The Song of Achilles

4.5 stars.

Halfway through reading this I actually remembered what happens in the Trojan War in the Iliad...and without spoilers I will say I was shocked by how well and vividly that story is retold and added to here, without really changing the main events that much (ok maybe that is a spoiler...).

This is a book that just got better as it went along, the final few chapters really deliver. At first I felt a bit uncertain about Patroclus' characterization as quite passive/hesitant (although I do think he subtly had a lot of character), but looking at this story as a myth, it was like he was a cross between a chorus and a character (at least until the last quarter of the book, when he is fully active/autonomous). It also emphasized the idea of Achilles' as a chosen one vs. Patroclus as a normal guy, and allowed for hints of Achilles ignorance as he didn't fully understand that difference between them. I do think a little more specificity in Patroclus' character would have made me like the book even better.

Achilles' characterization was interesting because through the first half of the novel it seemed the author was shying away from portraying him as arrogant/prideful. At first his desire for fame/honour is praised/excused by the authorial tone...but then it really powerfully leads to his downfall at the end, as in the Iliad. I also like how at the same time as Achilles became less sympathetic, Patroclus' character came into his own and became more decisive and specific (and began making choices not directly related to Achilles, such as working as a healer or his friendship with Briseis. That made the shift to him being the “best of the Myrmidons” feel logical.