A Girl and Her Gods

	Fiction Non-Fiction Poetry Film Art MEB Authors Events Distribution Booksense Contacts<>	A Girl and Her Gods by Becca ISBN 978-1-933132-39-6 $16.00 US \| $19.95 CAN Find the book on Amazon> Part love story, part fairytale, part novel of ideas, A Girl and Her Gods dances through Greek mythology by following the steps of Daphne, famous for her metamorphosis into a laurel tree in order to escape the attentions of Apollo. In this versified telling, Daphne is the daughter of the seer Tieresias and the nymph of prophecy, Themis; and Apollo’s lust for her is for the sake of the mystic gift she has inherited. The god needs her as the oracle at Delphi, a shrine he has recently wrested from Mother Earth. But Daphne’s affections are fixed on Pan, the half-goat god whose playful energies hold sway not just over her, but over the entire life-affirming book. So this book is a romp and an entertainment above all. But it can also be read, among other things, as a response to Friedrich Nietzsche’s “The Birth of Tragedy,” because A Girl and Her Gods offers an earthy alternative to the eternal dialectical shenanigans of Apollo and Dionysus by describing a world—and creating a work—in the image of the greatest romper of all: the laughing, prancing god of play, deus ludens, Pan. How to describe the charm and piquancy and high spirits and sheer originality of A Girl and Her Gods? Call it a mythological novel in verse—many different kinds of verse, including lighthearted Englishings of ancient Greek forms. Daphne, the sexy innocent, offspring of a nymph and a seer, pursues her complex destiny—or it pursues her—in a landscape as fresh as morning and peopled by gods who are human as herself. No poet I know of writes anything like this—Becca dances to the tune of her own Panpipes, and the reader follows, entranced. Katha Pollitt, columnist, The Nation When I started reading, I was a bit skeptical how a long narrative about Greek myth could be sustained. But my reservations soon turned to absorptions and by section six I was a convert. The poem has great zip and readability. The Daphne-Pan-Apollo triangle is deftly handled; and the language is supple and nuanced (light when needed, dark when tragedy lurks), witty. The contest between Apollo and Pan and the metamorphosis of Daphne into a tree are superb. Becca’s sleight-of-hand as a storyteller keeps the reader from worrying about what technical devices she uses. That would come with later readings. Herb Leibowitz, editor, Parnassus: Poetry in Review An exquisite, ingenious work. Becca's command of language is spectacular, and of consummate artistry. Her depiction of the famous labyrinth in Joyce-like stream-of-consciousness is nothing short of miraculous. A descendant of Homer and Ovid, A Girl and Her Gods is a luscious epic in the tradition of Virgil, Shakespeare, Ariosto and Tasso. Kenneth Cooper, harpsichordist and musicologist A Girl and Her Gods dazzles. A multivalent, bravura storybook, a playful, philosophical poem, a subversive, absorbing novel, the work is best read in light of how its lively gods have presided over the development of Western culture. The book attains a rich multitude of tones, and brought myth close to present--eternal--tensions. Besides, it’s sexy. Mark Rudman, author of Rider Quintet, and winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award

Part love story, part fairytale, part novel of ideas, A Girl and Her Gods dances through Greek mythology
by following the steps of Daphne, famous for her metamorphosis into a laurel tree in order to escape the
attentions of Apollo. In this versified telling, Daphne is the daughter of the seer Tieresias and the nymph
of prophecy, Themis; and Apollo’s lust for her is for the sake of the mystic gift she has inherited. The god
needs her as the oracle at Delphi, a shrine he has recently wrested from Mother Earth. But Daphne’s
affections are fixed on Pan, the half-goat god whose playful energies hold sway not just over her, but over
the entire life-affirming book.
So this book is a romp and an entertainment above all. But it can also be read, among other things,
as a response to Friedrich Nietzsche’s “The Birth of Tragedy,” because A Girl and Her Gods offers an
earthy alternative to the eternal dialectical shenanigans of Apollo and Dionysus by describing a
world—and creating a work—in the image of the greatest romper of all: the laughing, prancing god
of play, deus ludens, Pan.

How to describe the charm and piquancy and high spirits and sheer originality of A Girl and Her Gods?
Call it a mythological novel in verse—many different kinds of verse, including lighthearted Englishings of
ancient Greek forms. Daphne, the sexy innocent, offspring of a nymph and a seer, pursues her complex
destiny—or it pursues her—in a landscape as fresh as morning and peopled by gods who are human as
herself. No poet I know of writes anything like this—Becca dances to the tune of her own Panpipes, and
the reader follows, entranced. Katha Pollitt, columnist, The Nation

When I started reading, I was a bit skeptical how a long narrative about Greek myth could be sustained.
But my reservations soon turned to absorptions and by section six I was a convert. The poem has great
zip and readability. The Daphne-Pan-Apollo triangle is deftly handled; and the language is supple and
nuanced (light when needed, dark when tragedy lurks), witty. The contest between Apollo and Pan and
the metamorphosis of Daphne into a tree are superb.
Becca’s sleight-of-hand as a storyteller keeps the reader from worrying about what technical
devices she uses. That would come with later readings. Herb Leibowitz, editor, Parnassus: Poetry in Review

An exquisite, ingenious work.
      Becca's command of language is spectacular, and of consummate artistry. Her depiction of the famous
labyrinth in Joyce-like stream-of-consciousness is nothing short of miraculous.
     A descendant of Homer and Ovid, A Girl and Her Gods is a luscious epic in the tradition of Virgil,
Shakespeare, Ariosto and Tasso.    Kenneth Cooper, harpsichordist and musicologist

A Girl and Her Gods dazzles. A multivalent, bravura storybook, a playful, philosophical poem, a
subversive, absorbing novel, the work is best read in light of how its lively gods have presided over
the development of Western culture. The book attains a rich multitude of tones, and brought myth close
to present--eternal--tensions. Besides, it’s sexy. Mark Rudman, author of Rider Quintet, and winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award