Mists of Avalon

In the interim between the bar and real life (read: searching high and low for a job), I'm also trying to read as many books as possible. Now, ordinarily I'd have a higher count (I'm at five finished since July 31), but naturally I had to pick a fricking long book. The Mists of Avalon runs to a densely-packed 876 pages, so it took a little time to get through. And some nights where I didn't bother to sleep so much.

I liked it quite a bit, really. It's interesting to see a different viewpoint of the Arthurian legend, and I liked how Christianity is told as just one expression of the "Goddess" as worshiped by the priestesses of Avalon. And I also appreciated the arguments made that Christianity is not evil in and of itself, but that the priests can, and often do, warp it to their own selfish, prejudiced and sometimes shortsighted ends.

But more than any of that, what I came away with was this: Gwenhwyfar is a fucking bitch. Seriously. Allow me to quote a conversation between her and Arthur:

"You must remember, my lady," said Arthur, "that I come of the royal line of Avalon. I am king, not only as Uther Pendragon's son, but because I am son of Igraine, who was daughter to the old Lady of the Lake. Gwenhwyfar, from time out of mind, the Lady ruled the land, and the king was no more than consort in time of war. Even in the days of Rome, the legions dealt with what they came to call client queens, who ruled the Tribes, and some of them were mighty warriors. Have you heard never of the Queen Boadicea? -she who, when her daughters were raped by the men of the legions, and the queen herself flogged as a rebel against Rome, raised an army and nearly drove all the Romans from these shores."
Gwenhwyfar said bitterly, "I hope they killed her."

Wow. Just, wow. She's a right charmer, huh? In most Arthurian tales, I actually find Guinevere fairly sympathetic, but in this book, she's such a fanatical Christian (the book calls her "pious"), not to mention such an unbelievably selfish and bitter woman, the exact antithesis of feminism, believing wholeheartedly that women are intrinsically evil and sinners, that I really don't understand why Lancelet and Arthur even tolerate her, let alone love her. It gets tiresome.

All in all though, it's a worthwhile book to read. I'm glad I did, even if it did run a little long for my taste. Now I'm reading, among other things, The Historian, by Elizabeth Kostova, and Anonymous Lawyer, by Jeremy Blachman. The latter is damn funny, about a hiring partner at a big corporate firm, who enjoys torturing associates. It's also a slender 272 pages. I'll be done by the end of the day. One day turnaround on library books is a good thing!