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An Arrow's Flight
The award-winning An Arrow's Flight tells the story of the Trojan War and Pyrrhus, the son of the fallen Achilles, now working as a go-go boy and hustler in the big city. Magically blending ancient headlines and modern myth, Merlis creates a fabulous new world where legendary heroes declare their endowments in personal ads and any panhandler may be a divinity in disguise. Comical, moving, startling in its audacity and range, An Arrow's Flight is a profound meditation on gay identity, straight power, and human liberation.
384 pages, Paperback
First published August 1, 1998
41 people are currently reading
3027 people want to read
About the author
Mark Merlis
13 books42 followersMark Merlis is an American writer and health policy analyst. He became an independent consultant in 2001, writing papers for government agencies and for organizations such as AARP, the American Cancer Society, and the Kaiser Family Foundation.
Born in Framingham, Massachusetts and raised in Baltimore, Maryland, Merlis attended Wesleyan University and Brown University. He subsequently took a job with the Maryland Department of Health to support himself while writing. In 1987, he took a job with the Congressional Research Service at the Library of Congress as a social legislation specialist, and was involved in the creation of the Ryan White Care Act.
Beginning in the 1990s, Merlis published a series of novels. His first novel about a closeted literature professor in the McCarthy era, American Studies, won the Ferro-Grumley Award for LGBT Literature and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction in 1995, and his second, An Arrow's Flight, a riff on the Philoctetes myth, set simultaneously in the ancient and modern worlds, won the 1999 Lambda Literary Award for Gay Fiction.
Merlis currently lives in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania with his partner Bob, and continues to work as an independent health policy consultant.
Born in Framingham, Massachusetts and raised in Baltimore, Maryland, Merlis attended Wesleyan University and Brown University. He subsequently took a job with the Maryland Department of Health to support himself while writing. In 1987, he took a job with the Congressional Research Service at the Library of Congress as a social legislation specialist, and was involved in the creation of the Ryan White Care Act.
Beginning in the 1990s, Merlis published a series of novels. His first novel about a closeted literature professor in the McCarthy era, American Studies, won the Ferro-Grumley Award for LGBT Literature and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction in 1995, and his second, An Arrow's Flight, a riff on the Philoctetes myth, set simultaneously in the ancient and modern worlds, won the 1999 Lambda Literary Award for Gay Fiction.
Merlis currently lives in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania with his partner Bob, and continues to work as an independent health policy consultant.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 101 reviews
November 17, 2017
I loved this book, but I'm not really sure who I'd recommend it to. Having some kind of knowledge or passion for Greek mythology seems requisite going in - I can't imagine getting much enjoyment out of this if you aren't familiar with the original stories that Merlis is adapting and expounding on and subverting - but this is not your run of the mill Homeric retelling.
You start the novel with Pyrrhus, son of Achilles, and you think you're going to Troy. That's how the story goes, anyway - Achilles dies, Pyrrhus takes his place as leader of the Myrmidons, and with the bow of Philoctetes, Pyrrhus takes Troy. Mark Merlis has other plans.
What starts as a (granted, wildly unconventional) retelling of the tale of Pyrrhus quickly morphs into something bigger, via a detour to Sophocoles' Philoctetes - an allegorical commentary on the AIDS crisis in 1980s America. And it's just weird enough that it works, beautifully. This is a quietly powerful and unsettling story that starts with the Trojan War and ends up having a lot to say about fate and free will and gay identity.
We're held at arm's length from our anti-hero Pyrrhus for the majority of this story. Self-centered, lazy, and apathetic, Pyrrhus is ostensibly difficult to root for. And yet. He gets under your skin, as do all of Merlis's characters. In that way, this isn't necessarily an easy book to love. It's deliberately provocative and graphic, and it shows an ugliness to human nature that isn't easy to stare in the face. But it's an even stronger achievement for that, I think. Merlis is able to take this dark and cynical story and infuse it with just enough hope and romance that you're compelled to see it through to the end - with beautiful payoff once you do.
Merlis's prose is witty, droll, and surprisingly incisive. It ranges from mildly amusing to positively breathtaking. There were so many lines I had to stop and reread just to take in the full effect. Passages like this:
And this:
If you're looking for a modern but slightly more straightforward Greek mythology retelling, try The Song of Achilles or Ransom or Alcestis or Bright Air Black. If you're looking for a powerful gay epic that touches on the AIDS crisis, try Angels in America or The Heart's Invisible Furies or Tell the Wolves I'm Home. If your interests are niche enough that you're looking for a combination, boy do I have some great news for you about An Arrow's Flight.
You start the novel with Pyrrhus, son of Achilles, and you think you're going to Troy. That's how the story goes, anyway - Achilles dies, Pyrrhus takes his place as leader of the Myrmidons, and with the bow of Philoctetes, Pyrrhus takes Troy. Mark Merlis has other plans.
What starts as a (granted, wildly unconventional) retelling of the tale of Pyrrhus quickly morphs into something bigger, via a detour to Sophocoles' Philoctetes - an allegorical commentary on the AIDS crisis in 1980s America. And it's just weird enough that it works, beautifully. This is a quietly powerful and unsettling story that starts with the Trojan War and ends up having a lot to say about fate and free will and gay identity.
We're held at arm's length from our anti-hero Pyrrhus for the majority of this story. Self-centered, lazy, and apathetic, Pyrrhus is ostensibly difficult to root for. And yet. He gets under your skin, as do all of Merlis's characters. In that way, this isn't necessarily an easy book to love. It's deliberately provocative and graphic, and it shows an ugliness to human nature that isn't easy to stare in the face. But it's an even stronger achievement for that, I think. Merlis is able to take this dark and cynical story and infuse it with just enough hope and romance that you're compelled to see it through to the end - with beautiful payoff once you do.
Merlis's prose is witty, droll, and surprisingly incisive. It ranges from mildly amusing to positively breathtaking. There were so many lines I had to stop and reread just to take in the full effect. Passages like this:
Did they just not believe it, the Trojans? Or did they believe it the way you believe you're going to die? With certainty and utter incredulity so perfectly balanced that they fight to a draw, leaving the ignorant animal in you free to get out of bed in the morning.
And this:
The most terrifying thing that could happen to anyone: to have to stand there and hear, from someone who knew everything, the worst you've ever thought about yourself.
If you're looking for a modern but slightly more straightforward Greek mythology retelling, try The Song of Achilles or Ransom or Alcestis or Bright Air Black. If you're looking for a powerful gay epic that touches on the AIDS crisis, try Angels in America or The Heart's Invisible Furies or Tell the Wolves I'm Home. If your interests are niche enough that you're looking for a combination, boy do I have some great news for you about An Arrow's Flight.
September 29, 2024
✰ 3.25 stars ✰
“Prophecies are not about accidents, or random caprices of the gods.
They are about what you will do, in defiance of everything you thought you knew about yourself.”
There comes a moment in every reader's life that they begin a novel and can't quite understand what exactly it is that they're reading. When they fail to figure it out on their own, they turn to our lifeline Google to better explain that which the writing has been unable to do so a few chapters in.
That moment has finally arrived for me. 🙃
“I suppose only a few men are ever really granted a vision of their fate. We all may have our fortune told, or we may guess it on our own.”
And after a brief search on the Internet, I returned to Pyrrhus' journey with a slightly better understanding of what was to come. Published in 1998, An Arrow's Flight is Mark Merlis' literary fiction of the gay retelling of the loosely inspired Sophocles' story of Philoctetes and Pyrrhus, or Neoptolemus that has been recounted for almost three millennia. Set during the days cataclysmic Trojan war, it is a unique if not ambitious blend of modernity with mythology - of tragedy, identifying with identity. It weaves the tale of twenty-one year, Pyrrhus, son of the fallen Achilles, from the days of which he listlessly makes his way through New York as a self-employed hustler - a rent boy who sold his body, ironically to pay off the rent, and then simply because he was bored ('I'm not doing anything wrong')- he suddenly finds himself on a quest meant to find his purpose, to realize that maybe he already recognized a part of him, he for so long scorned and chose to deny. 😟
For when he embarks on what he initially thought when his late father's proverbial adviser arrives regaling him with the idea of setting sail to find himself, he soon finds that he has been beguiled into yet another mission - believing that his destiny was more than just being used for someone else's pleasure. A mission that Odysseus and co feel that as already an existing whore he'll have no qualms of servicing himself for political means - 'this isn’t a private affair. It is an affair of state, if you will. And a rather protracted one' - winning the affections of the banished and deliberately stranded Philoctetes - owner of a magical bow - that Oracle portends that whoever has it in their possession will turn the tide of war in their favor. 💔💔 Amidst those who are also eager to win his favor, and also struggling to find himself as he argues with himself to either charm Philoctetes with his own charm, only for him to slowly discover that the disillusion of himself may have more faults in the cracks than he may have realized.
