The Penelopiad

I’m not sure why I had more expectations for this book considering it’s less than 299 pages. For what is was, a quick explanation of Penelope’s true story and the wrongs down the the maids, it was pretty good. It can only be so good though when there’s not much room for details. I feel like if I got more (especially more of the chapter titled “the trial of Odysseus” ) I would have enjoyed it more and rated higher

it was interesting! sparks some good conversations about levels of privilege/the idea of punching down and taking a feminist approach to such a classic. i feel like she could’ve done a lot more with helen’s character and it was KIND OF flat but i still really liked it

A book that came to me through BookMooch.com (still on my book diet and doing well!) and it's a rather small book (198 pages) so obviously my brain went into "must read now" mode.

If you've read The Odyssey by Homer or if, like me, you know the myth behind it (with the help of The Simpsons), then this is a good little book to enhance it. This is the story of Odysseus but told from Penelope's point of view. Penelope is long dead and telling her story from Hades, in order to set some things straight.

We learn about why the 12 maids that were killed should not have been, how Helen started the War, how Penelope endured all the Suitors that descended on her castle when Odysseus failed to return from the Trojan War, etc.

The book is interspersed with "songs" and poems but I have to say I skipped those. The storytelling from Penelope was what I was after and it was very entertaining.

Atwood is probably one of my favourite writers, just because her style is so easy to sink into. This is a retelling of the myth of Odysseus and the Odyssey from the perspective of Penelope. It's pretty good, and now I want to read the rest of the series.

This book is really well written, it's interesting and I loved Penelope's voice. Exploring a different perspective on such a well known tale, and a female perspective at that, is always refreshing. I do have some quips with it though. The two main things that I wasn't so keen on were the fact that there are some phrases that I don't feel make sense in the context. They disrupted the story for me. Unfortunately I don't have any examples but I think they occur when Penelope is in Hades rather than while she's telling us her story. The other thing that I really did not like was the way Atwood portrayed Helen. She lacked depth in that she was reduced to be a two dimensional 'popular girl' who is too into her looks and treats men like her playthings. Personally I think she could have been written a lot stronger and braver. I didn't like that there was no solidarity between her and Penelope. The chorus being the twelve slaves hung by Odysseus is genius and powerful for the most part. I throughly enjoyed this book and would even read it again.