House of Names: A Novel

By Colm Tóibín

A powerful retelling of a classic Greek tragedy, a breathtaking story of a family at war with itself reimagined by one of the world's greatest living storytellers.

"They cut her hair before they dragged her to the place of sacrifice. Her mouth was gagged to stop her cursing her father, her cowardly, two-tongued father. Nonetheless, they heard her muffled screams."

     On the day of his daughter's wedding, Agamemnon orders her sacrifice. His daughter is led to her death, and Agamemnon leads his army into battle, where he is rewarded with glorious victory.
     Three years later, he returns home and finds his murderous action has set the entire family -- mother, brother, sister -- on a path of intimate violence, as they enter a world of hushed commands and soundless journeys through the palace's dungeons and bedchambers. As his wife, Clytemnestra, seeks his death, his daughter, Electra, is the silent observer to the family's game of innocence while his son, Orestes, is sent into bewildering, frightening exile where survival is far from certain. Out of their desolating loss, Electra and Orestes must find a way to right these wrongs of the past, even if it means committing themselves to a terrible, barbarous act.     
      House of Names is a story of intense longing and shocking betrayal. It is a work of great beauty, and daring, from one of the world's finest living writers.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
• Release date: May 9, 2017
• ISBN: 9780771098208

Colm Tóibín

Colm Tóibín is the author of eleven novels, including Long Island; The Magician, winner of the Rathbones Folio Prize; The Master, winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize; Brooklyn, winner of the Costa Book Award; The Testament of Mary; and Nora Webster; as well as two story collections and several books of criticism. He is the Irene and Sidney B. Silverman Professor of the Humanities at Columbia University and has been named as the Laureate for Irish Fiction for 2022–2024 by the Arts Council of Ireland. Three times shortlisted for the Booker Prize, Tóibín lives in Dublin and New York.

Reviews for House of Names

[cariola_6 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Colm Toibin can always be counted on for excellent writing and intriguing topics. In this new novel, he retells the story well known from the Oresteia in sections focused on Clytemnestra, her son Orestes, and her daughter Elektra; only Clytemnestra's sections employ a first person narrator (and one is a ghost). The novel begins with the familiar story of Agamemnon sacrificing his daughter Iphigenia to appease the gods and gain a fair wind to pursue his enemies. While his action led to victory in the Trojan War, it also spurred the downfall of his house as Clytemnestra carries out her revenge and together, years later, Orestes and Elektra avenge their father's murder. In addition to giving the reader a deeper window into the psyches of these characters, Toibin fills in the missing years, imagining what had happened when Clytemnestra sent her son into safety, only to have him spirited away by the henchmen of her lover and accomplice, Aegisthes, with a group of kidnapped boys. One of the book's most interesting sections is when Orestes escapes with two friends, Leander and Mitros. The three end up settling for five years with an elderly blind woman whose sons have been conscripted to the wars. This unexpected pastoral sojourn ends up being one of the few positive representations of family in the novel--but, alas, it is all too short.Orestes grows into a man of promise with the potential of being a better warrior and a better king than his father, yet, regardless of what he does, he can never quite fill the place that was meant to be his. Toibin leaves the reason for his failure somewhat vague. Is it because he succumbs to the control of his vengeful sister, Elektra? Or because he loses the respect of Leander, his friend and lover? Perhaps he has just been away too long, or perhaps he and his family are cursed?Initially I wondered why Toibin didn't include the points of view of Aegisthes or Agamemnon. I can't be sure, but I think it may be because he wanted to focus on blood--blood spilled and blood as one's genetic inheritance, and the way that blood influences a family and the events surrounding it for generations. To do that, the focus clearly had to remain on Clytemnestra--herself the result of a violent rape--and her offspring.My only complaint with House of Names is that is has a rather abrupt, somewhat unfathomable conclusion that left me unsatisfied. I feel like I need to go back and reread the last section, since I don't quite know what Toibin was attempting to do here. But all in all, it was a good read (especially on the heels of some really bad ones).