“He couldn’t be two people. If one of them was going to have a future, the other one would have to die.”
It took me a while to adapt to the writing style; but once I understood the mission, it was easy to get swept away - wondering what fate awaited all those involved. Can you sympathize with a character like Pyrrhus, beautiful and empty, a vessel for your dreams - who did not carry the weight of his father's expectations on his shoulders, but wished to prove his own? Who loftily took in stride his overzealous sexual endeavors, not realizing how it would literally come back in his face, when those who preyed upon his existing nature to make him of use for their own political gain? A honeytrap, for a lack of a more suitable if not unpleasant term - who had no past worth recalling and no destiny - other than making a name for himself. 😢 And even then, his innocence was robbed of him, when he was compelled to act in a service unbecoming of his nature, and yet, what others felt he was only capable of.
I did - at times. From his roommate days with Leucon, a less than dazzling counterpart to Pyrrhus' beauty, you could tell that it was gearing up to be a tragedy, if not a travesty, in which he lost the chance to speak up on his own behalf. The odds were never in his favor, and that hurt to know. Even with the unnecessary chorus of interruptions from the omniscient chorus, it was disheartening how 'the casting call was for a whore, and one had shown up just in time. History turned on him; the world was waiting.' I did not pity him, but I sympathized with him.
He was someone who could not discern the difference between care or love - empathy or compassion - or simply seeing that he was worth something more than being a cheap rent for hire. 'God, you poor little shit. If you don’t even care what you feel, who the fuck will.' 🫂 Through his trials and ordeals of trying to understand the difference between a meaningful relationship or meaningless sex was a catalyst that drove him to care for hurting Phioctetes - that he did not want to falsify his feelings for him for the sake of beguiling him. It's the subtlety in which the author slowly led to that final breakdown - where its fight or flight - that determined what his destiny was.
“We don’t seem to have a great deal of control over events. You were … my only arrow. Now we’ve shot it.”
It was his courtship of Philoctetes or rather the attempt to woo him in their favor that stirs his heart to better understand the kind of person he wants to be. 'He was a queer, he got hurt, Odysseus got rid of him. / A bit oversimplified, but: in essence., Philoctetes was an older man who has lived the scene longer than he has, witnessed the aftermaths of affections and withstand the nature of those who seek him for their own pleasures, without really knowing him. ❤️🩹❤️🩹 But, they developed a kinship between them not based on mutual pleasure, but of understanding and seeking out warmth and solace in their presence - 'as if he believed that there was a hero inside there, one who would sooner or later manifest himself.' 😔
There is some twisted irony in the symbolic way both sides were desperate to claim the bow for themselves - covet something he held close, despite its purpose, lacking. To get deeper into that would almost be like saying we envy those who live life as they feel best. To be most comfortable with our truest nature and spite those who have to live a life of shadows because of the discrimination of moral ideas. 😟 For the very snake bite - a tiny wound that people couldn't even see that cost him to be cast asunder was described as almost an affliction that was catching - a grievance that made him an untouchable. That very comparison to that of how being gay is a stigma was a painful contrast that resonated with me deeply. 🤧
Or perhaps, I'm just reaching. 😔
“Perhaps this was all written somewhere. But all Destiny’s scribblings, if compiled into one unimaginable volume, would not yield a message.
She has no point to make. Corythus was innocent. Even the snake was innocent. Philoctetes innocently misstepped, the snake innocently bit.”
It's funny. Until the very end, there really was no indication of what time period the story was taking place in; if you had told me it was the 90s, I would not have argued with that. But, it was not until, the author describes the green walls of the hospital room - family members arriving in silence and solitude to grieve for the sick, did I realize that Pyrrhus' coming-of-age adventure was actually set in the '70s - the era of clandestine gay liberation. 🥺 'We had a long time. I don’t know, it seems like a minute.' It was a quiet portrayal of the sinking feeling of the despair that the 80s would bring in - an aching sadness of time lost for love unfairly and tragically lost too soon...
Perrhaps, now knowing what I was getting myself into, I just might appreciate the little details I overlooked upon a reread. The writing definitely is a strange contrast of parallels of the events of the Trojan War, heralding for Pyrrhus to act fast or forever lose face in front of the gods and his father's legacy. It builds on the suspense of wondering which side the tide of fate would favor, which never allowed me to feel bored. There is a certain tacit humor to the comments that arise, speculating on the influence Pyrrhus' persona has had on others - an influence that is allowing others to spread their own wings and fly. There is a certain novelty to this - like I mentioned earlier, it was an ambitious endeavor. 👍🏻👍🏻 Ambitious in how it exemplified the presence of homosexuality in the form of a Trojan story - the idea that Lemnos, the very island Philoctetes was sentenced to live out the rest of his years - simply for being different than the rest of his crew, and destined to carry the stigma of a mark that set him apart - was a bit of a gay refuge, where no one was questioned for their beliefs, principles, or affections was an interesting sentiment. Almost as if Pyrrhus had been heading towards the light of Lemnos all along... 🙏🏻🙏🏻
It it is an ode of finding yourself and embracing your identity and not hiding behind a false image and being content with that feeling - a struggle that Pyrrhus did not realize he was grappling with - weary of having to explain himself, until he set out for his own quest to find his true calling. The inclusion of the Greek narrative made for a rather interesting take - a candid, if not bittersweet portrayal imbued with the longing of self-acceptance and self-worth, but also one that showed how there were those who stayed in the shadows for fear of being smited by the gods - a predominant feeling that still sadly rings true to those who still are too afraid to be true to themselves. 🏹
“Prophecies are not about accidents, or random caprices of the gods.
They are about what you will do, in defiance of everything you thought you knew about yourself.”
There comes a moment in every reader's life that they begin a novel and can't quite understand what exactly it is that they're reading. When they fail to figure it out on their own, they turn to our lifeline Google to better explain that which the writing has been unable to do so a few chapters in.
That moment has finally arrived for me. 🙃
“I suppose only a few men are ever really granted a vision of their fate. We all may have our fortune told, or we may guess it on our own.”
And after a brief search on the Internet, I returned to Pyrrhus' journey with a slightly better understanding of what was to come. Published in 1998, An Arrow's Flight is Mark Merlis' literary fiction of the gay retelling of the loosely inspired Sophocles' story of Philoctetes and Pyrrhus, or Neoptolemus that has been recounted for almost three millennia. Set during the days cataclysmic Trojan war, it is a unique if not ambitious blend of modernity with mythology - of tragedy, identifying with identity. It weaves the tale of twenty-one year, Pyrrhus, son of the fallen Achilles, from the days of which he listlessly makes his way through New York as a self-employed hustler - a rent boy who sold his body, ironically to pay off the rent, and then simply because he was bored ('I'm not doing anything wrong')- he suddenly finds himself on a quest meant to find his purpose, to realize that maybe he already recognized a part of him, he for so long scorned and chose to deny. 😟
For when he embarks on what he initially thought when his late father's proverbial adviser arrives regaling him with the idea of setting sail to find himself, he soon finds that he has been beguiled into yet another mission - believing that his destiny was more than just being used for someone else's pleasure. A mission that Odysseus and co feel that as already an existing whore he'll have no qualms of servicing himself for political means - 'this isn’t a private affair. It is an affair of state, if you will. And a rather protracted one' - winning the affections of the banished and deliberately stranded Philoctetes - owner of a magical bow - that Oracle portends that whoever has it in their possession will turn the tide of war in their favor. 💔💔 Amidst those who are also eager to win his favor, and also struggling to find himself as he argues with himself to either charm Philoctetes with his own charm, only for him to slowly discover that the disillusion of himself may have more faults in the cracks than he may have realized.
“He couldn’t be two people. If one of them was going to have a future, the other one would have to die.”
It took me a while to adapt to the writing style; but once I understood the mission, it was easy to get swept away - wondering what fate awaited all those involved. Can you sympathize with a character like Pyrrhus, beautiful and empty, a vessel for your dreams - who did not carry the weight of his father's expectations on his shoulders, but wished to prove his own? Who loftily took in stride his overzealous sexual endeavors, not realizing how it would literally come back in his face, when those who preyed upon his existing nature to make him of use for their own political gain? A honeytrap, for a lack of a more suitable if not unpleasant term - who had no past worth recalling and no destiny - other than making a name for himself. 😢 And even then, his innocence was robbed of him, when he was compelled to act in a service unbecoming of his nature, and yet, what others felt he was only capable of.
