Genre Fiction
![Natalie Haynes - [object Object] author](https://res.cloudinary.com/readsomnia/image/upload/authors/a_a_natalie_haynes.jpg)
Stone Blind: A Novel
"Haynes is master of her trade . . . She succeeds in breathing warm life into some of our oldest stories."-Telegraph (UK)
The national bestselling author of A Thousand Ships and Pandora's Jar returns with a fresh and stunningly perceptive take on the story of Medusa, the original monstered woman.
They will fear you and flee you and call you a monster.
The only mortal in a family of gods, Medusa is the youngest of the Gorgon sisters. Unlike her siblings, Medusa grows older, experiences change, feels weakness. Her mortal lifespan gives her an urgency that her family will never know.
When the sea god Poseidon assaults Medusa in Athene's temple, the goddess is enraged. Furious by the violation of her sacred space, Athene takes revenge-on the young woman. Punished for Poseidon's actions, Medusa is forever transformed. Writhing snakes replace her hair and her gaze will turn any living creature to stone. Cursed with the power to destroy all she loves with one look, Medusa condemns herself to a life of solitude.
Until Perseus embarks upon a fateful quest to fetch the head of a Gorgon . . .
In Stone Blind, classicist and comedian Natalie Haynes turns our understanding of this legendary myth on its head, bringing empathy and nuance to one of the earliest stories in which a woman-injured by a powerful man-is blamed, punished, and monstered for the assault. Delving into the origins of this mythic tale, Haynes revitalizes and reconstructs Medusa's story with her passion and fierce wit, offering a timely retelling of this classic myth that speaks to us today.
The national bestselling author of A Thousand Ships and Pandora's Jar returns with a fresh and stunningly perceptive take on the story of Medusa, the original monstered woman.
They will fear you and flee you and call you a monster.
The only mortal in a family of gods, Medusa is the youngest of the Gorgon sisters. Unlike her siblings, Medusa grows older, experiences change, feels weakness. Her mortal lifespan gives her an urgency that her family will never know.
When the sea god Poseidon assaults Medusa in Athene's temple, the goddess is enraged. Furious by the violation of her sacred space, Athene takes revenge-on the young woman. Punished for Poseidon's actions, Medusa is forever transformed. Writhing snakes replace her hair and her gaze will turn any living creature to stone. Cursed with the power to destroy all she loves with one look, Medusa condemns herself to a life of solitude.
Until Perseus embarks upon a fateful quest to fetch the head of a Gorgon . . .
In Stone Blind, classicist and comedian Natalie Haynes turns our understanding of this legendary myth on its head, bringing empathy and nuance to one of the earliest stories in which a woman-injured by a powerful man-is blamed, punished, and monstered for the assault. Delving into the origins of this mythic tale, Haynes revitalizes and reconstructs Medusa's story with her passion and fierce wit, offering a timely retelling of this classic myth that speaks to us today.
Editorial Reviews
"Beautiful and moving." - Neil Gaiman
"Witty, gripping, ruthless." - Margaret Atwood
"Feels at once bitingly (post)modern and filled with old wisdom . . . Stone Blind acts as a brilliant and compellingly readable corrective." - The Guardian
"The rollicking narrative voice that energises Stone Blind . . . is a voice that feels at once bitingly (post)modern and filled with old wisdom . . . The Gorgon's head will take on a new and powerful resonance as a symbol of the way stories can be warped by time. Stone Blind acts as a brilliant and compellingly readable corrective." - The Observer
"Stone Blind is an exceptionally powerful retelling of Medusa's story, an emotional gut punch of a novel. Haynes brilliantly pulls off the feat of seamlessly alternating humour and heartbreak, creating characters that stay with you long after the novel's end. It is a dazzling achievement." - Elodie Harper, author of The Wolf Den trilogy
"With this, her third novel based on ancient myth, [Haynes] has found a way of using all her classical erudition and her vivid sense of the ambiguous potency of the ancient stories, while being simultaneously very, very funny." - The Guardian
"A fierce feminist exploration of female rage, written with wit and empathy. Haynes makes the classics brutally relevant, and we reckon this one is going to be huge." - Glamour (UK)
"It is no exaggeration to say that Haynes is the modern embodiment of the best of Homer. She is a proper, classic storyteller, whose linguistic skills and wit will have you hanging on every word." - Radio Times
"Stone Blind is inventive and playful . . . [and] very funny." - Antonia Senior, The Times (UK)
"Pat Barker, Margaret Atwood and Madeline Miller have all successfully picked at the seams of the traditionally male take on these fantastic tales. But Natalie Haynes's genius, this time with Stone Blind
"Witty, gripping, ruthless." - Margaret Atwood
"Feels at once bitingly (post)modern and filled with old wisdom . . . Stone Blind acts as a brilliant and compellingly readable corrective." - The Guardian
"The rollicking narrative voice that energises Stone Blind . . . is a voice that feels at once bitingly (post)modern and filled with old wisdom . . . The Gorgon's head will take on a new and powerful resonance as a symbol of the way stories can be warped by time. Stone Blind acts as a brilliant and compellingly readable corrective." - The Observer
