Golden Mean steps back in time
Pianist Elizabeth Weir provides the instrumental accompaniment for the members of the Golden Echoes choir during the group’s performance for audience members at the recent Seniors Symposium at the Penticton Trade and Convention Centre.
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Life is golden for author Annabel Lyon. This young B.C. writer’s new book The Golden Mean has just been nominated for three major literary prizes: The Giller Prize, the Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize and the Governor General’s Award.
Despite the Canadian outpouring of praise, The Golden Mean isn’t typical Canadiana. In fact, it’s set almost 2,500 years ago in ancient Greece. The stars of the book are Aristotle and his pupil, Alexander the Great.
It’s no mean feat to take on characters of this stature. Who would even dare to try to create thoughts and conversation for two of the greatest minds in Western civilization? Well, how about a quiet young mother of two from New Westminster B.C.?
Although just about as far from the setting of this book as possible, Lyon’s imagination soars. She breathes life into the tale of Aristotle as he tutors the young Alexander and sees him through his first battles.
The Golden Mean is a far cry from historical text. In fact, this book is as much about Lyon’s own ideas as it is about Aristotle’s and Alexander’s. It’s rooted very much in our present day obsession with diagnosing and labelling — Aristotle is bipolar and Alexander suffers from post-traumatic stress syndrome.
At first, I was unsettled that Aristotle — someone I’ve always viewed as a stalwart voice of reason — was depicted struggling with depression. How could he lay in the darkness and question himself and his ideas? This is a man often called the last person on earth to know everything there was to be known in his own time.
Of course, that’s a crazy and old-fashioned idea in itself. It seems we can’t escape viewing the world as it’s shaped in our own era. Nonetheless, The Golden Mean is a fascinating reimagining of motives for historical facts. And I grew to enjoy watching Aristotle struggle with the golden mean: To live a good life, you have to find a balance between two extremes.
In fact, reading this book is like watching a production of Shakespeare set in a different era.
To me, it takes great courage to become the voice of two great thinkers — to try and rope and drag them into our modern way of thinking. For Lyon, fortunately, the risk paid off. Her voice, ringing through both Aristotle and Alexander, is well worth a listen.
Heather Allen is a writer and reader who lives in Penticton.
In the next Armchair Book Club column we’ll be discussing The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows. Continue to send in questions, comments or suggestions for future book club selections. Happy Reading!
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