I did - at times. From his roommate days with Leucon, a less than dazzling counterpart to Pyrrhus' beauty, you could tell that it was gearing up to be a tragedy, if not a travesty, in which he lost the chance to speak up on his own behalf. The odds were never in his favor, and that hurt to know. Even with the unnecessary chorus of interruptions from the omniscient chorus, it was disheartening how 'the casting call was for a whore, and one had shown up just in time. History turned on him; the world was waiting.' I did not pity him, but I sympathized with him.
He was someone who could not discern the difference between care or love - empathy or compassion - or simply seeing that he was worth something more than being a cheap rent for hire. 'God, you poor little shit. If you don’t even care what you feel, who the fuck will.' 🫂 Through his trials and ordeals of trying to understand the difference between a meaningful relationship or meaningless sex was a catalyst that drove him to care for hurting Phioctetes - that he did not want to falsify his feelings for him for the sake of beguiling him. It's the subtlety in which the author slowly led to that final breakdown - where its fight or flight - that determined what his destiny was.
“We don’t seem to have a great deal of control over events. You were … my only arrow. Now we’ve shot it.”
It was his courtship of Philoctetes or rather the attempt to woo him in their favor that stirs his heart to better understand the kind of person he wants to be. 'He was a queer, he got hurt, Odysseus got rid of him. / A bit oversimplified, but: in essence., Philoctetes was an older man who has lived the scene longer than he has, witnessed the aftermaths of affections and withstand the nature of those who seek him for their own pleasures, without really knowing him. ❤️🩹❤️🩹 But, they developed a kinship between them not based on mutual pleasure, but of understanding and seeking out warmth and solace in their presence - 'as if he believed that there was a hero inside there, one who would sooner or later manifest himself.' 😔
There is some twisted irony in the symbolic way both sides were desperate to claim the bow for themselves - covet something he held close, despite its purpose, lacking. To get deeper into that would almost be like saying we envy those who live life as they feel best. To be most comfortable with our truest nature and spite those who have to live a life of shadows because of the discrimination of moral ideas. 😟 For the very snake bite - a tiny wound that people couldn't even see that cost him to be cast asunder was described as almost an affliction that was catching - a grievance that made him an untouchable. That very comparison to that of how being gay is a stigma was a painful contrast that resonated with me deeply. 🤧
Or perhaps, I'm just reaching. 😔
“Perhaps this was all written somewhere. But all Destiny’s scribblings, if compiled into one unimaginable volume, would not yield a message.
She has no point to make. Corythus was innocent. Even the snake was innocent. Philoctetes innocently misstepped, the snake innocently bit.”
It's funny. Until the very end, there really was no indication of what time period the story was taking place in; if you had told me it was the 90s, I would not have argued with that. But, it was not until, the author describes the green walls of the hospital room - family members arriving in silence and solitude to grieve for the sick, did I realize that Pyrrhus' coming-of-age adventure was actually set in the '70s - the era of clandestine gay liberation. 🥺 'We had a long time. I don’t know, it seems like a minute.' It was a quiet portrayal of the sinking feeling of the despair that the 80s would bring in - an aching sadness of time lost for love unfairly and tragically lost too soon...
Perrhaps, now knowing what I was getting myself into, I just might appreciate the little details I overlooked upon a reread. The writing definitely is a strange contrast of parallels of the events of the Trojan War, heralding for Pyrrhus to act fast or forever lose face in front of the gods and his father's legacy. It builds on the suspense of wondering which side the tide of fate would favor, which never allowed me to feel bored. There is a certain tacit humor to the comments that arise, speculating on the influence Pyrrhus' persona has had on others - an influence that is allowing others to spread their own wings and fly. There is a certain novelty to this - like I mentioned earlier, it was an ambitious endeavor. 👍🏻👍🏻 Ambitious in how it exemplified the presence of homosexuality in the form of a Trojan story - the idea that Lemnos, the very island Philoctetes was sentenced to live out the rest of his years - simply for being different than the rest of his crew, and destined to carry the stigma of a mark that set him apart - was a bit of a gay refuge, where no one was questioned for their beliefs, principles, or affections was an interesting sentiment. Almost as if Pyrrhus had been heading towards the light of Lemnos all along... 🙏🏻🙏🏻
It it is an ode of finding yourself and embracing your identity and not hiding behind a false image and being content with that feeling - a struggle that Pyrrhus did not realize he was grappling with - weary of having to explain himself, until he set out for his own quest to find his true calling. The inclusion of the Greek narrative made for a rather interesting take - a candid, if not bittersweet portrayal imbued with the longing of self-acceptance and self-worth, but also one that showed how there were those who stayed in the shadows for fear of being smited by the gods - a predominant feeling that still sadly rings true to those who still are too afraid to be true to themselves. 🏹
August 27, 2013
There are good novels and there are really good novels; then there are a transcendent few that should be read by everyone. Too often these stories are not only not read by those cognizant of the very best stories gay literature has to offer, they aren't even known about. This is one of those novels. I stumbled across the author and his novel while Googling something like "The Top Ten Best Gay Novels Ever Written." Fortunately, I came across this site http://litreactor.com/columns/ten-gay... .
I had read four of the ten novels listed, and alternate novels by a couple of the other listed authors. Hooray for me.
Something about the short description Ed Sikov gave Mark Merlis' An Arrow's Flight caught my eye (before I went out and bought Gods and Monsters - because Brendan Fraser was hot in the movie), or Hollinghurst's The Line of Beauty (although I had seen the t.v. adaption which I thought it was interesting, but so British: i.e., really slow-moving, with no good sex scenes.) Since the four novels I had read, were topped by my favorite all-time, I'll-love-it-until-I-die novel, Dancer From the Dance, I figured that Sikov might know what he was talking about.
Oh, sweet Jesus, did he know what he was talking about!
Those of you who have lasted through this lengthy harangue will be equally thrilled to learn that this hilariously funny AU retelling of Sophocles'Philoctetes is a allegory for the AIDS crisis circa the 1980s.
Anyone still reading this critique?
On the Goodreads star-scale this novel rates a 3.90. (There are a lot of dumb readers who contribute to the big Goodreads site.) You want to know the top whinge about the book (after saying how witty, well-written and funny the first three-quarters of it is)? The last quarter is sad. *Boo-fucking-hoo!* Rhett left Scarlett; Marie Antoinette lost her head; and Sherlock Holmes went over the Reichenbach Falls. Life can be a bitch. Deal.
The story, if anyone still cares, is that Pyrrhus (aka Neoptolemus for some unknown reason) is the son of demi-god Achilles (yes, that Achilles....the one with Patroclus attached to his hip) and minor princess, Deidameia of Scyros. He is, therefore, a quarter demi-god and gay hustler doing a Magic Mike-like routine at a gay bar in a large unnamed town on the outskirts of Troy. *sigh! Yes, that Troy.*
Although the Trojan War has been raging for ten years, it has been prophesied that Pyrrhus will end the war, in the Greek's favor, by breaching the walls of Troy and killing King Priam. The novel's conceit is that, despite the Greeks and Trojans going at it and getting nowhere fast, the time frame is a circa late 1970's AU-ish New York. Wrap your minds around that.
In order to bring triumph to the Greek Army; glory upon his somewhat soiled self; and revenge on a father who always thought he was a pussy, Pyrrhus must hustle (in the sexiest possible way) Hercules' bow, which is currently in the possession of one Philoctetes. Phil is a warrior abandoned, by Odysseus, on the Fire Island-ish Island of Lemnos because he was bitten on the ankle by a snake, and the bite won't heal at least never permanently. (Get the AIDS reference?)
After a night of sexless, but real, love with Philoctetes, Pyrrhus still hasn't laid his hands on the bow, but now knows where it is stashed. The ins-and-outs of politics around the stricken Philoctetes, and whether he needs to be carried to Troy along with the bow, provides the central motif of the story.
All of this is a helluva lot funnier than it sounds and, if you think being a gay quarter demi-god is a piece of cake, this just might disabuse you of that idea. The scene of Hercules trying to self-immolate himself into the heights of Mount Olympus is worth the price of admission alone.
Why Merlis chose to set his story in this Alternate Universe is beyond my poor powers to add or detract. I can only say that, as I came to the end of the novel, I actually was really depressed the story wasn't longer.
Oh, and just to screw with the reader, and his or her expectations, Hah!
This is the best novel I've read since Dancer From the Dance, and for those of you who don't know me, that is one hell of a rave. Plus, Merlis has the sense of humor my beloved Andrew Holleran rather sadly lacks.
