'Olympus, Texas' by Stacey Swann

 

From the BLURB: 

A bighearted debut with technicolor characters, plenty of Texas swagger, and a powder keg of a plot in which marriages struggle, rivalries flare, and secrets explode, all with a clever wink toward classical mythology. 

When March Briscoe returns to East Texas two years after he was caught having an affair with his brother's wife, the Briscoe family becomes once again the talk of the small town of Olympus. His mother, June, hardly welcomes him back with open arms. Her husband's own past affairs have made her tired of being the long-suffering spouse. Is it, perhaps, time for a change? Within days of March's arrival, someone is dead, marriages are upended, and even the strongest of alliances are shattered. In the end, the ties that hold them together might be exactly what drag them all down.

'Olympus, Texas' by Stacey Swann came out in 2021, and I’ve had the book (kindly sent to me by Hachette Australia at the time) on my TBR ever since.

It’s the second week of 2023 and I think I’ve already had one of my best reading experiences, and a new fave book.

The way I’d describe it is … if ‘One Tree Hill’ had been developed by HBO. This would be it. ‘Olympus, Texas’ is basically southern gothic, Greek myth, soap-opera. If you liked ‘Early Morning Riser’ by Katherine Heiny, you’ll dig this. And yes there's obviously Greek Mythology inspo throughout, but look me in the eye and tell me Mount Olympus wasn't just the first Coronation Street, Dallas, or Summer Bay ...

It’s all about the Briscoe family of Olympus whose patriarch Peter (the Zeus-esque character) had three children out of wedlock, on top of the three he had in his marriage to matriarch, June (or, Hera). And all the kids were raised in small town Olympus; one with the secret of their paternity, while twins of Peter’s mistress were welcomed into the Briscoe family fold.

When we meet this twisty family - the stars of small-town gossip - it’s spanning a couple of tumultuous weeks in their lives, kicked off when Peter and June’s middle son March returns home after two years of exile, for sleeping with his brother’s wife.

Everything is a powder-keg ready to explode as this family and the people who orbit them keep repeating generational traumas and mistakes. It’s delicious. I gasped, I laughed, I cried.

Of course people are going to come to this and read more of the Greek Myth overtones - Peter's mistress was Lee who had twins called Artie and Arlo that were permitted to be half-siblings to the "official" Briscoe children; which is the Leto being seduced by Zeus and giving birth to Apollo and Artemis thread. March - the troubled brother who slept with his sister-in-law - is Hades, cast out of the family for his indiscretions and temper, returned when the story begins (with two big dogs in tow, veritable Cerberus). That's totally cool if you want to connect-the-dots with all the wonderful Greek Myth keynotes, but I got a lot of enjoyment out of the book by not going too hard-eyed into that side, I really took it at face-value as Soap Opera (which is all the Geek Myths are anyway, lol - Aphrodite cheated on Hephaestus with Ares, you what!)

Ultimately this is a really beautifully-written book, so compelling as to feel like you’re reading a tightly-choreographed dance, or the entirety of a first season of prestige television … it’s that southern charm with gothic undertones, stories about people using each other as weapons to make themselves feel better and how we all play certain characters to appease our families and communities.

Whew. I’m gonna be thinking about this one for a LONG time, and recommending it far and wide!

5/5