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elementarymydear 's review for:
The Penelopiad
by Margaret Atwood
challenging
dark
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This book.
THIS. BOOK.
I was absolutely bowled away by this. It exceeded by already high expectations, and I know it will stay with me for months if not years to come.
Read this and other reviews on my blog!
The Penelopiad is Margaret Atwood’s take on the story of Penelope, Odysseus’ wife. While Odysseus was off being the protagonist of the Odyssey, Penelope was left at behind in Ithaca, left to fend off suitors who invite themselves over and take advantage of her maids. When Odysseus returns, he kills the suitors (of whom there are over a hundred), and then hangs twelve of the maids.
The story is told from Penelope’s perspective as she wanders through Hades, having watched over two thousand years of human history go by, but even though she is the narrator, and the title character, the story isn’t actually about her. The story is about the twelve maidens who were hanged for being women sullied by the enemy. They are a literal Greek chorus, interrupting Penelope’s narrative to recite verse, sing sea shanties, do a tap dance, or perform a Gilbert-and-Sullivan-style number for us. It’s very weird, very Atwood, and very effective. Only one of them is named; they are an otherwise anonymous ‘chorus line’.
The presence of this chorus line of the twelve maidens was for me the standout feature of the novel. They made it unsettling and unpredictable. They added an immense power to the narrative, sometimes subtly, sometimes very much not. Their presence turns the book not just into a telling of Penelope’s story, but into a critique of whose story gets told and why.
It’s a very short book, coming in at just under 200 pages with not much text on each page – I read it in under two hours – but it sucks you in, keeps you glued to the page right to the very end, and what a punch that end is. It is a masterclass in having a huge impact with very few words. I’m almost tempted to immediately read this again, to glean even more nuggets from it. Needless to say, I’ll be thinking about this for a long time, and almost certainly returning to it again and again.
THIS. BOOK.
I was absolutely bowled away by this. It exceeded by already high expectations, and I know it will stay with me for months if not years to come.
Read this and other reviews on my blog!
The Penelopiad is Margaret Atwood’s take on the story of Penelope, Odysseus’ wife. While Odysseus was off being the protagonist of the Odyssey, Penelope was left at behind in Ithaca, left to fend off suitors who invite themselves over and take advantage of her maids. When Odysseus returns, he kills the suitors (of whom there are over a hundred), and then hangs twelve of the maids.
The story is told from Penelope’s perspective as she wanders through Hades, having watched over two thousand years of human history go by, but even though she is the narrator, and the title character, the story isn’t actually about her. The story is about the twelve maidens who were hanged for being women sullied by the enemy. They are a literal Greek chorus, interrupting Penelope’s narrative to recite verse, sing sea shanties, do a tap dance, or perform a Gilbert-and-Sullivan-style number for us. It’s very weird, very Atwood, and very effective. Only one of them is named; they are an otherwise anonymous ‘chorus line’.
The presence of this chorus line of the twelve maidens was for me the standout feature of the novel. They made it unsettling and unpredictable. They added an immense power to the narrative, sometimes subtly, sometimes very much not. Their presence turns the book not just into a telling of Penelope’s story, but into a critique of whose story gets told and why.
It’s a very short book, coming in at just under 200 pages with not much text on each page – I read it in under two hours – but it sucks you in, keeps you glued to the page right to the very end, and what a punch that end is. It is a masterclass in having a huge impact with very few words. I’m almost tempted to immediately read this again, to glean even more nuggets from it. Needless to say, I’ll be thinking about this for a long time, and almost certainly returning to it again and again.