So, if you don't have to have a HEA (and I'm getting bloody sick of them myself....along with the vast majority of m/m romance literature in general), this is a novel that, like Sikov says, you'd be a fool not to give a read.
If the final chapters are *oh, my stars and garters!* kinda sad, suck it up; and see what really excellent writing is all about. It might even spoil you for the ephemeral "cotton candy" that passes for so much of today's m/m literature.
And wouldn't that be just too tragic?
I had read four of the ten novels listed, and alternate novels by a couple of the other listed authors. Hooray for me.
Something about the short description Ed Sikov gave Mark Merlis' An Arrow's Flight caught my eye (before I went out and bought Gods and Monsters - because Brendan Fraser was hot in the movie), or Hollinghurst's The Line of Beauty (although I had seen the t.v. adaption which I thought it was interesting, but so British: i.e., really slow-moving, with no good sex scenes.) Since the four novels I had read, were topped by my favorite all-time, I'll-love-it-until-I-die novel, Dancer From the Dance, I figured that Sikov might know what he was talking about.
Oh, sweet Jesus, did he know what he was talking about!
Those of you who have lasted through this lengthy harangue will be equally thrilled to learn that this hilariously funny AU retelling of Sophocles'Philoctetes is a allegory for the AIDS crisis circa the 1980s.
Anyone still reading this critique?
On the Goodreads star-scale this novel rates a 3.90. (There are a lot of dumb readers who contribute to the big Goodreads site.) You want to know the top whinge about the book (after saying how witty, well-written and funny the first three-quarters of it is)? The last quarter is sad. *Boo-fucking-hoo!* Rhett left Scarlett; Marie Antoinette lost her head; and Sherlock Holmes went over the Reichenbach Falls. Life can be a bitch. Deal.
The story, if anyone still cares, is that Pyrrhus (aka Neoptolemus for some unknown reason) is the son of demi-god Achilles (yes, that Achilles....the one with Patroclus attached to his hip) and minor princess, Deidameia of Scyros. He is, therefore, a quarter demi-god and gay hustler doing a Magic Mike-like routine at a gay bar in a large unnamed town on the outskirts of Troy. *sigh! Yes, that Troy.*
Although the Trojan War has been raging for ten years, it has been prophesied that Pyrrhus will end the war, in the Greek's favor, by breaching the walls of Troy and killing King Priam. The novel's conceit is that, despite the Greeks and Trojans going at it and getting nowhere fast, the time frame is a circa late 1970's AU-ish New York. Wrap your minds around that.
In order to bring triumph to the Greek Army; glory upon his somewhat soiled self; and revenge on a father who always thought he was a pussy, Pyrrhus must hustle (in the sexiest possible way) Hercules' bow, which is currently in the possession of one Philoctetes. Phil is a warrior abandoned, by Odysseus, on the Fire Island-ish Island of Lemnos because he was bitten on the ankle by a snake, and the bite won't heal at least never permanently. (Get the AIDS reference?)
After a night of sexless, but real, love with Philoctetes, Pyrrhus still hasn't laid his hands on the bow, but now knows where it is stashed. The ins-and-outs of politics around the stricken Philoctetes, and whether he needs to be carried to Troy along with the bow, provides the central motif of the story.
All of this is a helluva lot funnier than it sounds and, if you think being a gay quarter demi-god is a piece of cake, this just might disabuse you of that idea. The scene of Hercules trying to self-immolate himself into the heights of Mount Olympus is worth the price of admission alone.
Why Merlis chose to set his story in this Alternate Universe is beyond my poor powers to add or detract. I can only say that, as I came to the end of the novel, I actually was really depressed the story wasn't longer.
Oh, and just to screw with the reader, and his or her expectations, Hah!
This is the best novel I've read since Dancer From the Dance, and for those of you who don't know me, that is one hell of a rave. Plus, Merlis has the sense of humor my beloved Andrew Holleran rather sadly lacks.
So, if you don't have to have a HEA (and I'm getting bloody sick of them myself....along with the vast majority of m/m romance literature in general), this is a novel that, like Sikov says, you'd be a fool not to give a read.
If the final chapters are *oh, my stars and garters!* kinda sad, suck it up; and see what really excellent writing is all about. It might even spoil you for the ephemeral "cotton candy" that passes for so much of today's m/m literature.
And wouldn't that be just too tragic?
January 1, 2013
This was one of the best re-tellings I've ever read. Pyrrhus, the son of now-dead Achilles, is about to face up to his destiny. That said, he's been working as a stripper in a local gay bar, can barely afford the rent (and as such will likely turn to being a call-boy), and being the quarter-divine son of a vaguely known water goddess isn't all that it's cracked up to be.
Merlis has blended ancient Troy and its legends by shifting them to a quasi-contemporary setting; Achilles managed to lead the Myrmidons on his battleship into a hostile sacking of the suburbs of Troy prior to his death, and Pyrrhus' roommate Leucon works as a copy-boy in a Law Firm. Bookstores sell "The 12 Habits of Successful People as Learned from Heracles," and people consider vacationing on Lemnos, where queer people roam free.
What starts out as vaguely campy and quite titillating turns into a darker and more intriguing novel as it progresses. The inclusion of various gods, heroes, and bits and pieces of Greek myth is just wonderful (it's like uncovering rich treasure, re-polished for a contemporary telling), and at times the story moves quietly, and yet impact fully, into something stunning and moving.
To wit, the discussion of a vaguely mystical plague-curse that has been spreading among the queer (spot that virus): (page 232): Now the sea lanes they charted have closed behind them. All they discovered, that had waited since the dawn of time to be found, swallowed up. No one will ever go that way again, not even if the cure is found. Partly because we will never own our bodies again, as they did. We are vectors now, or vessels, sources of transmission; our bodies belong to the unseen. Well, it has always been so, we have always belonged to the Fates. We just never thought the Fates so tiny.
I'll definitely be looking for more of Merlis' work.
Merlis has blended ancient Troy and its legends by shifting them to a quasi-contemporary setting; Achilles managed to lead the Myrmidons on his battleship into a hostile sacking of the suburbs of Troy prior to his death, and Pyrrhus' roommate Leucon works as a copy-boy in a Law Firm. Bookstores sell "The 12 Habits of Successful People as Learned from Heracles," and people consider vacationing on Lemnos, where queer people roam free.
What starts out as vaguely campy and quite titillating turns into a darker and more intriguing novel as it progresses. The inclusion of various gods, heroes, and bits and pieces of Greek myth is just wonderful (it's like uncovering rich treasure, re-polished for a contemporary telling), and at times the story moves quietly, and yet impact fully, into something stunning and moving.
To wit, the discussion of a vaguely mystical plague-curse that has been spreading among the queer (spot that virus): (page 232): Now the sea lanes they charted have closed behind them. All they discovered, that had waited since the dawn of time to be found, swallowed up. No one will ever go that way again, not even if the cure is found. Partly because we will never own our bodies again, as they did. We are vectors now, or vessels, sources of transmission; our bodies belong to the unseen. Well, it has always been so, we have always belonged to the Fates. We just never thought the Fates so tiny.
I'll definitely be looking for more of Merlis' work.
March 30, 2024
Merlis was a brilliant author, and this deft work dazzles and entertains while adding a modern spin to classic tales. This book is a same sex marriage of Greek mythology and contemporary themes.
If you are fond of go-go dancers who are demigods you will love this book. Plus it completely ties into the Iliad if you need to read that for school— extra credit!!
If you are fond of go-go dancers who are demigods you will love this book. Plus it completely ties into the Iliad if you need to read that for school— extra credit!!
September 18, 2013
Mark Merlis' "An Arrow's Flight" is a really interesting read. The narrative is built on the intriguing placement of the last years of the Trojan war in modern day, and basing the convoluted plot line on the proposition that Pyrrhus, son of Achilles, is a young gay man working as a hustler in the City.
Although this is clearly a novel written in the first decade of the 21st century, all through "An Arrow's Flight" I kept thinking of the trailblazing gay novels of the 1980s, Andrew Holleran's "Dancer from the Dance," and the splenetic Larry Kramer's "Faggots;" both of which I read as a young man caught up in the nightmare of the evolving AIDS crisis. The re-imagination of the story of Pyrrhus and Philoctetes as a metaphor (avatar?) of AIDS and its devastation of Gay America is sort of brilliant, and Merlis' unblinking, sharp-edged tweaking of classical narrative is at times chilling.
