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The Penelopiad: The Myth of Penelope and Odysseus (Canongate Myths) (Paperback)

by Margaret Atwood (Author)
3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (35 customer reviews)
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Product details

  • Paperback: 224 pages
  • Publisher: Canongate Books Ltd; New edition edition (7 Feb 2008)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 1841957046
  • ISBN-13: 978-1841957043
  • Product Dimensions: 19.6 x 12.6 x 2 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (35 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 7,487 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in these categories:

    #5 in  Books > Fiction > 20th Century Classics > Atwood, Margaret
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Product Description

Review

'Atwood takes Penelope's part with tremendous verve ... she explores the very nature of mythic story-telling.' Mary Beard, Guardian 'In this exquisitely poised book, Atwood blends intimate humour with a finely tempered outrage at the terrible injustice of the maids.' Lucy Hughes-Hallett, Sunday Times 'Penelope flies with the help of the sardonic, deadpan voice Atwood lends her, a tone half-Dorothy Parker, half-Desperate Housewives.' Boyd Tonkin, Independent '"Spry" is a word that could almost have been invented to describe Margaret Atwood, who beadily and wittily retells the events surrounding the Odyssey through the voice of Penelope. Pragmatic, clever, domestic, mournful, Penelope is a perfect Atwood heroine.' Sam Leith, Spectator 'An enjoyable, intelligent variation on Penelope's story.' Christopher Tayler, Sunday Telegraph 'Margaret Atwood, with characteristic dryness, acuity and wit, takes on The Odyssey in The Penelopiad, which gives us the wife's point of view.' Erica Wagner, The Times


Product Description

In Homer's "Odyssey", Penelope - wife of Odysseus and cousin of the beautiful Helen of Troy - is portrayed as the quintessential faithful wife, her story a salutary lesson through the ages. Left alone for twenty years when Odysseus goes off to fight in the Trojan War after the abduction of Helen, Penelope manages, in the face of scandalous rumours, to maintain the kingdom of Ithaca, bring up her wayward son, and keep over a hundred suitors at bay. When Odysseus finally comes home after enduring hardships, overcoming monsters and sleeping with goddesses, he kills her suitors and - curiously - twelve of her maids. In a splendid contemporary twist to the ancient story, Margaret Atwood has chosen to give the telling of it to Penelope and to her twelve hanged maids, asking: 'What led to the hanging of the maids, and what was Penelope really up to?' In Atwood's dazzling, playful retelling, the story becomes as wise and compassionate as it is haunting, and as wildly entertaining as it is disturbing. With wit and verve, drawing on the storytelling and poetic talent for which she herself is renowned, she gives Penelope new life and reality - and sets out to provide an answer to an ancient mystery.
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Customer Reviews

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Average Customer Review
3.8 out of 5 stars (35 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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47 of 50 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars What Homer never told you, 27 May 2006
Atwood is a shrewd and witty writer and this book shows her at the top of her form. She transmutes her unwieldy source material - Homer's Odyssey - into a playful, honestly felt exploration of the foundations of love and family. Here the heroic becomes human and the humdrum underpinnings of legend are exposed.
Penelope chafes against posterity and how it exemplifies her as the faithful, stay-at-home wife. She's not interested in being an archetype; she's remembering the awkward in-laws, her uncouth teenage son, Odysseus' stubby legs. Homer sings hymns to Odysseus and his wily ways; Atwood shows us what it's like to be married to a dishonest man. Helen of Troy is here too (she's Penelope's cousin) and she's just like you knew she really would be - vapid, catty, only real when reflected in a man's eyes.
Running beneath the humour is the story of everything that Penelope has lost: her home, her husband, her youth, her friends, her life, her truth. Our narrator is a weary shade, viewing the world from the dim, grey realm of Hades. But having left behind life, she's also left behind the illusions that go with it. Dead she might be but her vision is clear, her humour is bone-dry, and her story is full-blooded.
If you've read the Odyssey, this novel will mean all the more to you. If you haven't, it will inspire you to search out 3,000 year-old Greek epic poetry. Either way, treasure this book.
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14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars Expensive Greek mythology fanfic, 14 Jun 2007
By quippe (London, UK) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)      
The jacket blurb for this book is somewhat misleading. Whilst Penelope's intention is to set the record straight as to what really went on with the suitors whilst Odysseus is away, in fact Atwood cannot resist throwing some doubt in at the end as to whether Penelope is really telling the whole story or just trying to spin it. The notion of Penelope being as adapt a liar as Odysseus is fascinating, but is never explored in depth and in truth, whilst Atwood gives Penelope wit and intelligence, there is something about the way she speaks that is curiously anachronistic. Whilst you can explain some of this from the set up (she is in the Underworld, monitoring the world as time goes by), the fact that she is so familiar with using modern phraseology and slang does grate. I also found Penelope to be a strangely passive character and ironically, nowhere near as strong as I always saw her in The Odyssey because Atwood is careful to describe her isolation and lack of allies (apart from the twelve maids who we never really see her interact with). I found this to be frustrating because far from being someone who helps to shape her destiny (particularly by unpicking the shroud at night), she comes across as someone who's really just waiting to be rescued.

