them wanting in courtesy, dignity, and heroics, but he manages to sketch such legends as Aristophanes, pericles, and Alcibiades so perversely that the reader transforms fundamental assumptions before realizing that the book in fiction, and comic fiction at that.

Eupolis descrbes and lampoons the institutions of chorus selection, legislative debate, and marriage with little historical and cultural relics which further deter one from suspending disbelief, but even he dows nto escape his own boil-lancing mirth. If one hasn't a sense of the absurdity of the Peloponnesian War-era Athens by the end of this book, at least a few thousand laughs will have elapsed in the process

Rating:
Summary: This book is great fun!
Review: Wow! I just finished reading The Walled Orchard series, and it was incredible! I don't think any other book has made me laugh this much before. Yet, this book is not all about jokes. Behind the jokes, I felt that there was a pretty strong message. Tom Holt is a genius of a writer. I can't wait to get more of his books. I think that anyone and everyone would love this book.