The Penelopiad

There's something very likeable about the concept, of course: what was Penelope doing for twenty years without Odysseus, and what was her early life like, anyway? Where Attwood tells us about this, the years of her childhood spent being sniped at by Helen, the wash of detail regarding her parents

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and her inner life, the idea works very well. But these sections are interspersed with a "chorus" of twelve hanged maids and their songs and doggerel, and these don't work as well - they're interesting, and they are occasionally sweet, but they don't have the profundity they are perhaps intended to have. In general, the story is pretty, but slight - a nice idea, well-executed, but lacking in the depth that some of the others in the series have had ("Girl Meets Boy" being the best I have yet come across).

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In The Penelopiad, Margaret Atwood stretches her creative muscles by telling the story of Penelope, Odysseus's wife made famous in Homer's The Odyssey. Penelope has an interesting reputation: faithful to her husband who was gone 20 years, an excellent weaver and homemaker, loyal to her husband's

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kingdom despite his absence, and steadfast against the number of suitors that tried to woo Penelope when most thought Odysseus was dead. In effect, she was the "perfect" wife: obedient, loyal and domestic-minded. She's also the cousin to Helen of Troy, who caused the famous Trojan War.

Drawing from this depiction, Atwood proposes another side to Penelope. In The Penelopiad, Penelope gains her voice and emerges as a smart, decisive and emotional character. She weighs in on Odysseus's adventures (aka philandering), her suitors (aka opportunists) and her 12 maids that were hanged for treason upon Odysseus's return (aka a miscommunication). She also voices her opinion about Helen, who she is jealous of and blames for her husband's disappearance. The story is written part memoir, part Greek chorus and part court transcript. Take my word for it; it's very cleverly organized, and Atwood pulls it off beautifully.

The Penelopiad is an interesting and fast read. It's definitely not as earth-shattering as many books out there, but it's worth a look if you want to read about the woman's side of a famous myth.

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I read this book when it was published in 2005 -- because I was intrigued by this mythology series, and because it's Margaret Atwood. I like both of those things, after all. But I wasn't particularly crazy about it.

I came back to it recently thanks to a literature class that introduced me to "The

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Odyssey." I discovered that I actually knew very little about "The Odyssey" after all (I thought I'd read it as a teenager, but it turns out I'd actually read "The Iliad" -- for shame.) I soon found myself obsessing over Odysseus -- I was obsesseused! Like totally!

So, I came back to "The Penelopiad" five years later, and this time around, I got so much more out of this reading. I actually understood what the heck was going on, and I loved the voice that Atwood gave Penelope. I love how that Penelope herself fully acknowledges that she is quite boring and nothing special; and honestly, there's nothing in Homer that gives Penelope anything else to work with. She's an average-looking princess (with a cousin -- Helen of Troy -- that would have outshone her anyhow) that happens to luck out and marry what the Greeks depict as their "ideal man." She loses him for two decades, she sits, she waits, she weaves, she allows hundreds of men to walk all over her - including her son - and she weaves some more.

But Atwood took all that and ran with it.

Luckily, she didn't run too far, as this book is about as long as it needs to be -- which is pretty short. Penelope is still Penelope -- steadfast, heartsick, and dull dull dull. Odysseus is the one who had all the fun, and Atwood doesn't try to change that.

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There are many tales of Odysseus, ruler of Ithaca, who left his home to fight in the Trojan War, and than proceed to wander the seas a further ten or more years before returning home. We all know the stories of monsters fought, goddess bedded and treasures won, but what of his family at home. What

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of his young wife and newly born son?

This is the story of Penelope, Princes of Sparta, Queen of Ithaca and young woman, forced to take on the responsibilities of a man, without the respect and title.

Penelope was a virtuous wife, and also a cunning woman, but everyone makes mistakes. Although she was able to save herself from the greedy and selfish suitors come to take her husbands place, she was unable to save those she loved and the innocent blood spilt still stains her conscience.

Twelve young maids were hung, strung up by their necks, there little feet dancing in the air. They were Penelope's most beloved maid, she raised them herself and they shared her strictest confidence. They trusted Penelope; she was their mistress, their friend. But Penelope failed them; they were raped by her suitors and killed by her husband. How could Penelope have let this happen?

Any lover of myths or anyone who has ever taken in interest in mythology, or history, or tales of heroes and war should read this book; as should any woman. This is a hunting and absorbing story that shines new light on an old tale. The Penelopiad is a book that cannot be left unread.

