Showing results for "Chimera" in Literary Fiction

In Chimera, John Barth injects his signature wit into the tales of Scheherezade of the Thousand and One Nights; Perseus, the slayer of Medusa; and Bellerophon, who tamed the winged horse Pegasus. In a book that the Washington Post called "stylishly maned, tragically songful, and serpentinely elegant", Barth retells these tales from varying perspectives, examining the myths' relationship to reality and their resonance with the contemporary world.

Told from the perspective of Victoria, a middle school student, the book offers a critical glimpse of a cultural crossroads in which the issues of cultural differences, the conception of home, and what it means to belong to a community in terms of language, human connection, and, ultimately, acceptance of self and others is examined in the authentic voice of young girl who is trying to determine who she is and where she and her family “belong” in the world.