The Woke Iliad by George Boreas
| The Woke Iliad by George Boreas | |
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| Category: General Fiction | |
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Reviewer: Jill Murphy
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| Summary: A satire of contemporary progressive "woke" politics, told through the narrative of Homer's Iliad. It's very funny, but trigger warnings for the humourless! | |
| Buy? Yes | Borrow? Yes |
| Pages: 178 | Date: February 2022 |
| Publisher: Independently Published | |
| ISBN: | |
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Helen is a popular activist. Or should we call her a popular influencer? Or perhaps a popular franchise owner? Anyway, Helen is so popular that the United States government has made her its Ambassador of Woke. Helen runs all sorts of initiatives on behalf of the government, including the Shaming Conference and the Permissible Entertainment Committee - for indoctrinating and legislating against summer fun for any who still knew how to have it. Ouch!
All is going swimmingly, when disaster strikes. Moldova, an Eastern European statelet run by populist strongman President Bagrayev, discovers an abandoned, ex-Soviet missile bunker containing hundreds of nuclear weapons, still functional and still wired to control systems. This discovery emboldens Bagrayev to annex the neighbouring province of Transnistria. Of course, the rest of the world can't let this stand. And who better to send as a diplomat than Helen, Ambassador of Woke?
Helen's embassy doesn't quite work out as hoped and the outraged Americans cobble together a coalition and surround Moldova by means of various submarine shenanigans. Led by the very conscientious General Womack, who must balance a posturing and nuclear-armed populist leader with the Coalition's own bickering factions, a stand off ensues...
A satire on contemporary "woke" progressive politics and on one of its bêtes noires, the politically incorrect populist leader, The Woke Iliad is very funny. I suspect I am further to the social justice end of the political spectrum than its author, but I'm glad to say that I haven't lost my sense of humour and I think it's a shame that so many of us on the modern left have forgotten how to laugh at ourselves. There are too many one-liners to mention here but I really would like to hear some turbo-folk, which is a blend of Moldovan folk music and 80s deep techno, with yodelling for vocals. The fight scenes are hilarious.
Anyway, as you've already imagined, the whole thing is a take on Homer's Iliad, which tells the story of the ten year siege of the city of Troy by a coalition of the Ancient Greek states. The coalition bickers amongst itself just as it does in Homer's epic, here presented as factions representing various oppressed groups as progressives see them. Helen has a miserable time in captivity as she is body-shamed and made to exercise. And of course, yes, the whole thing is wrapped up by a "Woke" version of the Trojan horse, but I'm not telling you what that is. You'll have to read the book for yourselves.
Cleverly plotted with reference to its source material and unafraid to poke fun at the various shibboleths of contemporary politics, The Woke Iliad is a book for anyone who still retains a sense of humour.
If you enjoy a bit of satire taking lumps out of what we used to call political correctness, you could also look at Crump by PJ Vanston pr Solar by Ian McEwan.
You can read more about George Boreas here.
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You can read more book reviews or buy The Woke Iliad by George Boreas at Amazon.com.
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