This is a retelling of the ancient Greek tale of Clytemnestra and her husband Agamemnon by Toibin. He tells of how Agamemnon killed his daughter Iphigenia as an offering to the gods for them to help his army win the Trojan War. After Clytemnestra witnessed the murder, she decided to kill her husband to avenge the death.

She engages Aegisthus, a powerful prisoner, in her plot. Soon after she kills Agamemnon, Aegisthus kidnaps her son Orestes in an effort to control Clytemnestra. Electra, the older daughter, remains in the palace and wants to avenge her father's death. So when Orestes returns, Electra persuades him to kill their mother. That leaves Electra in charge.

Toibin adds the character of Leander who befriends Orestes during his kidnapping and eventual return to the palace. The story is told first from the point of view of Clytemnestra. Then it is told by Electra and finally Orestes.

I was not familiar with this Greek tale before this book. However I enjoyed the modern treatment of the story.

Having sacrificed his daughter Iphigenia to the gods to make the winds turn, the legendary Greek king Agamemnon returns home after the success in Troy. Yet, his wife Clytemnestra cannot forgive him and together with Aegisthus, her new lover, she plans the murder of her husband. To spare their son Orestes this tragedy, she has him abducted to a faraway place where he will spend the next years and only come back as an adult. On his return, Orestes find the palace dramatically changed. His sister Electra is his only confidant and she convinces him that revenge for the mother’s plot is necessary.

Colm Tóibín has chosen characters of classic Greek mythology for his latest novel. Even though most of their stories are well known since they have been told by Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides 2500 years ago and repeatedly been presented on stages all over the world, they have not lost any of their power and relevance. Yet, “House of Names” is not just a repetition of the old story, Colm Tóibín freely adapted the plots and character traits to thus create a new version which is absolutely convincing and entertaining.

What I liked most was having the different characters tell their own stories from their point of view. Thus, chronology is broken up, but we get a much deeper idea of the protagonists and their motives. First of all, Clytemnestra. Her being lured by murder to revenge her daughter and the hatred she feels for Agamemnon is quite impressive. She is a strong woman who can assert herself – but, on the other hand, it is her lover who manipulates her to get into power himself. When it comes to her guilt, especially in front of her son, her outer appearance collapses and suddenly, she is haunted and cannot leave planet earth even after death. She is trapped.

Electra is her actual opponent. It is the daughter’s scheme that finally kills the mother, in their cold-bloodedness, both women are equal. They only differ in the question of the gods’ accountability for what happens on earth.

Orestes is the tragic hero. He wants peace more than anything else, but is tempted into his family’s and friends’ conspiracies under false pretence and thus commits crimes unintentionally. Too weak to force his inherent right to the throne, he has to stand on the side-line when other shape the state.

As said before, the ancient stories have lost nothing of their significance over the time. Most of the seven deadly sins can be found in the story: e.g. Aegisthus’ lust, Electra’s wrath, or Clytemnestra’s pride. Orestes shows some virtues to oppose the negativity: he is kind, especially towards Ianthe, patient when he listens to the elders and in is exile, chaste and generally temperate in his emotions. Good and evil fight over predominance in the world – that’s what we can see in the news every day. Even though the main conflict is an old story, you can easily detect how modern the characters are and this renders the novel relevant also today. Thus, a very successful transformation into our time.

had high hopes for this work. I haven't read and Tóibín but I have heard good things and I have an endless fascination with retellings of ancient myths and folk tales but I was sadly disappointed.

The story of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra has everything you would expect from a Greek myth: war, death, murder, kidnapping, betrayals, affairs and Clytemnestra has long been vilified as one of the bad women of literature, making her a prime candidate for a modern rehabilitation or at least a more nuanced portrayal. I suppose Tóibín does this, at least he allows her to be a betrayed, grieving mother rather than simply a power-hungry, devious harpy. Unfortunately she, and the rest of her doomed family remain totally untouchable, kept at an infuriating distance from the reader by a constant chilly, detached tone. For all the professions and dramatic acts of love, hatred, and wrath I simply couldn't feel these emotions in the characters or any emotion for them.
Descriptive elements are almost totally lacking; characters, settings, feelings all absent or just barely sketched out.
When coupled with prose that is dull and rather workmanlike and a lack of decent dialogue we are left with a dry lifeless narrative. Who would have thought that such a terribly blood-soaked could be dreadfully dull?

If you have a penchant for insightfully told myths you can't do better than to skip this uninspired addition and go straight to the work of Christa Wolf who has done some sterling work on Medea and Cassandra.

