The story of Psykhe (or Psyche) and Eros has been told – and retold – countless times over the past several thousand years. ‘I have loved the myth of Psykhe and Eros for a very long time,’ Kate Forsyth writes in her author’s note to her latest novel. ‘It is one of the few myths in which a woman does not have her tongue cut out, or her hair turned to hissing snakes, or her life reduced to a plaintive voice echoing men.’
In a novel reminiscent of Madeline Miller’s Circe, Forsyth offers the reader a richly imagined world, set firmly within the framework of classical mythology.
Psykhe has always felt different – from the death of her mother at her birth, to the strange beauty she carries – and somehow distant from those around her. Blessed with awe-inspiring loveliness, with skin ‘as pale as moth wings’ and hair ‘as fine and white as an old woman’s’, her comparison to Venus invokes the wrath of the goddess of love.
This lands Psykhe, and those closest to her, in trouble. Soon, she finds herself infatuated with Ambrose, a young man imbued with a mysterious sexual allure. A hallmark of many Forsyth novels – a dense sensuality, firmly rooted within a feminist gaze – this romance is lush and forbidden, pushing and folding the peaks and troughs of the narrative to its final conclusion.
In her retelling, the themes of the original story – its celebration, as Forsyth argues, of ‘female desire and disobedience’ and the way in which its denouement ‘leads to love and liberation, not sorrow and suffering’ – break new ground in literary narrativisation. In conjunction with her modern approach to the content of the myth, Forsyth steps away from some of more constrictive and non-consensual dynamics, moving instead towards a vibrant retelling.
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Psykhe is intense and winding; avid fans of Forsyth’s work will enjoy the continued painterly storytelling evidenced here, while first-time readers are in for a strange and lovely surprise. Either way, this fresh take on the myth of Psykhe and Eros demonstrates that there are as many new retellings as there are authors to spin them.
Psykhe, Kate Forsyth
Publisher: Vintage Australia
ISBN: 9780143776918
Pages: 336pp
Publication Date: 28 May 2024
RRP: $34.99
