The Penelopiad

I like the premise- a re-telling of the Odyssey from Penelope's point of view, but I felt the story was lacking subtlety.

Ugh this book was so fuckin boring that I'm not even gonna try to finish it.

There are so many fascinating characters in Homer that are delightfully drawn albeit that their roles are peripheral, walk on walk off roles to drive the main plot lines or to illustrate it's backdrop. Many deserve more. Penelope is one such. Her story, and through it the story of women, deserves to be more than a plot device, a final task for Odysseus to complete. Margret Atwood shines her formidable intellect on to the text of this final act. The words form shadows creating a palimpsest, revealing another less “heroic” aspect to Odysseus character but one which nevertheless gives him more complexity, a man of twists and turns doomed perhaps not just by Poseidon but also his flaws. But this is Penelope's story, just what would make her put up with an absent husband and defy a patriarchal society that sought to use her in his absence. But not just her. Her household is a matriarchal society under siege. How do the other women cope and survive? What is their fate?
The Penelopiad is an important addition to the Homeric cannon as is Pat Barkers “The Silence of the Girls”.

a witty, clever, and funny modern twist on the myth of Penelope and Odysseus. told from the perspective of Penelope thousands of years in the future while in the underworld, reflecting on the events of her life. great quick read! i loved Penelope's voice and the cheeky songs from the maids.

The Mother, the daughter, and the Holy Margaret Atwood!!!

This little story was good but definitely could have been longer and/or had more substance. It was before the big “retelling” craze so it gets points for that.

Also the audiobook has this weird demonic distortion thing going for the chorus and it is uniquely awful. I can't believe there was a person in a booth somewhere who obviously had to show this cacophony of noises to someone higher up in production and they both went, “yeah, people will listen to this, happily”. Both of those people should be charged with war crimes against humanity.

Могло быть интересным взглядом на известную историю, но не стало. Довольно плоско, скучно и ожидаемо. Понравилось только история служанок.

Delightfully snarky

Not exactly as lyrical as Madeleine Miller, or even Pat Barker, it is a hoot.
Margaret Atwood's reimagining of Penelope's life from the point of view if her and the dozen of her maids that hung after mopping up the suitors' gore. It is recounted from Hades a few thousand years later, as a delightfully snarky feminist critique of a story from a decidedly non-feminist age.

Whilst I am yet to read any of Homer's works, I am familiar with the story of Odysseus so this retelling from the perspective of his long suffering wife, Penelope with its fabulous feminist bent was wonderful.
I even liked the poems read by the chorus of the 12 hanged maids. They had a powerful rhythm to them that strengthened the accusations of the maids ill death. The chorus is a tradition of the greek play so it was a fitting use.
Margaret Atwood doing another wonderful job of speaking for those without voice.

This was a quick, pretty easy read. It's the story of Penelope told by Penelope, the mythically patient, loyal wife of Odysseus, who waited 20 years for him to come home from the Trojan War. She is telling her story long after she has died and spent centuries in Hades, so some of her story includes updates on what the major characters are doing now. The tone is a little bit comic, a little bit resigned, like a Nora Ephron book, except that the story has a chorus that steps in to provide a darkly humorous commentary. The chorus is made up of the 12 handmaidens of Penelope who were slaughtered by Odysseus and Telemachus for supposedly colluding with the suitors who were occupying the household and pressuring Penelope to marry them.

The chorus was one of the best parts of the book, as far as I was concerned. I also liked the scenes from Hades. It's a little too easy to dismiss Penelope as not having enough of a spine or being too easy to dupe, but the chorus provides the clue that there is more to the story. There's also a brief academic gloss at the end which gives a more plainly worded possible interpretation–and although I liked having the alternate interpretation, I wished it had been worked into the story rather than spelled out in this way.

Not quite what I expected. Witty and interesting. A bit disjointed (although it's clear that that's intentional). I wish some of the things she explored were fleshed out or explored a little more. I also think Atwood walked a tough line between accepting [b:The Odyssey 1381 The Odyssey Homer https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1390173285s/1381.jpg 3356006] as truth and treating it as an unreliable narrator.

《The two of us were – by our own admission – proficient and shameless liars of long standing. It's a wonder either one of us believed a word the other said.But we did.Or so we told each other.》

I really like how the author weaved the story (pun intended) with the addition of the twelve maids' choruses, they gave it a really nice touch.

I really liked this! Probably my favourite Atwood, after A Handmaid's Tale.

Neither a short story nor a proper novel. It felt very slight - a bit of light exercise for Ms Atwood.

Abandoned this book on page 36. The writing felt forced, and Penelope felt inauthentic. There was a completely lifeless quality to the story, which makes sense given that it's told by Penelope after she's dead but makes for a bad reading experience.

A sassy version of the Odyssey as told from the perspective of a postmortem Penelope. If you enjoy reading different perspectives on the Iliad and Odyssey, this is a fun one to pick up.

The Odyssey told from a different perspective. Very interesting and enjoyable. I was lucky enough to attend a reading in London by Atwood herself. She is just as mesmerizing as her stories.