<i>House of Names</i> is Colm Tóibín’s re-interpretation of the story of Clytemnestra, told from the shifting perspectives of three different characters. He writes equally convincingly as a devastated mother and vengeful wife, as an embittered daughter, and as a young son coming-of-age far from his home and family. Tóibín is so successful in this narrative approach that the character you identify and empathize with in one chapter becomes someone else entirely when seen through another character’s eyes in subsequent chapters. The shifting perspectives are a wonderful treat, and make this a fast and compelling read.

Tóibín takes liberties with the original mythology, but for a reader unfamiliar with the tale, it doesn’t hamper the retelling. My only complaint is that Tóibín rarely takes advantage of his setting—for a novel that should feel uniquely Greek, the events never feels rooted in any specific place. Nonetheless, Tóibín creates an arresting story of corruption, betrayal, and revenge, and brings a new perspective to this old tale.

*I received this book for free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This in no way affected my opinion of the book, or the content of my review.

I was intrigued by the sound of this book as its subject was Clytemnestra, she of Greek myth who married Agamemnon and whose daughter died horribly at his command. Hers has all the makings of a great story: adventure, war, death, murder and horrific betrayal. Toibin is a skilled writer and cleverly evoked the sense of place, taking me back to those times – the scenery, the smells, the heat. I must admit, however, to being slightly bored in places – I felt the story could have moved on more quickly; that it got bogged down every now and then. Clytemnestra was brilliantly portrayed, but Electra, her surviving daughter, and her son, Orestes, confused me, particularly towards the end of the book. I enjoyed many sections, but was left feeling a little dissatisfied.

Greek mythology has always interested me, so I was drawn to House of Names - an adaptation of the story of King Agamemnon and his family. I appreciated Colm Toibin's creative imagining of how Clytemnestra reacted to her daughter's death and everything that followed, and the insight in Orestes' life and thoughts. It was an entertaining novel, but never really gripped me. It would have been nice to have more of Electra's point of view, since she became such an influential figure. Additionally, it had a rather abrupt ending. That said, fellow fans of Greek mythology will find the tale enjoyable!

This story was told from 3 perspectives: Clytemnestra, Electra (her other daughter), and Orestes (her son); this was unique and unexpected, as I had thought the story would just be from Clytemnestra's point of view. It was an interesting story that really took the time to evaluate the various repercussions of each action. However, nothing really resonated with me. For some reason, the actions and the characters and the emotions ... it all seemed very removed. Nothing stirred my heart or made me feel sympathy or empathy; it almost felt like I was reading an interesting history book. This is definitely more of a literary fiction than anything else, and I think the author really tried to do indepth character analyses for all of the protagonists involved in the story. However, there was no connection felt between me and the characters, and this lack of caring caused me to lose interest in this story. I would recommend this for anyone who likes to read retellings based on Greek tales.

I suspect that the casual reader is either going to love this or hate this-in part depending on how committed one is to the original tale of the House of Atreus. In my case, it's been years since I read the Greeks so this was a joy. The tale seemed fresh and full of warnings about life that I know I missed as a teen. It's beautifully written. I appreciate Toibin trying something new with each book as it keeps me on my toes. This is not the easiest read but it's well worth your time. Thanks to netgalley for the ARC.

This powerful retelling of the stories of Clytemnestra, Agamemnon, Orestes, Electra, Iphigenia, …., develops these characters from the two-dimensional vase paintings of classical historical writing into breathing, bleeding, frightened, vengeful people. Told from the point of view of each of the characters, in turn, they live out their brief lives until they are only memories of names.

I recently had a conversation with a GR friend about which books are harder to review. She said that the ones you love and I opted for the ones for which you feel nothing. After reading The House of Names I stick to my choice. It is difficult to find my words when there is not much to say. I am infuriated to feel so nonemotional towards this novel because it started so well. I could feel the tension in Clytemnestra’s story and the writing was exquisite. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

The House of Names is a retelling of the Greek tragedy of the House of Atreus, drawing its inspiration from Aeschylus's trilogy Oresteia. You might want to read the original first to have a better idea of the starting point. I had no prior knowledge of the classic tale and I had no problem to follow the story. However, I made some research so I could compare the two versions. Would my experience with this novel have been different if I had read more classics? Probably.