Merlis' writing is wry and detached, and while I know it's entirely intentional, I found it disconcerting that I could never attach to Pyrrhus, the ethereally beautiful redhead who wanders fecklessly through his life toward what might be his Fate. It is hard for me to love a book when I can't love the characters, and Merlis perversely doesn't seem to want us to love the characters (again, reminding me of Halloran and Kramer's books). Pyrrhus is not bad, not evil. Bereft of any kind of real familial love (Achilles would win no parenting prizes, and Deidamea, his mother, is no June Cleaver), it is no wonder he treats everyone he knows with amiable selfishness, shunning any sort of emotional connection in favor of cashing in on his beauty in an urban gay world where beauty is the chief currency.
The plot thickens when Phoenix, Achilles' eunuch valet, arrives in the City to enlist Pyrrhus into the Greek army - there, it seems, to fulfill his destiny. It is from this moment that Pyrrhus begins to develop complexity, as the epic childishness of the gods and the patent absurdity of the entire Trojan conflict are gradually picked apart. We never see a battle; nothing epic happens. But in the second half of the novel Pyrrhus surprises both the reader and himself.
I never found an emotional core to the book until the end, where a surprisingly emotional payoff (written with a calculated lack of emotion - it's not as if Merlis's style changes - just my reaction to the narrative) suddenly throws the rest of the book into context in a way that took me slightly by surprise. This is about as unromantic a book as I've read in a long time, and yet I found, at last, that my heart was finally touched by these unfortunate antique figures dressed in modern gay costume. Having felt skeptical and mildly irritated throughout most of the book, I finally capitulated at the finale and let myself be manipulated as if the gods themselves were pulling the strings.
Although this is clearly a novel written in the first decade of the 21st century, all through "An Arrow's Flight" I kept thinking of the trailblazing gay novels of the 1980s, Andrew Holleran's "Dancer from the Dance," and the splenetic Larry Kramer's "Faggots;" both of which I read as a young man caught up in the nightmare of the evolving AIDS crisis. The re-imagination of the story of Pyrrhus and Philoctetes as a metaphor (avatar?) of AIDS and its devastation of Gay America is sort of brilliant, and Merlis' unblinking, sharp-edged tweaking of classical narrative is at times chilling.
Merlis' writing is wry and detached, and while I know it's entirely intentional, I found it disconcerting that I could never attach to Pyrrhus, the ethereally beautiful redhead who wanders fecklessly through his life toward what might be his Fate. It is hard for me to love a book when I can't love the characters, and Merlis perversely doesn't seem to want us to love the characters (again, reminding me of Halloran and Kramer's books). Pyrrhus is not bad, not evil. Bereft of any kind of real familial love (Achilles would win no parenting prizes, and Deidamea, his mother, is no June Cleaver), it is no wonder he treats everyone he knows with amiable selfishness, shunning any sort of emotional connection in favor of cashing in on his beauty in an urban gay world where beauty is the chief currency.
The plot thickens when Phoenix, Achilles' eunuch valet, arrives in the City to enlist Pyrrhus into the Greek army - there, it seems, to fulfill his destiny. It is from this moment that Pyrrhus begins to develop complexity, as the epic childishness of the gods and the patent absurdity of the entire Trojan conflict are gradually picked apart. We never see a battle; nothing epic happens. But in the second half of the novel Pyrrhus surprises both the reader and himself.
I never found an emotional core to the book until the end, where a surprisingly emotional payoff (written with a calculated lack of emotion - it's not as if Merlis's style changes - just my reaction to the narrative) suddenly throws the rest of the book into context in a way that took me slightly by surprise. This is about as unromantic a book as I've read in a long time, and yet I found, at last, that my heart was finally touched by these unfortunate antique figures dressed in modern gay costume. Having felt skeptical and mildly irritated throughout most of the book, I finally capitulated at the finale and let myself be manipulated as if the gods themselves were pulling the strings.
December 11, 2023
Philoctetes 💔
It's such a gorgeous and melancholy book, and it masterfully blends Greek tragedy and mythology with seventies gay culture in maybe the most interesting way I've ever seen.
I love when a retelling can stand on its own and make something new and beautiful that doesn't rely on someone knowing the original texts — though, knowing them does make you appreciate Merlis's genius. I particularly loved his interpretations of Skyros, Lemnos, and Troy and the characters' complexity as they grapple with destiny, sexuality, and legacy, particularly in Pyrrhus's case.
Like any book touching on the AIDS crisis, whether allegorically or literally, it's going to leave you pretty haunted after, but I would still highly recommend it to anyone who wants to get lost in a Greek and highly original gay story.
Thank you so much to my friend Steph for getting me to read this!
Read more thoughts on our Greek retelling list
.
It's such a gorgeous and melancholy book, and it masterfully blends Greek tragedy and mythology with seventies gay culture in maybe the most interesting way I've ever seen.
I love when a retelling can stand on its own and make something new and beautiful that doesn't rely on someone knowing the original texts — though, knowing them does make you appreciate Merlis's genius. I particularly loved his interpretations of Skyros, Lemnos, and Troy and the characters' complexity as they grapple with destiny, sexuality, and legacy, particularly in Pyrrhus's case.
Like any book touching on the AIDS crisis, whether allegorically or literally, it's going to leave you pretty haunted after, but I would still highly recommend it to anyone who wants to get lost in a Greek and highly original gay story.
Thank you so much to my friend Steph for getting me to read this!
Read more thoughts on our Greek retelling list
.
October 7, 2022
Reread this in October 2022.
So years and years of camping outside of Troy has taken its toll on the Greeks and now the great Achilles is dead. Shot by Paris in his ever so tender heel.
What is Odysseus to do now?
Well there's always that oracle, right? You know the one about that damn bow and arrow Philoctetes used to light up Herakles's funeral pyre, the one that is supposed to hit anything the archer aims at? Yeah that one.
The prophecy did say that Philoctetes had to come aboard and actually shoot that arrow for the Greeks to win the war... Problem is, Odysseus dumped the guy on Lemnos ten years ago... Sick he was. Bitten by a snake. Doc said it was contagious. Who knows what kind of virus-ahem I mean bug got into Philoctetes system... And you know the man is... Gay. Slept with everybody and his brother. You know the rumors. The Gods have punished Philoctetes for all that partying he did before heading out to Troy. Those were the years...
We need that bow. We need that old aging "queen". We need a plan to get him to come back to Troy with us. Mostly Odysseus is tired and cranky and needing to check up on Penelope and that brat what's his name oh yeah Telemachus.
Who could convince a dying gay man to leave his little shack on Lemnos where the lesbians run bars and the gay tourists run a tab. Besides Philoctetes is sick, frail, done with the whole thing. Sex is a memory. Love is a nice nap after a cosmo.
But Odysseus has a plan.
The plan has a name.
And that name is Neptolemus. The New War. Achille's son. Or Pyrrhus as his mama named him for his flaming red hair. Get the good-looking kid to seduce the old man and voila. Troy is ours.
There's a little bit of a curve ball. Pyrrhus is not exactly his father's son. As a matter of fact after his big armed, suped up daddy with no brains left him back in Scyros with a bored mama and a bitter goddess for grandma, Pyrrhus soon understood that red haired sissy boys didn't have much of a future in suburbia.
Off he went to the big city to get himself some destiny and to lose himself in his own story. Fuck oracles and prophecies. He is no one's demi God.
A year later he's dancing for tips on bars and hustling his cute ass for a living. Not much of a living it is and now with the rent coming up...
In comes Phoenix that old eunuch buddy of his father and he's got quite a proposition...
It's supposed to be easy. Slip into his dad's over sized armor. Get on the ship. Play officer for the straight boys. Get on the island. Seduce the old man.
Except that no one, not even the Gods or the great scheming Odysseus could have predicted what would happen when dying Philoctetes and young, disabused Pyrrhus would meet...
Part Iliad. Part raunchy gay fic. 100 percent GENUIS.
A satire of the greatest tales of all time that ends up not a satire after all but a real poem of its own merit.
Read it!!!!
So years and years of camping outside of Troy has taken its toll on the Greeks and now the great Achilles is dead. Shot by Paris in his ever so tender heel.
What is Odysseus to do now?
Well there's always that oracle, right? You know the one about that damn bow and arrow Philoctetes used to light up Herakles's funeral pyre, the one that is supposed to hit anything the archer aims at? Yeah that one.
The prophecy did say that Philoctetes had to come aboard and actually shoot that arrow for the Greeks to win the war... Problem is, Odysseus dumped the guy on Lemnos ten years ago... Sick he was. Bitten by a snake. Doc said it was contagious. Who knows what kind of virus-ahem I mean bug got into Philoctetes system... And you know the man is... Gay. Slept with everybody and his brother. You know the rumors. The Gods have punished Philoctetes for all that partying he did before heading out to Troy. Those were the years...
