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A review by lilureads
The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood
dark
mysterious
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
“You don’t have to think of us as real girls, real flesh and blood, real pain, real injustice. That might be too upsetting. Just discard the sordid part. Consider us pure symbol. We’re no more real than money.”
Penelope sheds some much needed light on the stories of the Iliad and the Odyssey. With precision and eloquence, Atwood points out what most people prefer to ignore about Odysseus for the sake of the story.
Some parts really resonated with me, but overall the story felt very long and morose. It is supposed to be like that to reflect Penelope waiting twenty years for her husband and the general injustice she faces but it was still not as gripping as I’d hoped.
“He claimed his father would have been proud of him for showing some backbone and getting out from under the thumbs of the women, who as usual were being overemotional and showing no reasonableness and judgment.
By ‘the women’, he meant me. How could he refer to his own mother as ‘the women’?
What could I do but burst into tears?”
My favorite parts were the maids and their interludes. I really liked them.
“Judge: What’s going on? Order! Order! This is a twenty-first-century court of justice! You there, get down from the ceiling! Stop that barking and hissing! Madam, cover up your chest and put down your spear! What’s this cloud doing in here? Where are the police? Where’s the defendant? Where has everyone gone?”
The more I think about this book, the more I like it.
Penelope sheds some much needed light on the stories of the Iliad and the Odyssey. With precision and eloquence, Atwood points out what most people prefer to ignore about Odysseus for the sake of the story.
Some parts really resonated with me, but overall the story felt very long and morose. It is supposed to be like that to reflect Penelope waiting twenty years for her husband and the general injustice she faces but it was still not as gripping as I’d hoped.
“He claimed his father would have been proud of him for showing some backbone and getting out from under the thumbs of the women, who as usual were being overemotional and showing no reasonableness and judgment.
By ‘the women’, he meant me. How could he refer to his own mother as ‘the women’?
What could I do but burst into tears?”
My favorite parts were the maids and their interludes. I really liked them.
“Judge: What’s going on? Order! Order! This is a twenty-first-century court of justice! You there, get down from the ceiling! Stop that barking and hissing! Madam, cover up your chest and put down your spear! What’s this cloud doing in here? Where are the police? Where’s the defendant? Where has everyone gone?”
The more I think about this book, the more I like it.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death, Rape