Agamemnon is told by the gods that he needs to sacrifice his daughter Iphigenia in order to win the war. Although reluctant, he agrees to do so. Clytemnestra, his wife cannot come to terms with the sacrifice and kills her husband after careful planning together with her lover, Aegytus , when Agamemnon returns victorious from the war. In order to protect the other two children (Orestes and Electra) she asks her lover to take them away when the crime takes place. Electra is locked in the dungeon and Orestes is taken prisoner away from the castle form where he escapes. When Orestes returns home after years spend in exile he is convinced by his sister to kill her mother in revenge for their father death.

The story is told from three POV, Clytemnestra, Oreste and Electra. The novel starts strong, letting us inside the mind of the avenging mother. The account was powerful, chilling, I could feel her hurt and anger for the sacrifice of her daughter. I felt for her and empathized with her resolve to revenge, what she thought to be a useless murder. The second part, the account of Orestes, was written in the 3rd person and the prose became impersonal, flat and superficial. I did not care anymore. I felt like facts were presented but without any feelings involved. When we come back to the 1st person account of Electra I was already bored and her perspective did not manage to resurrect my initial appreciation for Tóibín’s writing.

There were some difference between the classic story and this retelling. The gods were not physically present, only spoken of and the focus was intended to be on the internal battles and the human emotions of the characters. I wrote “intended”because the aspect was not developed enough. I really do not understand why the author chose to write Orestes’ POV in 3rd person. Was it because in the end he was a pawn in the women hand’s? Was it because he was less important? Was it a stylistic decision? Whatever the reason, it did not work out well, in my opinion. Another theme that I would have liked to be further developed was the relationship with the Gods. There were some memorable passages in the first part regarding Clytemnestra’s loss of faith and it was hinted later that her greatest crime was not consulting with the Gods when deciding to kill his husband but I wanted more.

* „Among the gods now there is no one who offers me assistance or oversees my actions or knows my mind. There is no one among the gods to whom I appeal. I live alone in the shivering, solitary knowledge that the time of the gods has passed. ”

The House of Names is the first novel I read by Colm Toibin. I believe he is a talented writer and the novel was a quick and enjoyable read most of the time. However, I wanted more soul, less detachment.

I received this copy from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

*The quote is taken from an ARC and it might suffer modifications in the final version.

The author of Brooklyn and Nora Webster takes a turn away from Ireland, all the way back to Greek mythology and the story of Agamemnon, Clytemnestra, and their three children Iphigenia, Electra, and Orestes. This ancient story is ripe for a real page-turner with themes of parental love and betrayal, power and dominance, and thirst for revenge. However, with all of Toibin's past writing accolades (well-deserved, mind you), he completely misses this time out. These characters cry out for rich, deep development, to understand the motivation to kill a husband, to revenge a father, to betray everything one knows is good and decent. Yet, the voices of Clytemnestra and her children remain flat, unemotional, static. This is a book of telling, not showing; it should have pulled at my heartstrings, but it left me saying 'meh.' And this from a teacher who taught the Odyssey for years and drove her students crazy with Greek mythological connections throughout the school year?! Sorry, but this is a big 'PASS' for me.

Started out very strong, but there were very slow sections, and a focus on the bland that was confusing.

House of Names is the new book by Colm Toibin, the author who wrote the popular book Brooklyn, which was made into a movie of the same name. I have not yet read Brooklyn, nor anything else by Colm Toibin, so am unable to compare this book to his other works. House of Names started out oh-so-very strong with narrative from the point of view of Clytemnestra, the wife of Agamemnon and mother to Iphigenia. The book starts as Clytemnestra discovers that her husband has plans to sacrifice her daughter in order to appease the gods. Clytemnestra is a fascinating character to read. She is strong and determined in her revenge against Agamemnon, and this beginning part was compelling and drew me into the story.

Unfortunately, then the narrative switches to Clytemnestra’s son, Orestes, as he is kidnapped and goes to live in the country somewhere. We get his travels to the location where he’s being held, and then his escape from that place. These had some interesting bits, but as a whole it was slow and dragged. Orestes just isn’t that exciting of a character, especially when compared to the fire of Clytemnestra. Orestes just kind of floats around in his head, and while I enjoyed his scenes with his fellow prisoners, Mitros and Leander, there was too much wandering around and thinking for me. I felt sorry for him most of the time.

Besides Clytemnestra and Orestes, we also see a bit from Electra, Clytemnestra’s other daughter (and Orestes’ sister). I was so confused why Electra and later on Orestes, were so angry with their mother. The official synopsis above basically details the entire main plot of this book, and I never figured out why they were so angry. Their father killed their sister, and their mother took revenge for the murder of her daughter. And yet they both side with the father? I didn’t get it.