We need that bow. We need that old aging "queen". We need a plan to get him to come back to Troy with us. Mostly Odysseus is tired and cranky and needing to check up on Penelope and that brat what's his name oh yeah Telemachus.
Who could convince a dying gay man to leave his little shack on Lemnos where the lesbians run bars and the gay tourists run a tab. Besides Philoctetes is sick, frail, done with the whole thing. Sex is a memory. Love is a nice nap after a cosmo.
But Odysseus has a plan.
The plan has a name.
And that name is Neptolemus. The New War. Achille's son. Or Pyrrhus as his mama named him for his flaming red hair. Get the good-looking kid to seduce the old man and voila. Troy is ours.
There's a little bit of a curve ball. Pyrrhus is not exactly his father's son. As a matter of fact after his big armed, suped up daddy with no brains left him back in Scyros with a bored mama and a bitter goddess for grandma, Pyrrhus soon understood that red haired sissy boys didn't have much of a future in suburbia.
Off he went to the big city to get himself some destiny and to lose himself in his own story. Fuck oracles and prophecies. He is no one's demi God.
A year later he's dancing for tips on bars and hustling his cute ass for a living. Not much of a living it is and now with the rent coming up...
In comes Phoenix that old eunuch buddy of his father and he's got quite a proposition...
It's supposed to be easy. Slip into his dad's over sized armor. Get on the ship. Play officer for the straight boys. Get on the island. Seduce the old man.
Except that no one, not even the Gods or the great scheming Odysseus could have predicted what would happen when dying Philoctetes and young, disabused Pyrrhus would meet...
Part Iliad. Part raunchy gay fic. 100 percent GENUIS.
A satire of the greatest tales of all time that ends up not a satire after all but a real poem of its own merit.
Read it!!!!
September 1, 2007
Some may think it a little too clever for its own good, but I like this book a lot. How can you not like a novel in which a gay demigod making a living as a hustler turns out to be essential to winning the Trojan war? All the homoeroticism leached out of most stagings or retellings of Greek myth is right here on the surface. And eroticism--sex, lust, desire, love--is very much on Merlis' mind. It isn't enough for the Greeks to persuade Achilles' son, Pyrrhus--the aforementioned divine sex worker--to enter the ranks. Pyrrhus must also convince (in the old-fashioned horizontal way) a middle-aged gay warrior named Philoctetes to lend him the bow of Hercules. That may sound dirty and it is. Actually, it's even dirtier than it sounds since the Greeks abandoned Philoctetes on their way to Troy after he suffered a snakebite that wouldn't heal. Now they need him and they hire a hustler to lure him back into battle. It's an allegory so I suppose its ok for me to say that Philoctetes is the embodiment of 70s-style gay sexual liberation and the snakebite is, well, AIDS. But Merlis is far too smart simply to leave it at that. His largest concern isn't simply the abandonment of people snakebit by AIDS by morons afraid of contagion. His judgment of those people is clear. From start to finish, however, his is most vitally concerned with sex and especially with the emotional and social consequences of disavowing it. The Greeks' near fatal flaw is abandoning Philoctetes, the emblem of sexual revolution. Now they need him--and his bow--as does Pyrrhus. And so, Merlis suggests, do we. Recollecting the world before the snakebite, the world from which Philoctetes was banished, Merlis writes: "They had done everything that can be done with two or three or four bodies...They were lawless....They did it for everyone who had come before them [living] out their freedom for the generations that had been caged..." The real tragedy of the snakebite, is letting the snake win.
May 27, 2009
AN ARROW’S FLIGHT (1998): a novel by Mark Merils is brilliant and irreverent. It disrespects conventional writing, storytelling, and history — and the author, I think, had great fun in doing so. It is an existential inquiry about the human condition hidden within Greek Mythology and Gay Identity. I read it not as a story about the Trojan War or the difficulties of being Gay in a warrior dominated world; but as a universal story about love, sex, lying, subterfuge, and the ultimate question: Who am I? And then there is the question of destiny: Are we just fooling ourselves with the idea of choice?
The anti-hero is Pyrrhus, son of the great Achilles, who just happens to be gay, a stripper and a hustler who will fuck anyone; but then has one night of authentic love (sans sex), which impels him to try and thwart destiny and the gods. Hmmm … . In a sense, it is everyman’s (or woman’s) story. I don’t have a clue as to why Merils chose to tell the story this way, versus being more straightforward. Maybe he thought it would get a wider audience if he used subterfuge himself? Maybe he didn’t even know what he was doing—like Pyrrhus, a callous, defended whore, who bungles into love?
Perhaps the title is a clue as to motivation. An ‘arrow’s flight’ refers to that fact once let loose, an arrow is spent—it cannot change direction or go any farther than it can. And those warriors it is aimed at (for it is a weapon of war) know this and will take a stand just out of range … until “one man steps forward” (pg.272) and the battle ensues. As the author states: “sooner or later you have to give it up.” BRILLIANT. Five stars.
The anti-hero is Pyrrhus, son of the great Achilles, who just happens to be gay, a stripper and a hustler who will fuck anyone; but then has one night of authentic love (sans sex), which impels him to try and thwart destiny and the gods. Hmmm … . In a sense, it is everyman’s (or woman’s) story. I don’t have a clue as to why Merils chose to tell the story this way, versus being more straightforward. Maybe he thought it would get a wider audience if he used subterfuge himself? Maybe he didn’t even know what he was doing—like Pyrrhus, a callous, defended whore, who bungles into love?
Perhaps the title is a clue as to motivation. An ‘arrow’s flight’ refers to that fact once let loose, an arrow is spent—it cannot change direction or go any farther than it can. And those warriors it is aimed at (for it is a weapon of war) know this and will take a stand just out of range … until “one man steps forward” (pg.272) and the battle ensues. As the author states: “sooner or later you have to give it up.” BRILLIANT. Five stars.
May 23, 2023
Just reread this again in September 2015. It's a weird beast: 1990 North American gay sensibilities combined with elements of Greek mythology. To me it's a strange, fascinating beast worth reading and re-reading.
Publishers in the USA were scared of the classical reference in the title, so for the domestic readership was published as "An Arrow's Flight".
Publishers in the USA were scared of the classical reference in the title, so for the domestic readership was published as "An Arrow's Flight".
December 27, 2016
If, having read the Iliad, you want there to be less Achilles and more strippers, this is the book for you.
February 19, 2021
Why did it take me so long to get to this one?
It was so beautiful and so brilliant.
I just want to go back and read it all over again.
It was so beautiful and so brilliant.
I just want to go back and read it all over again.
August 24, 2017
Man, that was awesome. Loved it.
March 27, 2025
I was soooo not the the target audience for this but I actually enjoyed it! I learnt a LOT
July 18, 2024
One of my great favorites - no one of those books I just love - it is brilliantly imaginative, funny, poignant, so believable and true and one of the greatest and most clever reimaginings, retelling and up-datings (but it isn't really an update - it is to clevver for that) of the Iliad I have ever read. You don't have to known the story and its characters to appreciate this novel but if you do then Paris as a lounge lizard, Odysseus as scheming politician, Pyrrhus as go-go boy and the whole cycle of Hercules legends as tabloid fodder is achingly funny.
But of course at the heart of this novel are love stories or maybe one love story and one story of frustrated lust (but how often is lust just a cover for love denied?). The love story is that between Pyrrhus, Neoptolemus son of Achilles, and Philoctetes (and if you don't know who he is then I won't spoil anything by telling you) and the story of frustrated love/lust? Well it is between Leucon (a wonderful character who has no basis in the Iliad) and, well, Pyrrhus - who isn't going to be hopelessly in love/lust with a grandson of a goddess and the son of Achilles? - and who can stand knowing they will never, ever, under any circumstances make the running.
There are multiple layers of meaning, tragedy, hope and just plain great fun in this novel and although it is a novel, in parts, in which AIDS is omnipresent it is not in any way an AIDS novel - in fact it maybe one of the few novels from those years that will, and deserves, to survive.
Read this wonderful, funny and brilliant novel. This was at least my third reading and it won't be my last.
But of course at the heart of this novel are love stories or maybe one love story and one story of frustrated lust (but how often is lust just a cover for love denied?). The love story is that between Pyrrhus, Neoptolemus son of Achilles, and Philoctetes (and if you don't know who he is then I won't spoil anything by telling you) and the story of frustrated love/lust? Well it is between Leucon (a wonderful character who has no basis in the Iliad) and, well, Pyrrhus - who isn't going to be hopelessly in love/lust with a grandson of a goddess and the son of Achilles? - and who can stand knowing they will never, ever, under any circumstances make the running.
