An intriguing take on a fascinating character from history. She is intelligent, observant, and politically alert but also missing from her own story here.
Plot in a Nutshell
A historical novel following the ebbs and flows of Cloepatra’s life. The novel starts when she is a child studying amongst the scrolls of the great library of Alexandria she ponders how she will live up to her destiny whilst telling her own story.
Following familial precedent Cleopatra inherits and is married to her hated younger brother Ptolomy to rule together. Spurred on by his advisors Ptolomy schemes to take control of Egypt and rule alone. Cleopatra surrounded by only a small force of loyal men turns to Rome and to Caesar. With him she must negotiate for her, and her country’s future.
Thoughts
What is here is well written, rich in historical detail.
Solomons’ Cleopatra is compelling. She is book-smart from her studies and her love of the great library at Alexandria, and politically savvy from years of watching life at court. She read enemies well, schemes effectively, and carries herself with the unquestioned gravity of a queen. Her love for Egypt, it’s people and its rich history jumps from the page.
There is a richness to the history, and Solomon doesn’t sanitise the world she is recreating. Sex runs throughout the novel, but positioned as currency and power not necessarily pleasure. Slavery is everywhere and not remarked upon.
Rome comes to life beautifully, and some of the scenes on the Nile with crowds on the riverbed transport. The politics, whether Roman or the Egyptian court are also well drawn. The novels interest in who gets to tell Cleopatra’s story is compelling, even if it does feel a little heavy handed at times.
The first section is the strongest. It follows Cleopatra through her early years, learning both from the scholars and watching her father. He thoughtfulness in deciding what kind of Queen she wants to be felt enaging and purposeful. Her trip to Rome was well handled and gave a good insight into who she is becoming, a character under pressure.
Where the novel loses momentum is its heavy focus on her relationship with Caesar. He figures so large that Cleopatra begins to feel like a secondary character in her own story. At times I felt like that might be the point, it does convey how carefully she needed to manage him, and how unmoored she was from her own power during this period. However it ultimately falls flat, and it led to a novel that wasn’t what I’d signed up for. Much of this section is taken up with waiting for the Roman fleet to arrive, which keeps the focus relentlessly internal. We get little sense of how the siege affects anyone beyond the main protagonists. We see little of Egypt’s people during this time and with this gap I lost more sympathy for Cleopatra who seemed disengaged and uninterested in anything beyond her own affairs.
The introduction of a second narrator in the form of Servilia, Cato’s sister and Cesear’s long time lover, also felt like an odd choice. Servilia is genuinely interesting character and I found myself drawn to her sections more than I expected. Solomon renders her sympathetically and her perspectives on the erasure of women from history is more compelling than anything Cleopatra does. Almost all my highlighted passages are from her sections. Her perspective unfortunately only compounds my issue with the novel. Her story orbits Caesar, which deepens the pull away from Cleopatra.
A further disappointment was the portrayal of Charmian, who by most accounts was a significant counsellor and advisor to Cleopatra. Here she is a loyal slave from birth – their bond is deep and clearly meaningful, but she reads more as a trusted, indentured sister than as a woman of real influence and power. It’s a diminishment that sits uneasily and at odds with a novel pushing hard on the question of whose stories get told.
Whilst there was elements I enjoyed the novel loses sight of its own protagonist when it matters most. It’s hard not to wonder, though, whether that’s the plan. The ending has the feeling of a first part, and if the author is building toward a sequel I’m not sure there was enough here to have me come back for more.
She hasn’t tried to murder me, and in our family that is as close as we can get to love.