[janerawoof · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Powerful novel in modern language and a good dose of author's imagination of the epitome of dysfunctional families, the House of Atreus. In first person, Clytemnestra tells us how she and daughter Iphigenia are lured to Aulis with false promise of marriage by Agamemnon and the girl there sacrificed. We suffer Clytemnestra's mental torments. Her little son Orestes is lured away by his mother by the talk of a promised feast and spends time in a sort of prison for juveniles with other boys. Afterwards he and two companions, now young men, escape from its cruelty and spend years with an old woman in her house by cliffs near the sea. One, Leander, becomes a dear friend; a note of subtle homoeroticism pervades the book. We also see Elektra, the sister, convince Orestes to murder her mother. We then hear Clytemnestra as shade, haunting the corridors of the palace. With the ending of Orestes' story there is held out a chance for this family to escape its so far dark fate.Gods may be invoked but they are either indifferent to humankind or they are dying. This novel had a good bit of creativity on this story; it was brought down from myth to tale of an ordinary family, with its greed, duplicity, manipulation, and yes, love.Highly recommended.

[froxgirl · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

In post-Trojan war literature, it seems to be the losers who gather the most literary acclaim and effort: Aeneas and the founding of Rome, and the miseries of Hecuba, Andromache, and the other widows enslaved by the victorious Achaeans. On the Greek side, Odysseus earns an entire memorable and adventurous story for himself. But there's also the fall of the House of Atreus, as Agamemnon returns with war bounty Cassandra (who you'd think would know better, considering her gift of prophesy) to his wife Clytemnestra, who has been plotting revenge with her lover Aegisthus. Throughout Homer's epic Iliad, king and general Agamemnon feuds with hero Achilles, both coming off as entitled sulking whiners who care not a whit for anything but their own financial rewards and renown. In Toibin’s novel, Agamemnon's sacrifice of his daughter Iphigenia, required by the gods to provide winds for the sail to Troy, is the sole source of his wife's enmity. Her husband's deception (enticing them with a promise of a brilliant marriage to Achilles) drives Clytemnestra's tale of horror. The longest (and most boring) passages belong to their son Orestes, imprisoned and exiled as a young boy by Aegisthus as a strategy to maintain their control of the throne, as he and companion Leander (a Toibin invention) struggle for years to return to Argos. Electra's section is somewhat colorless, although it is she who gives the pliant and confused Orestes the weapon and the opportunity to take revenge on their mother for their father's murder. This entire retelling seems lifeless and unnecessary, and as the blood spurts and the bodies pile up, the only plot line of interest is the shunning of Orestes, even by Electra, for the crime of killing his mother, who killed her husband, who killed his daughter.

[rdra1962 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

A retelling of a classic. This story could have/should have been gripping and engaging. It started off as such, but quickly became repetitive and rather dull. The characters all seem to become numb, and it was very difficult to feel anything for/about them.
While I love the idea of retelling the classics, this offering seemed to suck the drama and tension out of the story.

[snash_44 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I found this retelling of the Greek classic, Agamemnon, enjoyable. Several family members recount their version of events from the sacrifice of Agamemnon's daughter through the various revenges over the years thereafter.

[vguy_6 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Blood soked as you would expect of the tale of clytemnestra & co. Starts strongly inside her head but gets difuse with too many narrator’s PoVs. And mixing up “avenge” and “revenge “ is unforgivable given the theme .

[dchaikin_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

40. House of Names (audio) by Colm Tóibínreader: Juliet Stevenson, Charlie Anson and Pippa Nixonpublished: 2017format: Overdrive digital audio, 8:47 (~244 pages)acquired: Librarylistened: Sep 27 - Oct 9rating: 3½My first Tóibín novel, I was drawn to this because of the Greek mythological theme. This is Tóibín's version of the Orestia. After the Trojan War Agamemnon returns home victorious, only to be murdered by his wife, Clytemnestra, twin sister of Helen. Later their children, Electra and Orestes, will take vengeance on their own mother, Orestes, in dramatic scenes, doing the killing. There is actually a lot of killing in the story. Somewhere out of this comes the etymology of the Electra Complex. His story comes in three voices - Clytemnestra, Electra and, in third person only, Orestes. Tóibín does a wonderful job of creating his main characters. Whether in first or third person, he creates a lot of atmosphere with very few elements and without telling the reader all that much. The surrounding atmosphere is left with the barest description, and I struggled to construct anything meaningful from it. It's really left to the reader's impression. (One reviewer in The Guardian claims he essentially locates the story in an Ireland setting. I also thought of this while listening, but I ultimately found it all too vague to be sure.) His characters, even in first person, are under-described in much the same way as the landscape - much of who they are and what they are thinking is left in silence and unexplained. And I never tired of this. The myth has many versions, most famous one by the three ancient Greek playwrights - Aeschylus, Euripides and Sophocles. Tóibín more-or-less accepts the basic elements but he plays with the options, picking certain variations to honor, changing some fundamental aspects, and also adding many of his own elements. Some oddities come out of this and some things just felt like plot holes. I kept wondering why a character wouldn't do something, or try to find more information in some way, or take more action. These things just didn't always make sense to me. I sensed Tóibín likes passive characters, a lot of authors seem to, but he's capturing characters of decisive action, so there is a bit of an unbridgeable conflict. I'll accept my limitations as a reader, but I was never comfortable with this and I couldn't get over the feeling that it undermined the book, as if they author wasn't all in. But, then I never fully understood what Tóibín was really doing with this story. He left me puzzled, a good thing, and looking up reviews afterward offered me no answers. It comes across, in the whole, as something of a mystery, and one I never solved.

