Iokaste: The Novel of the Mother-Wife of Oedipus

Victoria Grossack is co-author with Alice Underwood of the mythological-historical novel, Iokaste, a retelling of the Oedipus tale made famous by Sophocles. Recently an AP review enthused, "This well-written book, about an intelligent, observant and questioning woman to whom big events happen, is riveting." On the authors' website, you can read other notices, just as fine.

Though deserving of publication, this novel languished in a prestigious New York City literary agency for ten months, according to Victoria. The agency began sending Alice and Victoria "rave rejections." Finally  the authors decided to take matters into their own hands and publish Iokaste with the help of Publish America, a large Print on Demand firm (it is their current Book of the Month). Now with the success of the book, Victoria and Alice are hoping for a mainstream sale-- but they already have sold Iokaste in Greece (through Kedros Publishers), where a modern Greek translation is being prepared.

Yesterday Victoria consented to tap out a few words to me using Instant Messenger. For a newcomer to the technology, she did a great job.

BwP: But I'm glad to see you're on IM now. You're in the 21st century, Victoria.
Victoria: Only occasionally. I prefer to think about 13th century BC.

Iokaste tells the story of Oedipus from the point of view of the title character, Oedipus' wife and mother, also known as Jocasta. Victoria had been wanting to write this novel since she was 14, when she realized that there was great potential in Iokaste's untold story:

Victoria: Hardly anyone thinks about Iokaste (Jocasta). But she must have given birth at an early age, had her son taken away from her, ruled Thebes as Queen during her first husband's rule, survived the news of his death, and let herself be put up as the prize for solving the riddle of the Sphinx. And that's only from looking at the most obvious of the myths.
BwP: So there's a tremendous back story that isn't being played out in the play-- or only implied.
Victoria: Yes. And when you start linking together the other myths, lesser known, and the archaeology, you can uncover a lot. I think we discovered a mass murder which has gone unpunished for the past 3000 years - and we know who did it!

I'll let readers take a look at Iokaste to figure out how that mystery plays itself out.

Victoria and Alice have uncovered a little-known truth about Greek Mythology-- only a very small percentage of the stories have survived in literary form. There must have been many other plays and poems we just don't have, because the material is too rich to have been left alone by creative ancient Greeks.

The novel is told with modern psychological motivations, and gods never stride out on stage, according to Victoria, who thinks that it's difficult to avoid portraying divinity in modern entertainment as anything other than "campy." Sophocles' original also avoids the appearance of gods on stage. The presence of the curse of Oedipus is so claustrophobic, even suffocating, that it is quite sufficient for establishing the gods' power.

The authors were also interested in telling a consistent story that made sense to modern readers, untangling the various threads of myth which grew up around the character of Oedipus-- and, on purpose, not letting Sophocles' tragic vision have the last word on the subject.

Iokaste is a part of "The Great Conversation," as Victoria puts it, the continuing interpretation, reviewing and revising of all classic works of literature. But it is also a page-turning read, as all reviews have noted. Check it out.

PS: Victoria also wanted any writers in BwP's readership to benefit from a few links, which I reproduce below.

• An agent's description of the state of the fiction market. This is pessimistic-- and realistic, unfortunately.

• A list of literary agents. There's a good story behind this one, which you will find out if you do a little exploring.

• A good writing website. Victoria has a column there, and they sponsor a critique group - one of the best ways there is to improve your writing.

Comments

[Todd Granger]

David, thanks for interviewing Ms Grossack and for posting the interview at BwP. You've certainly kindled my interest in reading the book!

[DF]

You can search inside the book at Amazon, Todd. Let me know what you think.

David