In terms of the writing, some of the more literary passages were repetitive and took paragraphs to state what could be said in one or two lines. Some of it was really beautifully written, but it was a bit too much. But, one thing that I really appreciated in the writing was the vagueness of certain scenes. I really thought that the violent scenes were written very well. They had just enough detail so you could picture the violence in your head, but not enough to be gruesome or graphic. The writing in these scenes felt reigned in, and Toibin really could’ve gone all out with the graphic violence factor here as this story involves murder and warfare. There is also a lot of sex, but that was also vaguely written as well (for the most part), and since I’m not a fan of a lot of graphic sex in books, I appreciated the vagueness here.

Another thing I really appreciated about House of Names was the lack of elaborate mention of all the gods that the Ancient Greeks believed in. I’m not big on Greek mythology, and sometimes in books that focus on this time there is so much about the mythology that I get confused. None of that happened here; the gods were just in the background, and not all named out. So I would say that for someone interested in Ancient Greece and/or The Trojan War, but worried that they wouldn’t be able to follow all the history, that isn’t a problem here. The book was easy to follow in terms of plot and characters, and that isn’t always the case for books set in this time frame.

While the beginning of the book was very strong, and I thought the middle was slow, I didn’t care for the ending at all, and either thought it needed to end a bit sooner, or it needed to continue on. I finished the book feeling confused and not sure what the point was. I wanted a book about a strong woman looking for vengeance, and that was just a small piece of this story. Or perhaps that strong woman seeking vengeance isn’t Clytemnestra, as the synopsis promises, but Electra. And it’s too bad she never grabbed my attention.

Bottom Line: Too much focus on the bland and doesn’t have a satisfying ending, but parts of it are gorgeous to read.

The retelling of the myth Clytemnestra and her husband Agamemnon. In case y'all don't know Agamemnon is the brother of Menalaus from whom Helen of Troy was taken by Paris in Homer's Iliad. LAgamemnon tricked his wife into bringing their daughter Iphigenia to him by saying she was to marry Achilles. He actually wanted her there bc the Gods told him he had to sacrifice his daughter in order for them to send favorable winds.
Clytemnestra begins plotting her revenge and takes Aegisthus, who was a prisoner of Agamemnon's, into her confidence. Together they plan and execute his murder. There are much greater consequences for Clytemnestra and her family than she could have seen when beginning this intrigue. The fallout from this act affects her and her other children and their community.
It's a good read. It reminded me of The Song of Achilles in the way that it reveals the people behind the myths by showing their vulnerabilities and more of the reasoning behind their actions.

Colm Toibin has spent much of his writing life to the depiction of mothers. This modern language version of Clytemnestra and her children is superb in its portrayal of a mother's grief over the loss of a daughter. A mother's vengeance can never be underestimated, by Agamemnon, or any human since that Greek tragedy.

ARC courtesy of NetGalley and Scribner.

A big thank you to Colm Tóibín, Simon and Schuster, and Netgalley for this free copy in exchange for an unbiased review.

I was immediately drawn to this book by the synopsis. I read any retellings or continuations of The Odyssey or The Iliad, my favorite so far being The Song of Achilles. I've also become a fan of Tóibín lately, so I jumped on his new release.

To clear up any confusion this book does not take any inspiration from the ancient texts, which I wish I had known when I started because I was thoroughly upset through most of it. The caveat would have been appreciated at the beginning, not the end.

Therefore taking the story as just that-a story-it was a satisfactory version of events. Orestes seems congested and impotent. He has one breakout moment motivated by his sister, but no action before, no action after. He's more of a feeling character. Leander is the masculine role in the story. Electra, on the other hand, craves to be out from the thumb of her mother so badly and is just too afraid to act. In fact I'm a little confused by her. Once all of her authority figures disappear she expresses outward force. I guess she couldn't break out on her own. There was just too much fear instilled.

Overall I'm pleased to have added this book to my repertoire. You never know what you'll get from Tóibín.

A really well done retelling. It was beautifully written and kept me engaged and interested for the whole book and it ended with me wanting more.

It's beneficial to read the original play of Aeschylus before picking up "House of Names", though Toibin himself acknowledges that there are many things he has taken the liberty of adding and imagining himself. Having recently read the original "Oresteia" I wanted to see what Toibin decided to do with the characters, and found "House of Names" to be a bit like an inconsistent soup which has too much vegetables and is only partly salted, with the salt not being mixed in properly through the whole pot.

