Her retelling of the story takes place on the Greek Island of Naxos where Dionysus was born. If you are familiar with Greek mythology and/or the play then this will make sense to you. In an interview the author told me she wrote this as a horror novel because it is really violent. Readers of crime novels might consider the violence excessive whereas horror fans expect it. No big deal to them.
Another aspect of this is that these are women who are acting violent and Pochoda believes in our society violence is gendered, that it is the men who we expect to commit it and that women are not allowed to be so violent. Of course there are many expectations placed upon women-some of those other demands come out in this story as well.
As “Ecstasy” opens, a family group is about to arrive at a luxury hotel on the beach at Naxos. The man who built the hotel, a Greek named Stavros, has died recently on the beach in front of his villas. Very mysterious. The people who are arriving are his widow, Lena, his son, Drew, Drew’s pregnant wife, Jordan, and Lena’s old friend, Hedy.
Lena and Hedy were professional dancers when they were young. Lena was 21 when she met Stavros, an affluent developer. She was his bird in a gilded cage, an adornment, the mother of his child, a very unsatisfied person. Her son Drew grew up to be just like his father, controlling, with set ideas about what women’s roles should be.
The hotel isn’t open yet. Drew is there to oversee final details. His biggest problem? A group of women camping on the beach having wild parties lasting all night long. Drew wants them removed. He doesn’t actually own the beach.
There’s a cave on the beach that contains an ancient shrine. Drew doesn’t care about any of that, he notifies the police that these women need to clear out now. The women refuse to leave. Their leader, Luz, is like a cult leader, she’s charismatic and like Drew, very controlling.
Lena wants to go down there and party with those women. Hedy wants to go, too. Eventually even Drew’s pregnant wife, Jordan, begins to feel the attraction of joining in with this group of women who are doing exactly what they want. This is driving Drew crazy. He tries to control everything: mother you have had too much wine.
What Drew doesn’t understand is that control is the ultimate illusion, there’s no such thing as control. We are fooling ourselves if we believe that there is such a thing.
Vick Mickunas of Yellow Springs interviews authors every Saturday at 7 a.m. and on Sundays at 10:30 a.m. on WYSO-FM (91.3). For more information, visit www.wyso.org/programs/book-nook. Contact him at vick@vickmickunas.com.
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