"There are moments, admittedly, when her ability to look suffering squarely in the eye and describe it in all its horror can be enough to make you take a brisk walk before returning to the next sentence. For instance: "The pain on her cheeks, her forehead, her hands, stands out blackly, as if her veins are delicately weeping poison and her skin is a cloth placed over it to soak up the damage." Here is language that does justice to the suffering of gods."