Author: Margaret
Atwood
Series: Canongate
Myths
Published: October
2005
Length: 198
pages
Source: library
Other info: Atwood
has written many things, such as The Blind Assassin, The Handmaid's
Tale, and The Heart Goes Last. The Penelopiad was written as part of
the Canongate Myths series.
Summary : For
Penelope, wife of Odysseus, maintaining a kingdom while her husband
was off fighting the Trojan war was not a simple business. Already
aggrieved that he had been lured away due to the shocking behaviour
of her beautiful cousin Helen, Penelope must bring up her wayward
son, face down scandalous rumours and keep over a hundred lustful,
greedy and bloodthirsty suitors at bay...And then, when Odysseus
finally returns and slaughters the murderous suitors, he brutally
hangs Penelope's twelve beloved maids. What were his motives? And
what was Penelope really up to?
Review: Since
her husband Odysseus left to fight in the Trojan War, and then gets
caught up for ten years on the way back, Penelope has been left
running her household, and fighting off suitors who want to marry
her, and eat her out of house and home. Now that she's dead, she's
ready to tell her side of the tale, as are the twelve maids who were
hanged.
According
to Goodreads, I read this a few years ago and gave it three stars,
but I don't remember doing that. Now I know the Odyssey a bit more,
and we're doing a feminist-orientated piece of English coursework, I
decided to pick this up, and now I understand things better, I loved
it.
There's
reinterpretations and challenges to the characters and stories.
Obviously, there's those against Odysseus, where there's the question
of whether the Cyclops he fought was a monster or a one-eyed
barkeeper, and whether his years with Circe and Calypso were spent in
brothels or nymphs and witches. But there's also a conversation with
Antinous, one of the suitors, explaining why they wanted to marry
Penelope so much, and the presentation of Helen as vain, proud, and
wanting to conquer men just because she can. Atwood has taken
inspiration from multiple sources, not just Homer's epic, but also
theories from Robert Graves (who used many writers to inform his
work) and Homeric hymns. I like the possibilities this gave Atwood
to work with, and the ways she used them.
Penelope's
voice often dryly comments on various parts of the stories, and I
enjoyed her different insights. What I liked most was the use of the
chorus, the twelve maids, whose chapters mostly alternate with
Penelope's and change styles each time. Poems, songs, plays, and a
transcript of a modern-day murder trial are some of the ways the
maids pass their story on in many ways. The writing is well crafted,
allowing each of the styles as well as Penelope's main narration to
work together to make a story that is intriguing and easy to read.
Overall: Strength
5 tea to a book that makes you think about the different
interpretations a myth can have, and provides a new one.