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Not a fan. It's about the maids, which is all good and dandy. I have nothing against a book about twelve maids who were raped, including one reader's possible interpretation of what exactly happened (since in The Odyssey it is more or less summed up in one line). However, I'd have liked it better

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if it didn't claim to be a "myth of Penelope and Odysseus." Odysseus is a "presence" in this book, not a character. Penelope spends the entire time crying about her maids, and the maids have the most spotlight time of the whole thing.

Maybe if it was actually a coherent narrative I'd have liked it more, but I suppose I am not a big fan of the whole "verse, verse, prose, drama, prose, verse, prose" approach to splitting up a book (especially not the verse, though I do commend the inclusion based on the book's predecessor - no one will ever come close to what Homer has done and I'd be happy enough with one little poem rather than several chapters). I'd like something more along the lines of, "While I was in my room weeping for the possible death of my husband, my maids were being raped. Told in confidence to me later, my youngest and most beautiful maid shared her plight. The Suitor tricked her into a blablabla" etc, and going on like that - perhaps a memoir of how Penelope reacted to these rapes, rather than how the maids reacted in their afterlife.

Speaking of that, I thought the afterlife thing was cute at first, and very useful, until it kept coming up and she kept making comments about all the things Penelope was missing. It's as though they were only speaking from the Underworld so that Atwood could make commentary on the state of things today, so she could get Helen to say some useless crap about herself being beautiful and dudes following her into the afterlife. I'd have liked it more if, say, Penelope was writing this as a last (lost) memoir. At least then you could honestly say it was a "myth of Penelope and Odysseus" because the maids might only be included to put guilt on herself, rather than to take the "story" and run with it.

I am glad I read this book because now that mystery of "Margaret Atwood - amazing, or not?" is gone. I'd be open to reading another one, of course, because all books are different, but the writing style annoyed me just as much as the plot itself. Reminds me of how I wrote stories in 7th grade. I've come a long way since 7th grade.

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Penelope is left behind when Odysseus goes off to fight the war in Troy. When the war is finally over he disappears for years and finally makes it back alone of his crew to find a bunch of suitors trying to wed his wife. He kills them with the help of his son and then hangs Penelope's 12 maids. We

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learn Odysseus' story in The Odyssey and The Iliad, but before this no one has tole Penelope's story.

We begin with her childhood and how she came to marry Odysseus. Penelope has a warm voice, but it is filled with loss, bitterness and irony at the same time for what she lost and felt she never had. Odysseus tricks his way into their marriage bed and sets the tone for the rest of his part in the story. We also learn more about how Penelope puts off her suitors and the character of her son Telemecus.

Part of Penelope's trouble is Odysseus and his trickster nature. She feels comforted by him, one of the few people who comapres her favourably to her beautiful cousin Helen. However, how can she believe anything he says as she knows the lies that trip off his tongue like honey. Her other nemesis is Helen of Troy. She talks down to plain Penelope who always falls short when comparing herself to Helen.

One of the best things about it is every now and then we get a chorus from the maids summing up the story so far. These take on different forms from a play to poetry to songsetc. It was a really good and novel way to break up the main prose tale.

This was such a great edition to the series. The quote on the cover says "Half-Dorothy Parker, half-Desperate Housewives" which is a really good way to sum it up. It like a spot on black comedy. It doesn't affect the story knowing the outcome form the start, it makes it more haunting.

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There are ways in which a writer can borrow a story and yet it will not be his/her’s and there are ways in which a writer borrows a story and it completely becomes her’s and there is no looking back then. This is what Ms. Atwood does with “The Penelopiad”. The story is known to all – that

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of Odysseus and Penelope and how she had to wait for the longest time for his return from the Trojan War.

While I found Homer’s tale to be nerve-wrenchingly boring (apologies though that is just not what I intend to ever go back to), Atwood’s tale is definitely from Penelope’s perspective. More so from the 12 maids’ minds and eyes who Odysseus and his son hang mercilessly when he returns. Penelope and her maids are dead and they are telling the tale from the underworld.

What I loved about this short piece of reconstructed Myth is the way it is written. It reads almost like a poem in bits and pieces (of the 12 maids’ lives and what they had to endure) and it does not bore you for a minute. It took me barely a day to finish it and I went back to it purely because in my mind I also compared it to a portion of “The Ramayana” where Ram doubts Sita’s purity while she was kidnapped by Ravan and was a prisoner at his palace.

My favourite part hands down in the book has to be the one where both Odysseus and Penelope meet after years and are aware that both have not been faithful to the other and yet pretend as though nothing changed. As though love survived it all. There are a lot of portions which I have loved while reading this book. However, one of them has also been the way Margaret Atwood set it out to be a farce and that’s exactly what it has become. A brilliant farce on one of the greatest myths ever! Please read it! Do yourself a favour.