There are multiple layers of meaning, tragedy, hope and just plain great fun in this novel and although it is a novel, in parts, in which AIDS is omnipresent it is not in any way an AIDS novel - in fact it maybe one of the few novels from those years that will, and deserves, to survive.
Read this wonderful, funny and brilliant novel. This was at least my third reading and it won't be my last.
September 11, 2017
Blending Greek myth and contemporary gay life, Merlis fully explores the questions of life and lust, desire and destiny, through the misadventures of Pyrrhus, Achilles' gay son. Escaping palace life for 'the city,' he finds that waiting tables doesn't pay the rent, so he becomes a popular gogo boy, then a hustler. But the emptiness of paid sex leaves him indifferent and torn. Will he find love amid so much base sexuality?
In the second half of the novel, Odysseus arrives to convince Pyrrhus to join the fight in the ten-years-long Trojan War. Can he fulfill his dead father's mission, find validation as the son of a demigod? But before he gains his father's famous armor, a stop at Lemnos brings on a sidebar quest; to seduce and convince the elder Philoctetes to return to the war, because the prophecy says so.
Merlis' insight into the delicate interplay between men, truthful love and conscripted lust, are part of what makes this a great story. The clever interplay of ancient and contemporary settings adds to its charm. The comparison of the Trojan War and the AIDS epidemic are clear and artfully told. This Lambda Literary Award winner was also cited by the Publishing Triangle as one of the best gay novels.
In the second half of the novel, Odysseus arrives to convince Pyrrhus to join the fight in the ten-years-long Trojan War. Can he fulfill his dead father's mission, find validation as the son of a demigod? But before he gains his father's famous armor, a stop at Lemnos brings on a sidebar quest; to seduce and convince the elder Philoctetes to return to the war, because the prophecy says so.
Merlis' insight into the delicate interplay between men, truthful love and conscripted lust, are part of what makes this a great story. The clever interplay of ancient and contemporary settings adds to its charm. The comparison of the Trojan War and the AIDS epidemic are clear and artfully told. This Lambda Literary Award winner was also cited by the Publishing Triangle as one of the best gay novels.
October 30, 2017
This book. This book. What can I tell you about the story of this book? I'll tell you this: I started it, and immediately within the first few pages, felt annoyed by it. It wasn't quite what I expected. It tells a story of a young man during the Trojan War, except the characters all seem to have been transported to New York during the late 1970s/very early 1980s. For some reason, I just didn't get it. While I waited for my next book to be ready for pickup at the San Francisco Public Library, I read a few chapters. That's it: I was gripped from then on. I found the writing to be superior. I found myself wishing to be an armful more intelligent, because I believe I barely caught some metaphors and philosophy. This usually means I've missed more. Damn. Still, I was impressed at the story, the plot, the characters, and the writing was beautifully eloquent.
It's worth mentioning that there is plenty of nudity (you may need to close your eyes while reading some parts), gay sex, and hilarious dialog. Good luck, and would love to hear what you think if you read this book. If you've ever been to a gay bar from once to every night, you'll find something of interest in this perspective.
It's worth mentioning that there is plenty of nudity (you may need to close your eyes while reading some parts), gay sex, and hilarious dialog. Good luck, and would love to hear what you think if you read this book. If you've ever been to a gay bar from once to every night, you'll find something of interest in this perspective.
November 10, 2007
It's the Trojan War, updated as a reflection on gay issues. The concept of Achilles' son Pyrrhus working as a dancer/hustler is a good one, but overall I didn't like this book. When push comes to shove, I'd rather read Sophocles.
July 13, 2025
Camp, anachronistic, ridiculous. Mentally filed alongside Glück’s Margery Kempe, Gregory Maguire’s Wicked and John Jesurun’s Philoktetes (of course).
“Poor Leucon: while he was nearly as unconscious as Pyrrhus was while the deepest part of him knew only sensation and wanted it to go on forever, some flicker of self remained awake, watching. Narrating. Disapproving. He tried to silence it, slip as deeply into the moment as he could. But it was overpowering, a voice inside that could not stop in the present but insisted on telling the future: In the morning you will still be living together and he will have done this to you, you will have been this thing he fucked, he will have come inside you, just minutes from now you're going to be sitting on the john, looking down into the bowl, at his semen and your blood.
Merciful Aphrodite, drug him, distract him, drown him just this once in that sweet oblivion that you grant to the humblest of men, even to beasts. Let him be, for once in his life, a hole. Emptied of worry or self-consciousness or pride, just a hole grateful to be filled up.
This prayer answered by proxy, perhaps; perhaps it was she who inspired Pyrrhus, at that moment, to reach over to his nightstand and get the poppers.”
“Once, right around that time, Leucon tried a new position.
The guy he was with cried out in pain and then said, still gasping but trying to be nice about it, "I don't bend that way." Silly Leucon, of course he didn't. There are only so many different ways our limbs can be arranged; the opportunities for innovation in this arena have long since been exhausted.
I don't bend that way. This elemental protest described the only limit in the world Leucon and Pyrrhus had crossed into, that short-lived city where the only boundaries were those of physical possibility, and not everyone was sure just where those were. Once you'd thrown off those tiresome rules made up by people who didn't even play the game, what scruple was supposed to keep you from sticking tab A into slot B, when the proprietor of B was begging for it? None; and there wasn't any reason, none that Leucon could think of, why Pyrrhus shouldn't have been a whore.”
On Alcestis: “Nothing but a platter of cold cuts, ourselves nothing but organisms that swim about, swallowing up other organisms to get some essential nutrient or other, everything reduced to that. She had turned herself into a platter of meat, like the charred tidbits we offer to the gods, and he had eaten. Have you ever been to a banquet where they tastelessly bring out the pièce de résistance with its head still on? Looking up at you with an expression of dazed reproach? Of course he wished her back in Hell.”
“You know, the gods never give anything away. Every promise they make, every oracle they let you hear, is the setup for one of their grisly practical jokes. There is always a catch, some little payoff, like your father's heel. They share it, the gods-'Oh, look over here at what Hermes got this fellow to do —and everyone on Olympus chuckles for a moment before returning to their eternal divine tedium. The butt of the joke is forgotten at once; they are soon busy hatching some new one. But he goes on among us, living out forever the consequences of their little prank. The older I get, the more I see around me nothing but walking punch lines, the battered veterans of a vaudeville routine."
“everybody in uniform looks gay. Maybe because only the military groom themselves as carefully as gay men do, their whole vocation to be a body.
“Two years older than Pyrrhus and speaking as if he had a whole life behind him, instead of ahead. Because what was ahead? More striving, more concealment. That's how people without a destiny lived. If he did well enough he would be promoted one tiny step at a time; it he stumbled he would be hurled out into a civilian world that was scary, not least because there would no longer be any excuse for the refusal to be himself.”
“Poor Leucon: while he was nearly as unconscious as Pyrrhus was while the deepest part of him knew only sensation and wanted it to go on forever, some flicker of self remained awake, watching. Narrating. Disapproving. He tried to silence it, slip as deeply into the moment as he could. But it was overpowering, a voice inside that could not stop in the present but insisted on telling the future: In the morning you will still be living together and he will have done this to you, you will have been this thing he fucked, he will have come inside you, just minutes from now you're going to be sitting on the john, looking down into the bowl, at his semen and your blood.
Merciful Aphrodite, drug him, distract him, drown him just this once in that sweet oblivion that you grant to the humblest of men, even to beasts. Let him be, for once in his life, a hole. Emptied of worry or self-consciousness or pride, just a hole grateful to be filled up.
This prayer answered by proxy, perhaps; perhaps it was she who inspired Pyrrhus, at that moment, to reach over to his nightstand and get the poppers.”
“Once, right around that time, Leucon tried a new position.
The guy he was with cried out in pain and then said, still gasping but trying to be nice about it, "I don't bend that way." Silly Leucon, of course he didn't. There are only so many different ways our limbs can be arranged; the opportunities for innovation in this arena have long since been exhausted.
I don't bend that way. This elemental protest described the only limit in the world Leucon and Pyrrhus had crossed into, that short-lived city where the only boundaries were those of physical possibility, and not everyone was sure just where those were. Once you'd thrown off those tiresome rules made up by people who didn't even play the game, what scruple was supposed to keep you from sticking tab A into slot B, when the proprietor of B was begging for it? None; and there wasn't any reason, none that Leucon could think of, why Pyrrhus shouldn't have been a whore.”
On Alcestis: “Nothing but a platter of cold cuts, ourselves nothing but organisms that swim about, swallowing up other organisms to get some essential nutrient or other, everything reduced to that. She had turned herself into a platter of meat, like the charred tidbits we offer to the gods, and he had eaten. Have you ever been to a banquet where they tastelessly bring out the pièce de résistance with its head still on? Looking up at you with an expression of dazed reproach? Of course he wished her back in Hell.”
