The Song of Achilles [Kindle Edition]

This book is very well-written and very involving in places but I did have my reservations about it. Patroclus's narrative voice is believable and gives a convincing account of his childhood misfortunes, the events which lead up to the Trojan War and the War itself. I like the depictions of characters like Odysseus and Agamemnon very much, place and mood are very well evoked, and there are some exciting and very interesting episodes.

Madeline Miller is very keen to portray the relationship between Patroclus and Achilles as one of deep, enduring love, both spiritual and sexual. Whether or not this is justified by the source texts is arguable, but it is a noble aim. However, what we actually get is long, long periods where Patroclus moons around after Achilles like a love-sick puppy, to the point that I felt that the author herself was the one in love with Achilles and wasn't going to miss an opportunity to write a beautifully constructed sentence about his muscles, his hair, the curve of his chin or the soles of his feet (which seem to hold an endless fascination for her) and so on, which I eventually found almost unendurably tedious in places.

There were sufficient good things about this book to make a three-star rating seem very churlish, but it's only just four stars for me. Many other reviewers here have obviously enjoyed it very much, but I can only give it a qualified recommendation.

The Song of Achilles is the first novel (hopefully of many more) by a very talented author, Madeleine Miller. Anyone who has read The King Must Die and The Bull From The Sea by the legendary Mary Renault will lock in immediately to the style of this narrative. Achilles is brought to life from his childhood to his exploits at Troy, but this version of his life is told from the view of Patroclus, his friend, companion and lover. The love aspect of the relationship is handled sensitively and in a manner that will not offend the most sensitive of readers and the action scenes and characters of the heroes, both Greek and Trojan, are well addressed. Once started, I found it difficult to put this book down, and was reluctant to close it at the end. A very different approach to Homer's immortal story has hopefully launched a new literary star into ascendancy and I look forward to more of this lady's work in the near future.

She may call my love Sophia; but I call my love philosophy. So sang Van Morrison in A Sense of Wonder. She can only hint wondrously at what she sees in him. He can give you specific reasons. So when a woman writes about love in the only way she can - ineffable - a man gets bored quickly. This is a tale of homosexual adolescence - and pretty much nothing more - for the first 100 pages, nearly every one of which refers to the ineffable sense of wonder which Achilles inspires in Patroclus, thanks to wispy hairlines and Adams' apples. Perilously close to chick lit. But then it gets better, as Odysseus arrives and plot replaces a meandering love affair which contains such self indulgent, blunt, visual allusion as to render the relationship trite and sentimental. Yet. Is the sentimentalism intentional? is this book really infused with the belief that life and love can be enjoyed without pain (Harry T Moore's definition in his biography of DH Lawrence)? Yes. But then, from Scyros on, magnificently no. It powers through the Trojan campaign, setting both the scenes and the individual personalities alight with finely described horror and a brilliant evocation of how perplexed Achilles, Agamemnon and everyone else becomes. Life, love and glorious, heroic pain - in equal order. Patroclus, the man least likely to. Brilliant. And the adolescent homosexuality with which the book labours to begin? Indispensable. Because, without it, you would not understand motive, nor feel the heroism, the triumph of the human spirit, the essence of men at their selfless, bestial, best. A book that leaves you feeling for Achilles as Patroclus, Briseis and a common Greek soldier would. But, most of all, a book that leaves you permeated with the spirit of Patroclus, whose love conquers all, even Thetis.