Customer Reviews

The Penelopiad: The Myth of Penelope and Odysseus

5 star:		(29)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I enjoyed this "back story" of Penelope, the long-suffering wife of Odysseus. As does the author, Atwood, I too have often wondered what the "real" story was. This was a complicated woman, and her day-to-day life of keeping everything together for 20 years cannot have been any easier than that of the men fighting the war. I thought the book clever and touching. The other reviewer's use of the two sides of a coin is exactly correct, also, and very well described. The hanging of the maids was horrific, but accounted for in an interesting manner in the book. Finally, Atwood's writing style is just lovely. All in all, I enjoyed this small book (readable in an hour). I highly recommend it.

I am not normally a fan of Margaret Atwood's writings. I often find that she is too dark or has too much edge. Not that it is not good writing, and she is probably currently the most famous of the living Canadian authors, she just isn't usually my thing. I cannot say that for this book.

The Penelopiad is a hilarious romp through a story that most of us know, but told outside of time. There is an old saying that "dead men don't tell tales" and that may be true, but in this inventive retelling, a dead woman and her chorus of dead girls do just that.

Atwood has turned this myth on its head and told it from the female perspective. Unfortunately, our heroine is dead and in Hades, retelling her story from across the river Styx. She is telling her whole story but especially the events around Odysseus' long absence during the war against Troy and that unfortunate event with her cousin Helen.

The story is written in the format of a Greek Tragedy but with the humor and temperament of a comedy. Our chorus is the twelve dead maids, hung strung together on a ship's rope by Odysseus. They appear from time to time, in song, dance, or mock plays and trials to re-enact events from their lives to punctuate Penelope's story.

The twists and turns in this story will make you laugh out loud. A friend of mine who read it stated, `It begs to be read aloud.' And I could not agree more. Pick up the book, get some friends together and read it aloud, over an evening or two together. Much fun will be had with the ghosts of our 13 dead ladies.

Other than watching the Simpsons fairly regularly, I know very little about Homer, so, as I picked up this book I felt like... "D'oh! I am not gonna understand this thing!"
I have never read The Odyssey.
But the neat thing is, I found that you do not have to know much about The Odyssey in order to really enjoy this book. The brief Introduction itself furnishes enough background to get you knowledgably immersed before you are finished even the first brief chapter.
Most readers will at least be familiar with the story of the beautiful Helen of Troy (Penelope's cousin) and how she is finally liberated by Brad Pitt. Well, when Penelope's husband Odysseus (reluctantly) leaves Ithaca to join in the fracas involving this Trojan War, he stays away for twenty years.
And Penelope is left behind, to tend to the affairs of state and the state of affairs.
During this time, men are pretty much crawling out of the woodwork to try and win her hand in marriage, everyone presuming that Odysseus is long since dead.
For decades, there is no word from him. Only legends, rumors, contradictory reports as to his whereabouts. It is the ultimate "went out for a pack of smokes and haven't seen him since" story. Penelope has always been lauded as the epitome of unwavering faithfulness, patiently waiting for Odysseus to return to her.
Drawing on material other than Homer's Odyssey, Atwood has chosen to tell the story of this interim period from the perspective of Penelope herself. Along with this first-person story, Atwood has placed alternating sections where Penelope's twelve maids share their story also. These twelve were hanged until dead by Odysseus and Telemachus (father and son) upon the former's return to Ithaca.
From the narration standpoint, it is from start to finish a tale from beyond the grave, as Penelope tells us, in the opening sentence "Now that I'm dead I know everything."

Atwood tells us in the Introduction that there are two questions which are raised (and unanswered) after anyone reads Homer's Odyssey. These are: what led to the hanging of the maids, and what was Penelope really up to?
She says, "The story as told in The Odyssey doesn't hold water: there are too many inconsistencies. I've always been haunted by the hanged maids; and in The Penelopiad, so is Penelope herself."

That is what this little book sets out to do.
To pull back the curtain on an important portion of mythic history.
No one can do it better than Margaret Atwood.

T.y.L.i.I.

Re-imaginings of tales and mythology intrigue me -- anytime an author can take a story written by another writer, or a tale retold many times, and create something new and interesting with it, I'm impressed. Margaret Atwood takes on this challenge admirably in THE PENELOPIAD, where she re-imagines the story of Odysseus' wife, Penelope.

Starting with Penelope in Hades and having her remember back through her life, from childhood when her father tries to drown her, through her marriage to Odysseus, and her long, unhappy time alone, Atwood weaves a story that lets us see Penelope as a multi-dimensional, fully imagined character. Of course, this character is informed by a modern perspective, and we see more grief come to her from her deceptive (Odyssean) actions than the Homeric version (which approved those deceptions).

Using the 12 hanged maids as a satiric, comic interlude between chapters both brings us the feel of a classic Greek play and makes the poignancy of their situations more prominent.

All told, a very enjoyable retelling of a tale that clearly adds new material and a new angle to the existing story. Be prepared though, it's a quick read that will leave you a bit hungry for more.

