This was a long-postponed read, a birthday gift from a dear friend and something that I planned to read for a very long time. In her time, British writer Mary Renault was famous writer of immaculately researched historical novels set in the world of ancient world - admired for her writing style, Renault was apparently also very well known amongst her LGBT readers for describing same sex lovers in her books, which actually was perfectly natural in ancient Greece. This personal fact I would normally not even mention, considering that I believe that talent is a talent and whomever Renault loved in her life is her private business, but it looks as she is something of a LGBT icon - for describing gay characters in compassionate and even poetic light - and this is actually curiosity because Renault was from older generation that kept lid on private lives and would not associate herself with any movements. According to Wikipedia: "she was suspicious of identifying oneself primarily by one's sexual orientation" - which is exactly my opinion and it means that Renault and I would probably get along just fine, if we ever had imaginary dinner in Durban, where she moved with her female partner. So Renault is very much known amongst a specific part of her cult audience, but herself was not involved in any protests or anything, in fact if you look closely, her female characters are not exactly positive. Judging by this (my very first Renault novel), ladies are actually evil and manipulative. We probably must keep Renault in her times.
"Fire from Heaven" is about Alexander the Great and his formative years, up to the point where he becomes king. This is not just some writer sitting around with a bottle of wine and flying on the wings of a wild imagination, but Renault actually did serious research - at the end of the novel she quotes references by Plutarch, who is our only source about Alexander, since all records by his own contemporaries have perished. So things that she have described are known in history, hers is only a style - and what a style that is! I would genuinely place her somewhere between Robert Graves, T. H. White and Mary Stewart - giants of historical/fantasy fiction who all had their own particular voice. The only reason why I don't think of her highly as say, Marguerite Yourcenar is because Renault can be (in my personal opinion) so extremely cautious when dealing with her gay characters, that I would read the sentence three times and still was not sure what am I reading. I understand she was from different generation and very, very touchy about it, but this specific signposts and hints are too complicated for me. Take for example this sentence: "Hephaistion thought, I am in the King’s gift too, a favour he can take away. Presently, having no more words, he offered instead the sadness of Eros, for this at least brought sleep." What does this mean? Am I imagining things? What IS the sadness of Eros? All trough the novel we witness beautiful friendship between Alexander and his friend Hephaestion and we are told that everybody suspects they are lovers but everything was always left unspoken and now suddenly there is the sadness of Eros?
Renault's writing might be a little bit too vague for me - she has excellent, flowery style and is a master of describing the atmosphere and the place - but to be honest her Alexander was so idealised that I had a constant gnawing feeling that he is just a symbol, not a real character. He was constantly described as a young God whom everybody loves and idealises, his golden locks and strong muscles and noble character and the divine smell of his armpits - and everybody has sex except him, because he is not that kind of guy. His parents are far more realistic - I had a genuine affection for his father, one-eyed Macedonian king Philip (whom history conveniently remembers as a bully, in comparison to glowingly blameless Alexander) and was terrified of his perpetually angry, scheming and manipulating mother Olympias. Curiously, the main reason why this novel is remembered and loved - gay bromance between Alexander and his friend Hephaestion - interested me far less than the story itself. I read fiction as escapism and for me its all about the plot (or the style), not so much about identification, since my favourites are not necessary main characters but some supporting person who might come and go on one page. There is enough action, passion and intrigues here to make it into a very exciting movie (or even TV series) - though it took me a while to go trough Renault's writing, I might explore some more of her writing, since this was actually a beginning of a trilogy. I might even need to re-read this one again, with different perspective next time.
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