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If you remove elements of divine intervention and the supernatural from "The Iliad" or "The Odyssey", you're left with men behaving badly. Atwood applies this treatment to the tale of Penelope. We are left with a woman's life, a woman who dedicated her time on earth to being an ideal daughter,

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wife, and mother. She speaks to us now from her timeless existence in the underworld, and her voice is bitter and lonely. I thought this was brilliantly done, the social commentary as sharp as that of "The Handmaid's Tale" when it was published 25 years ago.

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Amongst the weed-encroached fields of literary resuscitation of another author's characters, Atwood's usurpation of Penelope from the tallow-smeared hands of Homer proves to be the olive tree growing amid the nettles.

Acclaimed as the most faithful wife, awaiting for twenty years the return of

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Odysseus, Penelope in Atwood's hands takes umbrage at being used as a measuring stick used to delineate and beat a woman into obedience and ever-faithful wifery. Providing a counterpoint to 'The Odyssey' by filling in the homebound gaps of the epic, Atwood regales us Greek-style with a fleshed out and out-of-flesh Penelope and the Chorus of her twelve hanged maidens, shades that sing - sometimes in an idyll or ballad, but also as an anthropologic lecture and courtroom drama - against their brutal slaying at the hands of Odysseus. Displaying the cleverness attributed her, but also the emotional wreck that Odysseus left in his wake to pursue glory and keep a vow, Penelope provides a posthumous look at her story; wading through fields of Asphodel in Hades, commenting snarkily or with a note of lament, she weaves the happenings that were overlooked or misinterpreted in Homer's epic back into the story, all the while, her hanged maidens rant and rhyme comedically and rather viciously about all who had a hand in their demise, but especially their executioner.

Atwood's style is engaging, humorous, a tad bit acerbic, but she never lets Penelope drift into a serious bout of woe-is-me or shrewishness, even when being compared and overshadowed (even in death, as much as shades can generate a shadow that is) by her cousin Helen of Troy. The chorus of hanged maidens is downright funny, as is Penelope's limited perspective on the changing times, not to mention the acidic commentary she occasionally directs at the gods. Atwood's syntax and tale construction astounded me with their complexity and clarity and ingenuity. Any reading of 'The Odyssey' would benefit from this supplemental interpretation, if not for the previous reasons, then for the burlesque commentary it offers after engaging with one of our foundational literary works.

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This book is a little gem. Atwood dips into Greek mythology and reconstructs the story of Odyddeus through the eyes and constructed experience of Penelope and her 12 maids. The poor long-suffering wife takes on a self-sufficient, and sometimes not so long-suffering role while brave and valiant

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Odysseus's tales are retold in a lustful and bawdy manner.

Atwood seems never to write a faulty sentence -- it is a elegant book.

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The Penelopiad is part of a larger brainchild conceived by Jamie Byng of Canongate—the Myth box set. Simultaneously published worldwide, it features not only The Penelopiad, but also two new essays by Karen Armstrong and Philip Pullman, and a re-telling of the myth of Atlas by Jeanette Winterson.

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Margaret Atwood's Penelope is irreverent, knowing, and confidently tongue-in-cheek. The TurboBookSnob hasn't read Homer's Odyssey in full, but is led to believe that his Penelope is mostly patient and long-suffering. This re-telling, however, gives Penelope her voice, and is told from her point of view, in retrospect, interspersed with the vengeful memories of her twelve maids, who were hanged on Odysseus's return to Ithaca.

Atwood has created a bravely modern rendition of the ancient story, one that at once honours tradition, and at the same time, enfolds it in the modern cloak of feminism.

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The Penelopiad is a novella by Margaret Atwood as part of the MYTHS collection, which involes the rather interesting process of famous authors tweaking and re-writing a chosen Greek myth. Being somewhat curious about Canongate (the company resposible for this), this was the first of the Canongate

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books that I read.

The story begins at the end, with a dearly departed Penelope spending all eternity in Hades. Here, she tells the reader the story of her life

Structured similarly to a classical Greek drama, the storytelling alternates between Penelope's narrative and the choral commentary of the twelve maids--who are given no names, or barely one voice. The chilling image on the back of my book--sees the twelve maids hanging from the rafters--for in the end that is all they were. The story deviates from Penelope, who sees herself as a woman who was denied a voice--to the actual characters that were denied everything--the maids.

Penelope is deliberately naive, and Atwood’s dry humour pours into every page. I have no doubts that this book is strongly feminist, despite Atwood stating otherwise. This is probably the books only downfall (and that is coming from a female reviewer!). However, the book should simply be taken for what it is, and asborbed for its disturbing logic and beauty.

