Bright Air Black - David Vann

I received this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. After I opened up the book and read the first few lines, I was wondering what I'd gotten myself into. I went back and read the Goodreads description. Medea, from Jason and the Argonauts, retold in prose, from Medea's perspective. I was familiar with the story of Jason and the Argonauts, in as much as I had heard their names, and knew it involved the recovery of a golden fleece, but that was it. 

I asked my husband, "What do you know about Jason and the Argonauts?" His reply, "Is it a band?" 

So after about 15 minutes on Wikipedia, I felt backgrounded enough to start in on this story. The prose writing feels like a hat tip to Greek epics, and indeed, Jason and his Argonauts had plenty of adventures in recovering the Golden Fleece, but Bright Air Black starts off with Medea on the bow of the Argo, hacking her brother to pieces in and tossing him into the sea in order to slow her father's pursuit. And for what? A fleece covered in gold only because it was used to sift for gold in a stream in Medea's kingdom. As the Argo speeds toward Iolcus, Jason's home, the gold dust slowly shakes out of the fleece, and the entire Jason and the Argonaut myth unravels for us, and for Medea as well.

Expected to arrive in Iolcus as a hero, and granted the throne his birthright demands, Jason instead finds his uncle Pelias enthroned as king, Jason's own father, brother and mother, all killed by Pelias in brutal fashion. Jason and Medea are enslaved. Over the course of six years they have two sons together while Medea plots revenge on Pelias that would give Jason his kingdom back. But things never go quite as Medea thinks they will. Yes, the people are afraid of her, as she wanted, but that doesn't always give her the result she expects. And she has this awareness of things, of knowing that the stories which are ultimately told will not match the truth of events. 

I can see why ancient Greeks were so intrigued by her. A princess who commits horrendous acts in the name of love, for Jason, for her sons. But who sacrifices all those things she claims to love in the name of revenge. She's a deft with a blade as with poison, as with trickery. Does she really even love Jason? Does she really have any power at all? Medea is such a rich character that of course Euripides would make an entire Greek tragedy of her later years. 

David Vann's retelling is remarkable all the more for giving us yet another view of Medea. She's altogether ancient and modern. This book was a real pleasure.

4/5 Stars.