I started this before Christmas, so not part of the haul, but rather something I felt I had to read as a contemporary lit academic. A Booker winner by an author with a lot of recent academic interest...

Alas, it hasn't changed my view of Murdoch from reading & teaching other novels by her: none of the characters or situations or conversations are believable and I just don't care what happens to the characters. I assume this is an authorial choice, but it gets tiresome after a while, as do the contrived settings and narrow social milieu.

I have now read 5 of her novels and my response remains the same: I just don't see the point of the over the top approach to everything.

Reading Mary Renault after going on a buying splurge of her novels at Waterstones.

She is still the best modern of Greek mythology/ancient history. So many others have been doing this genre recently (Pat Barker, Natalie Hayes, etc.) that you can't go to a bookshop without seeing these everywhere, but none as effectively.

The only comparable author is Madeline Miller and I think the reason is that like Renault she is brave enough to take on the main characters (Achilles) rather than sticking with the minor female characters. Renault and Miller avoid getting bogged in domesticity and go for the epic instead. I find that admirable.