Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley door pickup 10am - 7pm 3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611

  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
Helen of Troy, 1993: Poems

Helen of Troy, 1993: Poems

Zoccola, Maria

Paperback

General Poetry

Publisher Price: $18.00

ISBN10: 1668046334
ISBN13: 9781668046333
Publisher: Scribner Book Company
Published: Jan 14 2025
Pages: 96
Weight: 0.17
Height: 0.30 Width: 5.80 Depth: 8.80
Language: English
*A New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice Pick*

By turns hilarious and provocative, it's an affecting character study and modern mythic retelling. --Publishers 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 Homer's 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 isn't the same thing as staying gone...

Rooted in a lush natural landscape, this stunning poetry collection explores Helen's 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: if you never owned a bone-sharp biography... / i don't want to hear it. i want you silent. / i want you listening to me.

Blurring the line between mythology and modernity, Helen of Troy, 1993 is an unforgettable collection that shows the Homeric Helen like she's never been seen before.

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