The Bottom Line
Margaret Atwood uses both prose and verse chapters to tell what should be one, but reads like two, too loosely connected stories: the one of Penelope, and the other of the maids killed by Odysseus for their part in the suitors' crimes.
I'm not a fan of modern "Literature", so I have never and probably never will read anything else by Atwood. If you like Atwood, go for it.
Pros
- An interesting new interpretation
- Short - less than 200 pages
Cons
- Changes focus
- Doesn't make a convincing case
- The normal set of anachronisms
Description
- Shows Penelope's early life with her careless naiad mother and paranoid father Icarius.
- Proposes an ongoing relationship between cousins Helen and a very envious Penelope.
- Presents Penelope as long-suffering and bitter.
- Interprets the maids who defected to the suitors as doing so under Penelope's orders.
- Makes the ending all about these maids.
- The book is written from the perspective of a Penelope who has been in the Underworld for millennia.
- Penelopiad is part of a series by Canongate on ancient mythology rewritten by acclaimed modern writers.
- For a non-classicist, Atwood provides a remarkable amount of detailed background on Penelope.
- The book has a strong start, but fails towards the end.
- This and its length make it a good book for a trip -- if you lose it, you will probably have already read the best part.
Guide Review - Penelopiad, by Margaret Atwood
Penelope's contact with her beautiful, vain cousin Helen, leaves Penelope feeling ugly. Penelope's neglectful naiad mother doesn't help. Then, after Odysseus loses the contest for Helen, but wins Penelope for a bride, Penelope feels she is only a consolation prize. Taken (willingly) from her homeland, Penelope finds a new set of tribulations, especially a mother-in-law who despises her and an ancient nurse who, despite her years, like the Biblical Sarah, nurses and alienates Penelope's child, Telemachus.
After Odysseus leaves for the Trojan War, Penelope, still a newlywed, tries to manage the household so Odysseus will be proud of her on his return. When Odysseus fails to return after the Trojan War, she must give up on this ideal since the suitors move in and eat her out of house and home. Penelope trains 12 young slave women from birth, and then sends them among the suitors to spy. This is the point at which Atwood is reinventing the story, since there is no justification for the slave women in the Odyssey.
When Odysseus returns, Penelope pretends not to recognize him. She can't stop his murderous revenge on the suitors and the 12 treacherous young women.
The story is set in the Underworld where Penelope has been learning about new events on earth for the past couple of millennia.