Penelope is a metafictional narrator, because she describes herself and the story as a popular myth - while this is quite weird -it is very much welcome in a story in which the purpose is to twist and alter the myth (without making it beyond recogntion like THE HELMET OF HORROR does).

I recommend reading THE HISTORY OF MYTH by Karen Armstrong (also by Canongate) alongside this book, as they compliment each other nicely.

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A spare, quick read, outlining the tale of Odysseus' Penelope from her own point of view, and his execution of twelve of her maids (which seems quite brutal from our modern perspective) upon his return from his voyages.

Atwood's retelling pieces together scattered bits from various classical sources

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to build a more complete picture of the relationship between Penelope, Odysseus, the doomed maids and other characters in her domestic life.

The careful, delicate prose of the main narrative is punctuated by verse-chapters in chorus form, ostensibly performed by the maids, a la Greek drama of the era. It's a nice touch, though Atwood's style is sometimes so sparse as to make the stanzas feel a bit lightweight or oversimplified. But the overall effect is rhythmic and appropriate.

I do recommend reading--or at least having a passing familiarity with--The Odyssey and the Iliad before this book, as it will have deeper meaning. But it's not absolutely essential--Atwood gives you some background and fills in some gaps. You'll learn something, either way.

In all, the story is both heavy and light at the same time, singsong and dirge-like, sad and triumphant. Recommended.

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So what was Penelope thinking and feeling all those years while Odysseus was missing-in-action on the high seas?

Atwood does an amazing job of re-imagining the classic myth from a feminine perspective, while making interesting observations on marriage, forgiveness (or lack thereof), and the nature

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of posterity.

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Ingenious, and nicely put-together, but a bit less substantial than I expected. Would probably make a good radio play.

The Penelopiad certainly isn't what I expected. But, then, Margaret Atwood has a way of doing that, delivering the unexpected.

Somehow she delivers in The Penelopiad not only a fascinating insight into Penelope's version of the famous Homerian epic, but does so with cutting wit, almost vaudevillian

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asides, all the while disseminating little known archeological and historical background which is craftily woven into the fabric of the whole.

Absolutely recommend this book!

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“Now that I am dead, I know everything.”

My first foray into Atwood (planned as part of Advent with Atwood) was the simplest of hers that I own – a retelling of The Odyssey from Penelope’s point of view. Atwood imagines Penelope in the Underworld thousands of years later (in our modern day),

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telling the story of her life, with interjections from a Greek tragedy-style chorus. Penelope airs her thoughts on her cousin Helen, the gods’ fickle and mischievous interventions in human life, and sets us straight on some parts of her story. It’s not a long novel, with barely 200 small pages of largish print.

While there were certain aspects of the myth that I had forgotten (Odysseus’ long stay with Calypso being one of them) and others that I did not know as they were a little gruesome for the children’s book of Greek myths I read as a child (the hanging of the twelve young maids), the story was mostly familiar to me. Atwood throws in asides and remarks which reference other myths or characters from the myths, such as Clytemnestra, which make the reader quite smug with recognising them!

Atwood’s characterisation of both Penelope and Odysseus is consistent with my memory of the myth – both wily, fairly quiet, greatly in love and never forgetting a grudge. Penelope’s father is set up as a buffoon and Eurycleia as a meddling but loving old crony. A suspenseful ending was always going to be prohibited by the widespread knowledge of the story, but the dread and fear as the suitors eat up more and more of Penelope’s resources is real.

Somehow there’s not much to say about this. It’s faithful to the original although clever and witty in its own capacity; the characters started by Homer are consistently and congruously transferred, and I thoroughly enjoyed reading it. I read the first hundred pages without interruption; it is perhaps the fact that I was returning to it rather than already being engrossed that made me feel the second half was weaker. In any case, the whole thing is a very quick read as it is both short and captivating.

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I’ve seen this book described as witty, sly, smart, and wry…and how very true that description is. My faith in Atwood is somewhat restored…after my last experience with her writing (which I found particularly loathsome), I must admit I really, really enjoyed The Penelopiad a great deal! This

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really is a “sly” retelling of the Odysseus from the perspective of his wife, left behind…extremely well done and highly entertaining. I particularly enjoyed the use of the 12 hanged maidens as a chorus…sad, poignant, but also comedic in many ways. Interesting and fun also was the portrayal of Helen as an extremely vain, stuck up woman obsessed with her own beauty and also quite vicious in her own way. I say well done, a fun retelling with a spark all its own. The only thing I don’t “get” about this particular series is why they insist on making the books appear longer than they are…both this one and Weight (Heracles) are small volumes with HUGE margins…I utterly hate that…just make it normal and have it be slimmer, I’d pay for it either way the story is worth the cost.

