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mmmergz 's review for:
The Song of Achilles
by Madeline Miller
This is gonna be more of a personal reflection than a review so don’t bother reading. Was Achilles always full of selfish pride or did the war bring that out of him? Could he really have chosen to live a quiet life with Patroclus and been satisfied? Obviously Patroclus would have been. But Achilles seemed happy on the mountain with him and Chiron. Maybe something would have been missing. But obviously he wasn’t happy in war either. It’s like he lost himself in the magic of the identity that was bestowed on him. And when he put on the armor, Patroclus was lost in it too. I guess the prophecy doomed him from the start. I appreciated how Miller depicted women in this time. She was probably too generous with Patroclus’s empathy for Briseis but maybe there were some okay men back then. Thetis is of course against Achilles’ and Patroclus’ relationship, but she isn’t exactly set up as a villain. I think she is justified in her brooding anger, she was raped and forced to raise a mortal child and her fellow gods were in on it. I appreciated their conversation in the end. It was like she finally got to see and appreciate the mortal side of her son who she always pushed to be a god.