Thursday, September 30, 2010

Top 10 books on the ancient world

Annabel Lyon is a Vancouver fiction writer and teacher. Her books include Oxygen (stories), The Best Thing for You (novellas), All-Season Edie (juvenile novel), and The Golden Mean, her first novel for adults.

At the Guardian, she named her top ten books on the ancient world.

One book on the list:
The Centaur by John Updike (1963)

An anxious teenage boy and his depressive schoolteacher father in small-town Pennsylvania shift and shimmer in and out of Greek myths: the father becomes the tragic centaur Chiron, while the son becomes Prometheus. It's a magical feat, pulled off with Updike's signature wit, painterly vision, and keen eye for beauty in the tiniest of details.
Read about another book on the list.

The Centaur also appears among Dave Boling's five best examples of how to structure a novel.

--Marshal Zeringue