GLORIOUS EXPLOITS by Ferdia Lennon (2024)

★ ★ ★ ★ .75 - A perfect, contemporary Irish Greek tragedy. I was particularly in love with the writing style, Lennon struck his notes & cultivated his tone flawlessly.

May 13, 2025

∙ Paid

‘Straight ahead is the best scene of all: Hades. The river Styx to be exact, the water green and trembling with faces and limbs rising. It reminds me of those statues at Victory Gate, but it’s more beautiful than them. The light on the water is different from any I’ve ever seen in this world, yet it seems I know it. Gelon says that’s what the best plays do. If they’re true enough, you’ll recognise it even if it all seems mad at first, and this is why we give a shit about Troy, though for all we know, it was just some dream of Homer’s, and I walk towards this green soul river, and for a moment it’s like I’m going home.’

title: Glorious Exploits

author: Ferdia Lennon

published: 2024

publisher: Henry Holt and Company

genre/subgenre: literary historical fiction—contemporary Irish literature

setting: Syracuse, Sicily in 412 BCE

main themes/subjects: tragedy & poetry, soulloss equated with loss of poetry/art, working class life & culture, black comedy, ecstasy & grief, Medea & Euripedes, Homer & Troy, war & sea battles, the stories of: children, slaves, women, & the old/disabled, listening to vs collecting/buying stories, artists & poets, the real purpose/value of art, what is life without culture? culture without life?, the power of faith & imagination, the tragic death as a universal human element,

representation: disabled MC (congenitally malformed foot), children, women, slaves, prisoners,& the old/disabled, artists & poets

tropes: prison break/rescue mission

blurbs: “Bold and totally unexpected; I loved this book. A brilliant novel about friendship, the healing power of art, and why we must fight for our dreams. I was hooked from the first page.”—Douglas Stuart, Booker Prize–winning author of Shuggie Bain

“Brilliant … I love contemporary Irish fiction and Greek tragedy, so how wonderful to find a novel where they are brilliantly paired. It is as hilarious, moving, and profound as promised.”—R. F. Kuang, New York Times bestselling author of Yellowface

‘Music: Doesn’t need to be a dithyramb or anything, but still. A tragedy without a tune is like a sun that doesn’t give off heat: dead, and nothing will grow from it. When men go to war, they do it to music. When they set sail for better shores and row into the vast blue, they do it to music. Even our hearts beat to some rhythm, and the director who neglects it neglects what makes us men.’

my thoughts:

What is the true value of art? What is the true mission of the artist? Those are just some of the question Ferdia Lennon asks in his debut novel, Glorious Exploits a story about the desire of two Syracusean men to put on two plays by Euripides using captive Athenian soldiers as the cast & the quarry in which they are imprisoned as the theatre. Or at least, that is how the story begins…

Our hero, Lampo, starts out as an insufferable, unlikeable character who actually prevented a few readers from our bookclub from getting into the book (at least one person DNFed) & I agreed with their early assessment of his arrogance, & his obnoxious, crude, & obliviously insensitive behavior, however. Even early on while he was in the absolute zenith of his annoying shenanigans, I was getting hints of the character change that Lennon had in store for his tragic hero. & wow did he deliver.

I was fully impressed with Lennon’s treatment of themes of classism, faith, friendship, & the truly unlimited power of the imagination. I particularly loved the nature of Lampo’s hubris (an integral element of Greek tragedy, which is something new I learned) even if I thought his punishment was a bit harsh & it made my heart really bleed for him. I think that was what surprised me the most with this book was how Lennon was able to take me from loathing a character to literally feeling my heart break for him by the end of the story.

philosophy: ‘Anything is possible, and it always has been. For the world was once just a dream in a god’s eye, and the man who gives up on himself makes that very same god look away.’ - probably my favorite quote of the book.

notable elements: Another element the whole bookclub (archaeologists & historians, all) were pleased with was the diligent research & historical accuracy of the book.

i would recommend this book to readers who love erudite historical fiction, especially written in a contemporary literary (Irish) style. this book is best read with some rudimentary knowledge of Greek tragic drama & Irish contemporary literature.

‘…and for a moment, I have the feeling that the future and the past aren’t separate at all, just different snatches of a single song always sung, given consequence when heard.’

final note: As someone who is not very familiar with neither Greek tragedy/drama nor contemporary Irish literature, I asked a friend with whom I was reading Lennon’s book to point me in the direction of more context re: contemporary Irish literature, particularly in regards to its main themes, stylistic elements, & tone. She clued me in that “guilt, morbidity, drinking den culture, & petty drama are cornerstones of Irish literary themes.” She said that she thought that the two were a bit similar, with The Playboy of The Western World being “a small rural drinking den reenacts a fantasy/folk memory of Cú Chulainn around a feckless wastrel who rocks up one evening, until their wild bubble is pricked by mundanity and reality.” I started seeing the connections 50 pages in to Glorious Exploits with the combination of black humor, mundane even depressing elements of a very bleak reality, & yet still, somehow, poetry, deep feeling, & the stubborn will to dream & the beauty of the human experience. I also listened to the first part of this podcast episode on Greek drama & watched this video to further orient myself & my expectations of the story.

Something else I learned from our discussion for this book which I loved was that Euripides’s play, Medea, (& most of his plays) were actually retellings of the “original” Greek myths & apparently his works were the first from that era to sort of address issues of inequality, patriarchy, & classism, & to center the perspectives of women, children, the poor, & the disabled, all perspectives that had largely before that been suppressed &/or ignored.

CW // violence, death, gore, starvation, rats, SPOILERS»none of the children die nor does Alcar’s dog, the horses don’t die on the page though they’re left in bad shape however the implication is that they do survive

season: Summer

music pairing:

Quotes, Notes, & Annotations…

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GLORIOUS EXPLOITS by Ferdia Lennon (2024)

★ ★ ★ ★ .75 - A perfect, contemporary Irish Greek tragedy. I was particularly in love with the writing style, Lennon struck his notes & cultivated his tone flawlessly.

title: Glorious Exploits

genre/subgenre: literary historical fiction—contemporary Irish literature

my thoughts:

‘…and for a moment, I have the feeling that the future and the past aren’t separate at all, just different snatches of a single song always sung, given consequence when heard.’

further reading:

There are various retellings of the Medea story out there as well:

Click on the star ratings beside the titles I’ve read to read my reviews/thoughts about the book.

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‘“I can’t,” he says at last. “I can’t.”

People are laughing, but there’s confusion in their laughter too. What the fuck? Ten gold pieces for that rope?

“So it really is priceless?”

No answer.’

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Quotes, Notes, & Annotations…

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