I was really disappointed in this novel. It's the sixth Atwood novel I've read. All the previous ones I've liked, some more than others, but this one really felt like a failure to me. It was an interesting idea, trying to give Penelope's perspective on the Odyssey, but it just didn't work. How much can you really write about a woman who stays home and plays the good wife, even if she is clever and takes good care of the household? I found the prose in this book a lot weaker than in Atwood's other novels. It was a very quick read. I finished it in a day, which isn't always a bad thing. But I just felt like I couldn't really sink into it the way I did with some of her other novels. I loved The Blind Assassin, Oryx & Crake, and The HAndmaid's Tale. I couldn't get them out of my head when I was reading them and they've stayed with me long after I finished them. I don't think The Penelopiad will do that. Penelope struck me as a very bland character. The chapters with the chorus of maids seemed rather juvenile to me. Like something that would seem innovative and creative to a high-school student, but in reality just detracts from the work more than adds to it. None of the characters were well-developed. I actually ended up wishing the book was about Helen. She was made out to be a very flat character in the book, but she seemed more interesting than Penelope. I found myself wanting to hear her side of things. In short, this was an interesting idea for a novel that just didn't pan out. Definitely not Atwood's best work.

Canongate publishers have had the excellent idea of commissioning writers to write modern versions of ancient myths, and they invited Margaret Atwood to retell the myth of Oedipus and Penelope; and she has chosen to do this from Penelope's point of view as she tells it from the Underworld - in a very 21st century idiom and with a 21st century sensibility, for instance only half-believing in the gods towards whom she has a nicely sceptical attitude. It is an excellent tale even if you don't know the Homeric original; and if you do, there are of course additional reward as you realize what she has done - and above all, what she has added - to the Odyssey. She has delightfully filled out some of the characters - especially Helen of Troy and Odysseus' old nurse Eurycleia. Her main addition is to explore Penelope's relationship with the twelve maids whom Odysseus hanged after his victory over Penelope's Suitors and the consequences of this for the rest of Odysseus' life. In addition, the spirits know something about modern scholarship, and the twelve maids can produce an anthropological lecture about the symbolism of twelve and thirteen, about the Great Mother and the Year King. Atwood has also used the twelve maids as a Chorus who speak in verse; but I don't think that is a successful part of the book, since the verse is undistinguished and slangy doggerel; and there is also a rather feeble 21st century trial of Odysseus, presided over by a sniggering judge. The humour here is coarse, and takes away, I think, from the subtler wit that informs the rest of this most enjoyable book.

I'm a great admirer of Margaret Atwood's fiction and I will buy whatever book she writes in the future. However, this book is not her best. She is funny and witty in her writing as usual but for me this story was like a highly didactic story for high school students. I could read the effort behind the words to create a "through the female eye" version of the Odysseus story. I don't want to say that I did not enjoy reading the story, but I more than once had the feeling that I'm reading an assignment done by an eminent student: well-researched, all the necessary stylistic elements in the proper place, but the whole personality of the writer didn't immerse into the story. The writer couldn't fully identify with Penelope, so neither can the reader.

Giving Penelope a voice is an excellent concept. Margaret Atwood's book, part of the Canongate Myth Series, illustrates the trials and tribulations that Penelope goes through as she waits for the return of her husband, Odysseus, from the Trojan War.

I would argue that there is too much telling rather than showing in the book. Penelope, speaking from the land of the dead, tells us her story. If we could have seen more of her interaction with her suitors, her maids, Odyssues and their son Telemachus, I think we would have a greater appreciation for and understanding of her plight.

This is the second of the Canongate Myth books that I've read following Weight. I love the concept of the series, but was looking for more from both books.

I'd bump this review up to 3.5 stars if I could.

Atwood is sly. She presents this tale as a myth, but it's not - not really. It's a satire, actually. Another old Greek form, for sure, but not really a myth. Myths tend to believe in themselves and to unite material and spiritual worlds into one vision. Atwood works hard here to strip any such unity away and to display the primacy of wit and intelligence. She does it with the voice of Penelope herself, she does it with the interwoven voices of the chorus, who dance in like music hall girls from 1893 or maybe 1927, sometimes, and sometimes like half the cast of a Gilbert & Sullivan musical that, sadly, has not yet been written. And she does it by hinting, continuously, that she is going to reveal the big secret of the maids (those music hall girls). Unfortunately, Penelope, although witty and refreshing, comes across with too much the protesting Lady Macbeth in her, the music hall girls are vague, at least until they just get up and do the Gilbert and Sullivan thing (and redeem the book in a few brief pages of poetic brilliance). As for the hints, well, if that was their pillow talk, Odysseus would have slept through it. A little bit more than vague hints about sacred numbers of maids and their correlation to the world of myth is required to make a book a myth. The Penelopiad has a great set-up and a brilliant conception, but the follow-through is weak. Except for that song and dance. That's masterly.

This book was a lot of fun. It's a short novel, and a quick read at under 200 pages. It's part of the new Canongate mythology series by such authors as Jeanette Winterson, and Karen Armstong.

This is the retelling of the story of Penelope, wife of Odysseus. It tells of her childhood, her relationship to her (bitchy) cousin Helen (of Troy fame), and of her marriage to the charming but less-than fully honest Odysseus.

One focus of this book is the killing of Penelope's 12 loyal handmaidens, butchered by Odysseus upon his return.

This is a wonderful, thoughtful, and clever modern retelling of an ancient story. The book plays with the notion that Odysseus may have been delayed by things very mortal, ie. very human temptresses vs. mythical witches.

Highly recommended, and a beautiful cover to boot.