"Stone Blind is an exceptionally powerful retelling of Medusa's story, an emotional gut punch of a novel. Haynes brilliantly pulls off the feat of seamlessly alternating humour and heartbreak, creating characters that stay with you long after the novel's end. It is a dazzling achievement." - Elodie Harper, author of The Wolf Den trilogy
"With this, her third novel based on ancient myth, [Haynes] has found a way of using all her classical erudition and her vivid sense of the ambiguous potency of the ancient stories, while being simultaneously very, very funny." - The Guardian
"A fierce feminist exploration of female rage, written with wit and empathy. Haynes makes the classics brutally relevant, and we reckon this one is going to be huge." - Glamour (UK)
"It is no exaggeration to say that Haynes is the modern embodiment of the best of Homer. She is a proper, classic storyteller, whose linguistic skills and wit will have you hanging on every word." - Radio Times
"Stone Blind is inventive and playful . . . [and] very funny." - Antonia Senior, The Times (UK)
"Pat Barker, Margaret Atwood and Madeline Miller have all successfully picked at the seams of the traditionally male take on these fantastic tales. But Natalie Haynes's genius, this time with Stone Blind
Readers Top Reviews
Jane B.RMCW
Having read Natalie Haynes' insightful and thought-provoking novel 'The children of Jocasta', I was eager to read her story of Medusa and her plight. A beautiful young woman, raped by a powerful male (god) (who gets off without blame) and punished by a powerful female (goddess) out of spite, finds herself in a situation that has resonated for women down the centuries and is still prevalent today. How disappointed and disillusioned I was to find the story set out in a trivialised and juvenile way, written in a jokey, matey and comic-book language. Medusa's hair, turned into snakes, and her eyes that reduced those who looked at her to stone are immeasurably sad and, in my opinion, deserve more that simply to be made light of, contrary to the various film versions, but should form part of a story that is told in a way that is sympathetic towards women. I expected a more serious and in-depth approach to Medusa's story from a classicist of Ms. Haynes' standing. I could not finish the book.
JONATHAN
I love her books and will always read them eagerly. (Love her her wit, psychological insight, knowledge and enthusiasm.) But this one was quite tough -- the short chapters each from the viewpoint of a different character made it (intentionally) hard to follow at times, if endlessly fascinating. And the relentless 'females good/victims, males cruel/persecutors or else clueless' does get quite wearing -- as does the continual attempt to make 'human' sense of the gods' decisions and interactions. But I wouldn't have missed it for the world, and -- as always -- I will never see Greek myths in the same light again.
Ralph Blumenau
This is Natalie Haynes’ mainly witty take on the myths connected with the story of the Medusa. The myths of course have the gods behave in many respects like human beings, and Natalie Haynes makes them come exceptionally alive, endowing them with lots of lively dialogue, and giving entertaining accounts of their squabbles and rivalries. These are not always related to the main stories. What is striking is that sometimes the deities cannot or dare not take their anger out at someone who has offended them, but instead take it out on someone else. At the beginning of the book there is an intimidating cast of characters: twenty-nine deities and ten mortals. It is a closely knit collection of myths: THE STORY OF THE MEDUSA: Her parents and her sisters. Her birth as the third and only mortal and beautiful one of the three Gorgon sisters. Her rape by Poseidon. Why and how the goddess Athene then turned her from a beautiful girl into the fearsome creature whose glance, when met by the glance of others, would turn them into stone. Why and how Perseus cut off her head, and used it as a weapon. The head of the Medusa speaks to us several times. (This does not seem to be based on any mythical source.) Why and how Zeus got Athene to take the Medusa’s head from Perseus and put it onto Athene’s breastplate. What happened in the end to the breastplate. (As far as I can ascertain, this is the other part of the book which, as far as I can ascertain, is the author’s pure invention, and not based on a myth.) THE STORY OF PERSEUS. At one point the author makes the first of several interventions; this one to tell the reader that Perseus was not the hero we have been told, but was a selfish little thug. His birth as the son of Zeus and Danaë. The back story of Danaë. Danaë’s relationship with Dictys, younger brother of King Polydectes. Why Perseus set out to bring the Medusa’s head to Polydectes. His search for the Medusa. His encounters with the Graiai (described farcically), with the Hesperides (and what invaluable equipment they gave him), and with Atlas. His beheading of the Medusa and the use he made of her head. His liberation of and marriage to the chained Andromeda. THE STORY OF ANDROMEDA. Her parents, Cassiope and Cepheus. Andromeda’s resented betrothal to her uncle Phinaeus. The narcissism of Cassiope which angered the Nereids, who took their anger out on Andromeda by having Poseidon tie her to a rock and in danger of being either drowned by the rising sea or devoured by a sea monster. Her rescue by and marriage to Perseus. How the angry Phinaeus and his followers broke in on the marriage ceremony, and what happened to them. THE STORY OF HEPHAESTUS . The st...
