Gods on Earth

It is a cliché that everything is bigger in Texas. In fact, so big as to be Olympian. So goes the conceit of this novel.

Set in a fictional town called Olympus, halfway between Houston and Austin, in a sprawling Texan family, the novel plays on Greek and Roman myths. In case the reader doesn’t quite get the connection, the characters are named precisely after the god-figure they represent.

• Peter Briscoe [Jupiter] is the patriarch, married but with multiple additional liasons and children.
• June [Juno] is his wife, who is aware of his infidelities, but loves him regardless, and has welcomed his children by other women into the family.
• March [Mars] is the difficult one; given to inexplicable rages and violence. The child June loves the least, and the one most desperate for his affection. March has two enormous mastiffs called Romulus and Remus, another shout-out to ancient Rome.
• Hap [Hephaestus] is the quiet, calm, unattractive one, married to the stunningly beautiful Vera [Venus].
• Artie [Artemis] and Arlo [Apollo] are the twins, Peter’s children by Lee [Leto], devoted to each other.

Two incidents frame this novel, both taken from myth. One is in the past, when the handsome March and the gorgeous Vera, March’s brother’s wife, were irresistibly drawn to each other, and were discovered by Hap in bed together. Peter and June were also witness to their adultery. March left the town in shame and anger, stayed away for years, and has only just returned. Will he be welcomed by the family? Or, more likely, will his return stir up unpleasant past history?

In the intervening years, Arlo and Artie have grown up.

Arlo interested in all women, but never a specific woman, and Artie showing no interest in anyone.

Now, however, Artie has fallen in love with Ryan [Orion]. Arlo will not like this for multiple reasons: he expects and demands Artie’s sole focus, and he dislikes Ryan and his background.

Readers who are familiar with the Orion/Artemis/Apollo story will not be surprised by what ensues, but for those who are not, no spoilers here. The incident that occurs involving the three is dramatic, shocking, and serves as the turning point of the book. The fallout consumes the rest of the book.

Does the transition from Olympus to small-town Texas work? Well, sort of. The author has done a reasonable job of transposing the plots into modern-day Texas, and making the characters human and relatively multifacted. The problem is that their behaviour defies modern-day logic, especially that of the women.

Why, for example, would June, a woman who calmly castrates calves without a flinch, remain with Peter despite his uncontrollable infidelity? She never forgives him, but apparently loves him hopelessly and forever, while also nursing a simmering, bitter resentment. Meanwhile, her three children suffer from her lack of attention.

And then, today’s reader might wonder, have Peter and his consorts never heard of birth control?

Vera is perhaps the most mystifying character. Many paragraphs are spent on her discussions of why she does not like her husband Hap, or leave him, but I found those fairly inexplicable.

Vera was always tight-lipped about her motives, and often about her own opinions. But March had long ago grasped this fact of his brother’s marriage: Hap’s kindness and his empathy were seen as something darker by his wife, something less than healthy.

[..]she didn’t love Hap enough to accept how he saw her, how firmly he was ruled by superiority and judgement, but she still loved him too much to leave him. In sleeping with March, she’d force Hap to leave her.

Make of that what you will.

Not just Vera, but all of them are constantly exuding emotional baggage.

It’s good you came back.

I’ve spent my life stuffing down my emotions to make room for yours.

She’s too upset to do anything to feel better, even briefly.

The characters speak standard English, without any particular Texas-isms. Despite the frequent mention of the Brazos River, this leaves the book without much of a sense of place, which I found a little disappointing.

The Gods of Oympus are remote, powerful, wilful, vain, self-important and capricious. Brought down to human scale, their behaviour is simply unredeemable.

The Briscoes brought out the worst in each other

Indeed, they are remarkably unpleasant towards each other. March and Hap rarely meet without violence occurring. Arlo is jealously possessive. Artie appears to be the kinder sibling, until she pushes Arlo to visit a strip club where Arlo’s unattainable high-school crush now performs — a distinctly cruel action to both Arlo and the girl. For the patriarch, Peter seems oddly hapless — his power comes from the devotion of his wife and children. June seethes with suppressed anger throughout. (In fact, so do pretty much all the Briscoes). They come across as a pretty much unlike-able lot.

Ever so gently, Swann diverges from the mythical story over the course of the book, and by the end there are hints of consequences for some characters, and redemption for others. The women characters are strong, and begin to act with agency. This is perhaps the most satisfying part of the book.

A quick read, not brilliant writing, but interesting enough.