Homefire is a retelling of Sophocles’ play Antigone that takes place in the modern-day primarily in England. The book is extremely different to the play since it does not have to follow the unities of ancient greek tragedies and therefore can take place over multiple days and in multiple locations. This allows the story to often be more developed as the reader actually learns about Eamonn (Hamon) and Aneeka’s (Antigone’s) relationship as well as exploring other relationships more such as Isma (Ismene) and Eamonn’s which is never mentioned/nonexistent in the original play. The fact it is in novel form also allows the reader to know the inner thoughts of characters like Karamat (Creon) making their motives potentially more understandable.
A relationship that changes a lot from the original is the father-son relationship between Karamat and Eamonn and in general their whole family dynamic. Rather than the fear that happens it the play Eamonn does say things along the lines of ‘my father will do anything for me’ showing a closer relationship between the two. This is a big change as in Sophocles’ original story Creon is unflinching in his resolves and mentions many times that he would prioritise Thebes over family. The story also adds in a sister and gives the mother more of a role further changing this family.
The book creatively retells the story in such a way where it is an interesting read even without prior knowledge. I read this book without knowing it was a retelling and enjoyed it. Though I do feel as though one gets more out of having the prior knowledge as making connections can be very interesting and the reader notices more small details such as understanding perepeteia and recognising when he begins to regret his actions even though it is too late.
Homefire is able to transform the story of Antigone into a a much more modernly relevant story by being a different form of art (play vs novel) and not having to follow the norms or the exact storyline of the original story and its genre. The creativity of building a relationship between Isma and Eamonn or keeping Parvaiz alive for much of the play changes a lot especially with the storyline of Parvaiz as the author adds many characters and an original storyline through him. These sort of changes not only showcase the originality that can be shown in retellings but they add to the story. These changes leave readers wondering if the ending will also change or will it just turn out the same again? and hope it doesn’t even as the end is coming closer and closer. This is a common thing with retellings in ones of other greek myths or even slightly newer works like Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet that has received many new spins on the storyline over the years when sometimes the story ending changes but a lot of the time it doesn’t. This happens in Homefire where the reader hopes the author changed the ending but that false hope leads to a fascinated read that often ends exactly how one would expect. This is part of the reason why I think knowing that the story is a retelling adds to it as I did not remember much about how the story ended (just a vague idea that someone died) and this wondering added a lot to the story.