[thewanderingjew_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

House of Names, Colm Toibin, author; Juliet Stevenson, Charlie Anson, Pippa Nixon, narratorsI really enjoyed the narration of this short novel about a famous Greek myth. In order to retain power and success in battle, Agamemnon has arranged for the murder of his own first born daughter, Iphigenia, to appease the gods who have demanded it. The elders agree that this must be done to save their own lives and protect their families. They agree to tear asunder his family and to take the life of an innocent young girl to save their own. This they believe will turn the tide of battle in their favor. So begins a cycle of deception and violence.Clytemnestra was deceived into preparing her daughter to be the bride of Achilles. Unwittingly, she brought her daughter to her place of slaughter. When her husband, Agamemnon, returns victorious after battle, she is ready to take action to avenge her daughter’s death. Clytemnestra teams up with a prisoner, Aegisthus, to carry out her deed. One murder leads to another in a cycle of violence and betrayal. Meanwhile, Elektra, sister to Iphigenia, draws her own conclusions about her sister’s death, blaming her mother. Orestes knows his father ordered her murder, but is unaware of anything else that has happened. Both sister and brother have been temporarily neutralized by order of Aegisthus and are imprisoned. As Toibin reimagines how these characters feel and react, the reader is drawn into the palace and their lives. The secrets that are kept and the deceptions that are planned lead to more and more confusion, rumor and disloyalty. Toibin breathes life into their introspection and behavior. In this retelling of the story, the characters deal with all the pain of human suffering and the duplicity of those around them. The narrators brought them to life as their performance was not only insightful, but their portrayals felt genuine. I could actually see the shade of Clytemnestra walking in the corridor, feel the blade plunge into the neck of Agamemnon, hear the cries of Iphigenia as she was brought to the slaughter, feel the fear of Orestes as he tried to pretend to be brave and grown up when he was kidnapped and didn’t fully understand his position, and the deceitfulness of Elektra as she carried out her own plans. I wondered how it would have turned out if Orestes had been a more active participant in the entire process of the palace intrigue. Although he is not, and is rather an observer forced to be on the sidelines, it felt to me like Orestes was the dupe, the foil, the Job like character who was the catalyst for bringing about the events that would take them all into the future. At the end of the novel, there is a germ of greater freedom planted and the yoke of slavery begins to be questioned. Each character modeled his/her behavior on someone who may or may not have been worthy. Power was constantly changing hands. Fealty was questioned, people were murdered. Elektra’s character was hard to read as she seemed to be part heroine and part villain, as did Aegisthus and even Leander. Orestes seemed to be caught in the trap each laid. I believe the author has done a wonderful job of reimagining this myth, making the inner workings and feelings of the palace and the characters real, rather than objects of imagination.I am not sure if it is as good a read in a print book, but as an audio, I found it captivating. I could not stop listening and felt regret when I was forced to put it down for awhile by other earthly needs.

[randymetcalfe · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

In this imagining — it wouldn’t be fair to call it a re-imagining — of the events surrounding Agamemnon’s sacrifice of his daughter, Iphigenia, and the horrific consequences of that act, Tóibín once again confirms his mastery of tone and touch and pace. Told from the viewpoints of Agamemnon’s aggrieved wife and mother of Iphigenia, Clytemnestra, Orestes, his son, and Electra, his second daughter, Tóibín gives us a measured and nuanced treatment full of righteous anger, ambivalence, and veils of ignorance.It is always curious to read a story whose broad outline and specific ends one knows well in advance. Although it is a common enough experience for our appreciation of the standard repertoire of, say, Shakespearean dramas, it is less common in literature to tread much furrowed ground. Tóibín concentrates on the impressions and understandings or misunderstandings of each of his serial protagonists in close third-person in order to bring immediacy to his tale. And he is such a master of word choice and subtle shifting of pace that you’ll read this like a paperback thriller, turning page after page after page to chase the outcome. Brilliant!Highly recommended.

