“Lavinia” is a book of passion and war, generous and austerely beautiful, from a writer working at the height of her powers. She doesnt pick up a sword or scheme but she has agency and self-reflection of a sort that LeGuin handles so well. And so she tells us what Virgil did not: the story of her life, and of the love of her life. Lavinia goes from barely being a character in the original poem to a fully realised person, fleshed-out, subtly drawn and not a generic badass Strong Female Character. When a fleet of Trojan ships sails up the Tiber, Lavinia decides to take her destiny into her own hands. But omens and prophecies spoken by the sacred springs say she must marry a foreigner-that she will be the cause of a bitter war-and that her husband will not live long. Her mother wants her to marry handsome, ambitious Turnus. Lavinia grows up knowing nothing but peace and freedom, until suitors come. Le Guin gives Lavinia a voice in a novel that takes us to the half-wild world of ancient Italy, when Rome was a muddy village near seven hills. In the Aeneid, Virgil’s hero fights to claim the king’s daughter, Lavinia, with whom he is destined to found an empire. Le Guin’s 2008 speculative/historical novel “Lavinia.” For October’s Center Book Discussion Group, we will read and discuss Ursula K.
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