Atwood uses the maids as a chorus in the book to give their side of the story and also cast doubt on what Penelope is saying. She does this by writing in verse and whilst it's well written and amusing, it doesn't give them such a dramatic voice and whereas the effect should be to make you emphasise with their fate, I found it too superficial to do so. Similarly, neither Odysseus nor Telechemus rise above cariacture - Odysseus is the classic wandering husband (obviously) full of promises that he never keeps and which Penelope never confronts him on whilst Telechemus is nothing more than a sulky teenager who doesn't like his mum. Atwood points at there being an emotional distance between mother and son without ever explaining it from the Penelope's perspective and this again goes to her passivity - she allows others to spoil him without ever really doing anything to rectify it.

There is no disagreeing with the fact that Atwood writes this with wit. There are a couple of chuckle-out-loud moments in the story but ultimately the froth that you find here is insubstantial and it's certainly not enough to make me want to re-read this. This is part of Canongate's series re-examining mythology and whilst they've got some heavy weight hitters, if they're all as insubstantial as this volume (which frankly, is something that Atwood could bat out in her sleep) then I can't see it as being particularly successful. In particular, I find it very difficult to see how they can justify the cover price of £7.99 when there's fewer than 200 pages here (and at least 20 of those are verse).
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14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars Slightly disappointing take on an ancient myth, 25 Nov 2005
By A Customer
This review is from: The Penelopiad : the Myth of Penelope and Odysseus (Hardcover)
In the Penelopiad, Margaret Atwood retells the familiar story of the Odyssey through the eyes of his long suffering wife Penelope.

Penelope is a strong voice throughout the narrative and is believable as the classical character. There is a pleasing cynicism about her attitude that is thoroughly modern but gives a timeless feel to this re-written myth.

Atwood uses poetry and song in interludes to add extra layers to the story in the form of a chorus of Penelope's slave girls - copying the style found in Greek tragedy. This works effectively for the majority of the book and is a clever take on an ancient form. I would have preferred her to stick to poems and songs rather than also adding a modern day court scene near the end and an anthropology lecture which I felt jarred with the rest of the book.

It seems that Atwood was keen to make the story 'relevant' to our times and she resorted to cliched means to do this at the end. This was a shame as the first 2/3 of the book is excellent and was already making me see resonances with the modern world.

I think it would have been a better read had she allowed it to be more subtle in its 'message' rather than spelling things out at the end as if the reader hadn't already thought 'there are lots of Odysseuses and Penelopes in our world today'.

A bit of a disappointment from one of the world's greatest writers.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

3.0 out of 5 stars An interesting alterative viewpoint to the Odysseus myth
I love the myth of The Odyssey, and I enjoyed Atwood's rendition for the most part. The narration was quite interesting, for the story of Penelope was interrupted with chorus... Read more
Published 24 days ago by L. R. Richardson

4.0 out of 5 stars Clever, thought provoking and funny.
Atwood takes Homer's Penelope - who is given relatively little air time in the Odyssey - and muses on how she must have felt. Read more
Published 4 months ago by Ripple

5.0 out of 5 stars Deft, sly and playful reworking of the Odyssey story - from the woman's POV
This is a sharp and acerbic story, examining what it might be like to be the 'patient woman who weaves and waits for her husband to return from derring do and being heroic'... Read more
Published 9 months ago by titaniamoth

5.0 out of 5 stars Awsome, Laugh out Loud
I am not normally a fan of Margaret Atwood's writings. I often find that she is too dark or has too much edge. Read more
Published 17 months ago by Steven R. McEvoy

5.0 out of 5 stars Awsome, Laugh out Loud
I am not normally a fan of Margaret Atwood's writings. I often find that she is too dark or has too much edge. Read more
Published 17 months ago by Steven R. McEvoy

5.0 out of 5 stars Awesome, laugh out loud funny.
I am not normally a fan of Margaret Atwood's writings. I often find that she is too dark or has too much edge. Read more
Published 17 months ago by Steven R. McEvoy

4.0 out of 5 stars Delightful
A delightfully witty take on a Greek Myth. Although it's a little short and I'd have preferred more, this is a excellent book - a must for any fans of the Odessey who have a sense... Read more
Published 19 months ago by simonpeggfan

4.0 out of 5 stars thought provoking
The Penelopiad is a fairly short read, well paced and a very witty and ironic take on the Odyssey story from the point of view of the woman left behind. Read more
Published 19 months ago by currer bell

5.0 out of 5 stars Laugh Out Loud Funny
I am not normally a fan of Margaret Atwood's writings. I often find that she is too dark or has too much edge. Read more
Published 20 months ago by Steven R. McEvoy

5.0 out of 5 stars Laugh Out Loud Funny
I am not normally a fan of Margaret Atwood's writings. I often find that she is too dark or has too much edge. Read more
Published 20 months ago by Steven R. McEvoy

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