“You know, the gods never give anything away. Every promise they make, every oracle they let you hear, is the setup for one of their grisly practical jokes. There is always a catch, some little payoff, like your father's heel. They share it, the gods-'Oh, look over here at what Hermes got this fellow to do —and everyone on Olympus chuckles for a moment before returning to their eternal divine tedium. The butt of the joke is forgotten at once; they are soon busy hatching some new one. But he goes on among us, living out forever the consequences of their little prank. The older I get, the more I see around me nothing but walking punch lines, the battered veterans of a vaudeville routine."
“everybody in uniform looks gay. Maybe because only the military groom themselves as carefully as gay men do, their whole vocation to be a body.
“Two years older than Pyrrhus and speaking as if he had a whole life behind him, instead of ahead. Because what was ahead? More striving, more concealment. That's how people without a destiny lived. If he did well enough he would be promoted one tiny step at a time; it he stumbled he would be hurled out into a civilian world that was scary, not least because there would no longer be any excuse for the refusal to be himself.”
January 2, 2011
Tells the story of Pyrrhus/Neoptolemus, the son of Achilles, you know, the one who finally does sack Troy (and kills old Priam in such bloody detail in Book II of the Aeneid). That's fine. The neat thing about it is the "the time is now; the place, Ancient Greece" conceit that Merlis uses to tell the story, and that it's a very (very) gay Pyrrhus who is our (anti-)hero. Pyrrhus, abandoned by his father at a young age, has run away from his island home and his responsibilities as prince, angry at the world (and especially his father), and gone to the big city, where he's working as a go-go boy and hustler. Into his bar walks aged Phoenix, a eunuch in this tale, come to inform Pyrrhus of his destiny to sack Troy, and to drag him, kicking and screaming if need be, to the fight in Troy. While on board Odysseus' ship (a modern one, of course, in a modern navy), they must stop and pick up Philoctetes, also prophesied to be key to the fall of Troy. The novel does a fascinating job of integrating the ancient and the modern, swords and gods with stereos and agnostics. Lemnos is refigured as a gay resort town; the age of heroes is the age before AIDS. It's not an easy fit, always, and you're not, I think, meant to stop noticing it; it's *supposed* to be jarring, to make you stop, and it is, and you do. What better way to problematize the notion of the relevance of Classical literature? Although the work is clearly aimed at a gay male audience (the internal audience, often addressed with a second person "you," is always figured as a gay male), and although there were rather more boy bits than I personally like to think about, it was an incredible, erudite, interesting, literary work. Very worth reading.
July 25, 2018
"The sight of the guy's friendly, welcoming butt filled Pyrrhus's throat with sorrow and loss." That is an actual line from this tedious novel that imagines Achilles' son as a gay go-go dancer and prostitute. I was hesitant going into the book, as the exploits of a Adonis-like, white, gay character living it up in the city sounded quite cliche. However, my love for Greek literature (and for modern adaptations of classical works) prompted me to give it a try. Unfortunately, Merlis never rises above the cliche to offer any kind of original insight or compelling themes. What, exactly, are we to take away from this book? In part 1, Pyrrhus' work as a prostitute is rationalized by pointing out that his roommate, who makes copies at a law firm, is doing work that is equally, if not more, unrewarding. Oh! How insightful! About 100 pages in, Merlis breaks the fourth wall and, addressing the reader directly, acknowledges that it would be easier to move the story along more quickly. Yes, yes it would. Instead, he insists on forcing us through more repetitive drudgery. The notion of marrying classical works with modern society is compelling, but the device is ineffective and rather unimportant to this boring book. If you're looking for new takes on Greek mythology, I would instead highly recommend Madeline Miller's Song of Achilles or Zachary Mason's Lost Books of the Odyssey.
September 10, 2011
OOF. Spoilers ahead. Even though the spoilers could conceivably be listed as part of the premise, it was my favorite discovery as I was reading.
(here they come)
I thought the AIDS metaphor was very clever. A little part of my brain sat up and thought "oh well done" when I realized what was happening. (I imagine this voice like a stodgy old English chap, readjusting his monocle and then golf clapping at the end of some recitation held in a small library somewhere in Cambridge. Well done good fellow, well done. My inner monologue is from Tolkien apparently.) Which was a very cold reaction, I realize now, just having turned the last page and put the book down (I turned my computer on while I was finishing, getting ready to write this). That reaction left me completely vulnerable and blinded me to the inevitability of any story about AIDS. It will never, ever, ever end well.
I can root for a couple to get or stay together until the end. But I will always read about that end. That is a happier ending than the just walking away and washing your hands of someone, but it's cold comfort, just a splash of sweet with bitter.
(here they come)
I thought the AIDS metaphor was very clever. A little part of my brain sat up and thought "oh well done" when I realized what was happening. (I imagine this voice like a stodgy old English chap, readjusting his monocle and then golf clapping at the end of some recitation held in a small library somewhere in Cambridge. Well done good fellow, well done. My inner monologue is from Tolkien apparently.) Which was a very cold reaction, I realize now, just having turned the last page and put the book down (I turned my computer on while I was finishing, getting ready to write this). That reaction left me completely vulnerable and blinded me to the inevitability of any story about AIDS. It will never, ever, ever end well.
I can root for a couple to get or stay together until the end. But I will always read about that end. That is a happier ending than the just walking away and washing your hands of someone, but it's cold comfort, just a splash of sweet with bitter.
October 30, 2012
I loved that this is set in the past, but reads like it's taking place right now. Being written like that makes it all the more fun to read, as if they Ancient Greeks really went clubbing way back when, and things like that. I find it also helps you keep in mind that it's fiction.
After reading The Song of Achilles, I took the attitude that Pyrrhus was a little shit who I wanted to smack, but this book paints him very differently, so it was nice to get another point of view. In contrast, this book makes Achilles look like the asshole instead of Pyrrhus.
The review wouldn't be complete without mentioning the running theme throughout the book, that being the . Very interesting how it seamlessly runs throughout, without even really having to change the way the story has been told for forever.
After reading The Song of Achilles, I took the attitude that Pyrrhus was a little shit who I wanted to smack, but this book paints him very differently, so it was nice to get another point of view. In contrast, this book makes Achilles look like the asshole instead of Pyrrhus.
The review wouldn't be complete without mentioning the running theme throughout the book, that being the . Very interesting how it seamlessly runs throughout, without even really having to change the way the story has been told for forever.
October 9, 2013
Loved this one.
Both wittily(?)and smartly written. Has a joyride feel to it as it took me through the Trojan war story in a re-imagined and very different way. Left me feeling both satisfied and better.
Both wittily(?)and smartly written. Has a joyride feel to it as it took me through the Trojan war story in a re-imagined and very different way. Left me feeling both satisfied and better.
July 8, 2012
Merlis's writing actually shocked me. In reading about his characters I felt he was articulating emotional struggles to which I myself had always failed to ascribe words. Brilliant.
May 2, 2017
Witty and original. Merlis surely is going straight to Hades for playing fast and loose with all those gods, demigods and hemidemigods...
December 7, 2017
Reread this book after loving it when I first read it almost 20 years ago. Happy to report that I loved it even MORE this time around. It's brilliant, and heartbreaking, and comes closest, I think, to being the Great American Gay Novel (or gay white male novel, at least). It really is a sharp-eyed glimpse into the psyches of men who are told, their whole lives, that there is something "wrong" with them and that there is only one way to be a man. Also, as a writer, I love this line: "Of course there is no periphery." Just one of many lines/passages I underlined. Highly recommend this to all readers, but especially my gay friends.
May 24, 2020
I've owned this book for at least a decade, probably more like two, and I've always wanted to read it -- even pulled it out a few times -- but never actually tried... until now. And boy, have I been missing out! Gorgeous writing, some of the freshest and most compelling analogies I've read, and an exciting, engaging narrative voice. A retelling of the Trojan War (sort of) to address the start of the AIDS epidemic (sort of). Not sure how this will fare if you're not at least caught up on your Greek mythology, but if you're not, I'd say go bone up on some Classics... because this book is worth it.
October 25, 2023
i may write about this more later when I feel better equipped to put my feelings into words but for now I just want to give my sheer oft-repeated opinion that the rot that stands for queer art in a lot of the modern public conscience is absolute bullshit and straight-washed and i will bash everyone who hypes up ‘The Song of Achilles’ on the head with a hardcover copy of this novel. as Siegfried Sassoon once said, “homosexuality is a bore now;” but at least there is still things like this in the world that may have slightly influenced my GAMness.
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