- Paperback: 224 pages
- Publisher: Canongate Books Ltd
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 1841957046
- ISBN-13: 978-1841957043
- Product Dimensions: 19.6 x 12.6 x 2 cm
- Shipping Weight: 159 g
- Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
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Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Laugh Out Loud Funny,
By
This review is from: The Penelopiad (Paperback)
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.
4.0 out of 5 stars
Will Make you Laugh,
By
This review is from: The Penelopiad: The Myth of Penelope and Odysseus (Canongate Myths) (Paperback)
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 "dad 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's 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.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta) Amazon.com:
4.1 out of 5 stars (39 customer reviews) 54 of 59 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Laugh Out Loud Funny,
By Steven R. McEvoy "MCWPP" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: The Penelopiad: The Myth of Penelope and Odysseus (Paperback)
Many readers find that Atwood's writings have too much edge or are just too dark and raw. The same cannot be said about this new feature. Yes, Atwood is the Queen in the Canadian Publishing Industry, and yes she is a good writer, but her stories for many are just not entertaining. I myself am not normally a fan of Margaret Atwood's writings. Yet this book will rock your socks. It is funny, satirical, and a laugh-out-loud tale.This is a story that most of us know, the story of Odysseus and Penelope. Yet unlike most tellings of this tale, it is told from Penelope's perspective and she has a great vantage point on the whole `Helen' affair. However our story is told from 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. Turning this myth on its head by telling it through women's eyes, Atwood has given us a unique view. Maybe she will challenge us to look at our world and our situations through different lenses from time to time. How do a dead woman and her twelve maids tell a story with a great deal of jest and a smattering of dark humor? How else could a tale be told by 13 dead women from across the river Styx? Penelope gives us some biographical information about herself seldom included in this tale, and it helps us to understand some of her decisions, and her mistakes. Yet the main focus remains Odysseus' long absence during the war against Troy, and his brutal behavior upon his return. The story is written as a morality play, or in the format of a Greek Tragedy, however it is done with the humor and temperament of Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream. Our twelve dead maids are our chorus and whenever they appear, laughter will follow; but our laughter is at twelve young women who were hung-tied together, and died, and now in death, still tied together, seek justice upon Odysseus for what he did to them. 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, and thus their own plight in it. The farce and fun in the way this story is told will make you laugh out loud. Much fun will be had with the ghosts of our 13 dead ladies, if you give this book a try. 21 of 24 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
A wise, witty, sharply pointed retelling of mythology.,
By Miles D. Moore - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: The Penelopiad: The Myth of Penelope and Odysseus (Myths The) (Paperback)
In Homer's "Odyssey," why were twelve of Queen Penelope's handmaidens hanged along with Penelope's unsuccessful suitors? In "The Penelopiad," Margaret Atwood endeavors to answer this unsettling question by allowing Penelope herself to relate the tale from beyond the River Styx, with the twelve hanged maidens acting as chorus in alternating chapters. In Atwood's retelling, the answer has a great deal to do with the violent, patriarchal structure of Greek society, along with the character of Penelope's husband Odysseus, the ultimate con man disguised as hero. "I knew he was tricky and a liar, I just didn't think he would play his tricks and try out his lies on me," Penelope says of him. As for Penelope herself, she struggles to keep herself, her son Telemachus and her kingdom of Ithaca intact during her husband's twenty-year absence. This effort includes making covert allies where and when she can, and blinding herself to a great deal. "I wanted happy endings in those days, and happy endings are best achieved by keeping the right doors locked and going to sleep during the rampages," she says. The maidens, meanwhile, relate through poetry, sea chantey, courtroom sketch and anthropological lecture their side of the tale, and their undying outrage at having been scapegoated and judicially murdered. Throughout this short book, Atwood demonstrates her renowned mastery of both prose and poetic style, her tart and sometimes biting wit, and--above all--her zealous sympathy for the victims of history, who are just as tragic today as they were in Homer's time.
20 of 23 people found the following review helpful
2.0 out of 5 stars
A great idea, poorly executed,
By T. Hudson - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: The Penelopiad: The Myth of Penelope and Odysseus (Myths The) (Paperback)
Oh, Margaret Atwood, I love your work, but this was just...inexplicable. I was eagerly anticipating a feminist, or at least Atwood-esque revisionist, retelling of the Odyssey. There were brief glimpses of that in "The Penelopiad," but the promise was unfulfilled. The book--novella, really--felt very incomplete, and not simply because of its length. Atwood normally does an excellent job developing her characters, but here I had no idea who Penelope was by the end of the book. She barely skimmed the surface of the myth, and augmented the skimpy narrative with filler of Penelope's contemporary reflections from the underworld and choral interludes. The chorus is another idea that could have worked, had the story been more cohesive. Instead, just filler. In fact, at multiple moments I had a nagging suspicion that Atwood was playing some kind of literary prank. Is she laughing at the readers trying to figure her out? The conventions of mythology? Should I be laughing with her? Is this clever parody, or is she going senile? Hard to tell. After finishing the book, though, I couldn't help feeling like the joke was on me. I think this is the first of her novels I've actually disliked.
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