I enjoyed the first section, which gives the reader a first-person tale from Clytaemnestra's perspective, the most. She's a fascinating character whose logic to kill Agamemnon I don't blame, for the man was a real bastard in "The Iliad", and his decision to sacrifice his daughter just for a change of the winds is really a topic that can garner a lot of discussion and debate. I enjoyed getting a better sense of her logic and emotional backstory, as well as enjoyed the way in which she was the character who introduced the theme of the gods/religion as a whole fading from the lives of humans, losing its heavily authoritative role. It's a relevant topic today, and I think now more than ever we're at a crossroads as a society when it comes to the debate of fate vs free will.

The Electra and Orestes sections, which are parts two and three respectively, were also enjoyable, though Orestes' focused much more on the narrative style and the filling in of details. This inconsistency in tone, going from Clytaemnestra's phisolophical thoughts to unconvincing and lukewarm Electra to heavily action-based Orestes, was one of the two big weaknesses of this book, I found. It was difficult to keep falling along or investing in each of the characters in the same way, especially because the children felt more unconvincingly developed than their mother. The second major issue I had with this book was that I actually wish Toibin had ended the book after the first three sections, or at least added one about Aegisthus, who I felt remained a caricature of a figure in the same underdeveloped manner, never going beyond being the general killer and lover figure that he was presented as by Aeschylus. "House of Names" drags on after the first section about Orestes, and everything that follows afterwards felt like unnecessary padding that was added in more for the word and page count than the actual story, difficult to follow along with and easy to skim.

"House of Names" is a bit inconsistent with what it tries to be. I would've appreciated a bit more similarities to the original, particularly in the iconic scene when Clytaemnestra meets Agamemnon and Cassandra, the latter becoming a bit unlikable even, with the overtones of cockiness Toibin gave her, which was uncharacteristic and strange compared to the original. It's a book that I think had much promise but ends up being very scrambled. Clytaemnestra is really the only person worth truly paying attention to, as she is at the heart of the "Oresteia" (as much as it is about Orestes deciding to kill her and commit the same crime as his mother) but never has her emotional story really told or appreciated. Reading the source text is helpful in order to fully appreciate this retelling/reimagining, but this can also be approached as a book you can read bits of in order to get to the most important parts. The rest exists mostly as narrative fluff.

House of names by Colm Tóibín is a heartbreaking retelling of the story of Clytemnestra and her children. A novel full of vengeance, strong-willed characters, all plotting each other's fate.

In my opinion, the strongest is Electra, who learned from the most powerful villains how to organise, calculate and rule the fates of others. Tóibín's style is objective, each character tells its own version of what happened, adding their own feelings.

In the beginning I thought I completely understood Clytemnestra up to the final act. Then, Aegisthus' actions also seemed well-meaning and calculated, yet proved as vengeful and personal as befitting a villain. Then I started to put my hopes into Orestes, only to realise that his friend Leander had the reins of what would happen next. And still, Electra proves it all in the end. What a captivating read, I honestly wouldn't have thought I could enjoy it so much, it being based on an old classic I was not too fond of.


The novel will be published on May the 9th 2017 and if you like retellings of old classics you should definitely give it a try. It's sublime ! Colm Tóibín proved to me yet again how talented he is.

Many thanks to Netgalley and Scribner for the opportunity to read and review this ARC. My review is scheduled to be published on my blog on May the 2nd.

3.5, rounded up. This is now the fourth of Tóibín's novels I've read, all of which I've enjoyed, and since my degrees are in theatre, I am fairly well conversant in the original Greek texts (The Oresteia, et. al.) upon which this is based. While it was a pleasure to read the author's somewhat modernistic take on the tale, I didn't feel the entire thing held together well, and was not quite sure the intent behind much of it. The first Clytemnestra section, strongly reminiscent of Tóibín's brilliant 'The Testament of Mary', is definitely the strongest, perhaps because her portions (as well as Electra's) are in first person, which intensifies the power; whereas the Orestes' sections, in third person, seem a bit 'removed' from the action.

I have two other minor qualms: 1. at least half the characters are presented as either gay or bisexual, which seems a bit ... excessive, with Orestes, who has been presented as exclusively gay and in love with Leander, suddenly taking up with Ianthe (Leander's sister )very late in the book. 2. The long section from which the book derives its name, in which Orestes and Leander spend five years living with an old hermit woman, is slow going and a bit superfluous to the main plot, and I never got the significance of that title.

Regardless, this was a lively and engrossing read for the most past, and I thank Netgalley, Scribner/Simon & Schuster and the author for the ARC, which allowed me to read the book prior to publication.

A retelling of the Greek tragedy of Agamemnon and the murder of his wife and daughter, Clytemnestra and Iphigenia. Well worth reading.