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With yet another report just out confirming that we are a nation of inveterate boozers, this biography of Bacchus, the Graeco-Roman god of wine, could scarcely have been more timely. Timely or not, however, it faces an immediate, and self-imposed, difficulty - one that it singularly fails to surmount. A biography whose episodes are fictional has some extra work to do to hold the reader's interest. Missing is that element of parti pris which tends to work in the biographer's favour. This problem is if anything accentuated, rather than obviated, by Andrew Dalby's adoption of what one might call a "docu-novel" format. The result - a constant weaving between adult fairytale narrative and displays of classical literary erudition - is less a double whammy than a falling between two stools.
The many quasi-historical accounts of the god's life are not presented in a style conducive to suspension of disbelief. Instead of luring us into a charming pretence, Dalby has a tendency to wax twee. Thus, describing a mythical (or not,...