[kthomp25 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Left you hanging

[amaliagavea · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

There are writers that choose to build their own work on stories that have existed for an eternity and create their own vision of them, because they know they have the skills to do so.There are books that you can see they are glorious 5- star material before you even reach page 50. Colm Toibin is one of those writers and House of Names is one of those books."I have been acquainted with the smell of death." Don't tell me I need spoiler alerts...I shall be very disappointed...Death is always the main character in the Atreides saga. Agamemnon took the throne of Mycenae through death, he sailed to Troy after sacrificing Iphigenia and was killed by Clytemnestra upon his return to the homeland. Orestes and Electra killed their mother to avenge their father. It's a mythical family where blood and death rule. Blood, death and murder....Colm Toibin makes excellent use of the tragedies and fills the gap between Iphigenia's death and Agamemnon's return, as well as the time between the king's murder and Orestes' matricide, in a superbly crafted way. He treats the characters and the source material with utter respect (which is more than can be said for ridiculous filmmakers and films, e.g."Troy"....) and breathes new life in this timeless story of a cursed family. The manner in which he presents the characters and sheds light on their motives of their actions is exquisite.Toibin narrates the story in a literary detached manner, as is fitting to the material. These are myths known to all, undying, unchanged. There's no need for the "personal voice" of the author, no need for melodrama. We cannot view a novel based on these characters in the same light as any other common book. Able writers know how to make a well-known story without projecting their voice loudly. It's very interesting to note that while Clytemnestra and Electra's chapters are told in First-Person narration, Orestes' chapters are written in the Third- Person technique. Perhaps to further isolate him from all the conniving of his mother and his sister. Orestes' rendition of Iphigenia's sacrifice is hair-raising and one of the most powerful written pieces I've read. There is also a beautiful reference to the myth of Helen's birth and the death of her brothers, Kastor and Polydeuces, the Dioskouroi as they're forever known.I am praying to no gods." There are no gods ruling the fate of our Atreides now. There are only insufficient oracles and prophecies, elders that are unable to make a desicion. Each character obeys to their own personal principles, to their own notion of justice and revenge. What is alive, then? The souls of the slain that linger in dark corridors and shady gardens trying to find their way to the world of men. So here, there is no excuse that the gods dictated them. Each one is responsible for their actions. And the consequences....The greatest success of this novel is that it preserves the spirit of the myth. The beauty of the characters in Ancient Greek Tragedy is that there is no black and white. Even the ones considered "villains" have their own alibies to justify their deeds. How forward were the ancient dramatists looking...What masterpieces they created and handed down to the generations until the end of time....And Toibin respects and listens as our heroes and heroines speak...Clytemnestra believes she exacts revenge for the unimaginable terror of losing one of her children. I confess I've always been hesitant to blame her, but she falls victim to her rage and to Aegisthus' cruelty and ambition as he finds the chance to revenge Agamemnon's crimes towards his family. Electra and Orestes are the victims, along with Iphigenia, while Electra has an idealized image of a father who's been a monster of greed and ambition. And she's more like her mother than she'd be willing to admit. ...Orestes struggles to find his way to a world that was taken from him and he becomes a murderer in the process.Characters like Clytemnestra, Electra, Agamemnon and Orestes cannot be "reviewed". It's almost blasphemy. They are larger than life. It is more than possible that they never existed and yet, they are immortal, eternal. To say Clytemnestra "is bad", Electra "is mad", Orestes "is boring" is -in my opinion- foolish and immature. And pointless. Colm Toibin writes them as three-dimensional characters, sometimes powerful, other times full of doubt, full of love and malice and ambition. But above all, they are human beings, complex and fascinating.The writer chose a difficult subject that can burn any less skilled author bound to fail in the attempt. He created a novel of exquisite beauty. Not boring or cold or dragging, but respectful, vivid, poetic, raw and dark. It's not an easy read. It wouldn't have the Atreides as its protagonists if it were. It wouldn't have murder as its main theme. As a Greek who has grown up with these myths that run in our blood, I can only say that Toibin made me proud to discover how alive our legendary ancestors still are. I'm not interested in trivial technicalities. For me, this is a book that touched perfection.....