The Penelopiad

Book Description

Critics

• The Penelopiad: The Myth of Penelope and Odysseus

  by Margaret Atwood Reporting ringside as The Odyssey and Margaret Atwood square off is pretty intimidating stuff. How to begin passing judgment on one of the first in a new series of books that touts “top-class writers from all over the world” retell ... (read full critics)

  quillandquire published on Tue, 14 Sep 2010

• The Penelopiad

  This is stunning! Atwood’s retelling of a familiar story, but from the woman’s perspective is compelling. Her clear, eloquent style brings to life the strange, harsh and misogynistic world of Bronze Age Greece. Surely there could be no contemporary c ... (read full critics)

  bookgroup published on Mon, 13 Sep 2010

2 Reviews

• Myths are never ending stories relentlessly and continually retold. Here it’s the case. This is a book on Penelop. Penelop is now dead, so she can tells her life freely and without fear, form her marriage to Odysseus homecoming, the slaughter of the Suitors and the Maids who’d been disloyal.
  The mo ... (continue)

  Myths are never ending stories relentlessly and continually retold. Here it’s the case. This is a book on Penelop. Penelop is now dead, so she can tells her life freely and without fear, form her marriage to Odysseus homecoming, the slaughter of the Suitors and the Maids who’d been disloyal.
  The modest and smart Penelop, with tender heart, offers us an unusual and effective portrait of herself, of Helen intolerably beautiful, and of course, of Odysseus, the clever Odysseus, who was too clever for his own Gods; with legs quite short in relation to his body. And give us her own perspective, maybe offer us something that Homer didn’t tell in his poem.
  Through her eyes we see Odysseus not as a hero, but as a ordinary man. The wily Odysseus, a great persuader of men and deluder of women, with a deep, sonorous wonderful voice…..
  Behind the myth. Beyond the myth.
  After this book, now I wish to read on:
  Paul Graves, The Greek Myths;
  Karen Armstrong, A Short History of Myth.
  Jeannette Winterson, Weight: The Myth of Atlas and Heracles

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  Albe said on Jan 22, 2012 | Add your feedback

• 

  This was an interesting book, though there were bits I could have done without. The thing that most annoys me about Atwood is that I sometimes get a really smug vibe off her books (though strangely I never get that vibe from her in interviews) and this book did have that problem occasionally.

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  Hold Your Spin said on Nov 19, 2006 about the Hardcover edition | Add your feedback

Book Details

• Rating:
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• English Books
• Paperback 196 Pages
• Edition: 1
• ISBN-10: 1841958115
• ISBN-13: 9781841958118
• Publisher: Canongate Books
• Pub date: May 04, 2005
• Also available as: Mass Market Paperback, Hardcover, Audio CD, Audio Cassette, Others and eBook
• In other languages: other languages Libros en Español, Libri Italiani

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• The Collective (144)

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