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I had previously read The Penelopiad, knowing next-to-nothing about The Odyssey or Penelope as a legend. After having taught large chunks of The Odyssey to students, however, I felt it time to revisit Atwood's version of the story. Not surprisingly, I got a great deal more out of the novel this

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second time through. I don't know how I read it the first time with so little prior knowledge of the myth on which it was based.

The novel flips back and forth between two narrations: Penelope, down in Hades, telling the story of how she married Odysseus and how her side of The Odyssey went down; and a Greek chorus of the twelve maids who were hanged by Odysseus when he came home. The two of course intertwine, but the chorus is done in verse, song, and other different narrative styles, whereas Penelope's is all done in past tense narration.

It was really fascinating to "hear" what the ladies of the story had to say to and about Odysseus, Telemachus, and the Suitors. I felt the content was very original and lyrically stated. Both Penelope and the Maids told excellent stories in a compelling manner.

The novel was a really quick read, too; I read it in less than one day, and I was engaged throughout. Overall, I'd highly recommend The Penelopiad to anyone familiar with The Odyssey. Even a minor working knowledge is sufficient to ensure that you gain all of the nuances available to you in Atwood's storytelling.

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I remember reading the Odyssey and thinking of Penelope being the smart, beautiful, industrious, long suffering wife of Odysseus. I was expecting that The Penelopiad would have been Penelope’s story, but I guess maybe it wasn’t her story in the way that I wanted to hear it. In this story she

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constantly keeps her opinions to herself in order to keep the peace and allows herself to be manipulated by her mother-in-law and a faithful old servant of Odysseus. Atwood portrays Penelope as an uncertain teenager who has ideas and thoughts in her head that she can’t articulate to others, and because of this can’t take control of her destiny. She wanders friendless around the palace and lets the servant have dominion over her son Telemachus. As I think about it now, Penelope has the voice of a teenager (and she is only 15 when she and Odysseus marry), which might explain a lot of her choices but for the fact that she writes it as a dead woman who has had thousands of years to reflect on her life.

Told in flashback, we begin with Penelope living in the Underworld where she has run-ins with her rival, Helen of Troy, the suitors who plagued her in Odysseus’s absence, and her twelve maids whom were hanged by her son Telemachus at Odysseus’s request. Throughout her tale she offers commentary on the changes that have taken place in the world since her death, like what surprises her and how the living won’t leave the dead alone (she gets conjured up through séances). These tangents I think, are meant to be cute and to provide Penelope with a hip and modern voice, but I found all the asides to be extraneous and distracting and they take up too much of the book.

Penelope’s voice as a character is in places witty, interesting and humorous; she’s a pretty smart cookie but I would have liked to see that displayed more in the narrative. More focus seem to be devoted to her insecurities around Helen, and how lost she is without Odysseus. But, I laughed out loud when she talks about her misgivings on spending time with her father after he has tried to drown her in the river as a baby when a seer said that she would have something to do with the making of his shroud.

“I found this affection difficult to reciprocate. You can imagine. There I would be, strolling hand in hand with my apparently fond male parent along a cliff edge or a river bank or a parapet, and the thought would occur to me that he might suddenly decide to shove me or bash me to death with a rock. Preserving a calm façade under these circumstances was a challenge. After such excursions I would retire to my room and dissolve in flood of tears.”

That was good stuff!

Unfortunately Penelope got lost in the retellings of other people’s stories. Her story is everyone else’s story but her own, and I considered given this is Atwood the commentary that she is making on women’s lives and how they make their choices. I can see that, but I am a disappointed because Penelope’s mythology seems so different than the weepy woman who is often times telling this story. Dead and buried, Penelope is still jealous of Helen of Troy. Even Atwood didn’t think Penelope had all that much to say. With a title like The Penelopiad I was expecting something a bit more substantial than 196 pages, and the print was huge! So this was very short; easily read in an afternoon. If I had it to do over, this is one by Atwood I’d probably skip.

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I really don't think I'll be able do this one justice. I really can't recommend it highly enough. But I'll give it a try. This is Atwood's contribution to the Canongate Myth Series. For those of you who may not have heard of this series, the concept is simple -- contemporary authors remake famous

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myths. I read and reviewed another book from this series, Dream Angus, by Alexander McCall Smith which I reviewed here. This book is Atwood's interpretation or re-interpretation of the myth of Penelope and Odysseus.

She describes it like this in the introduction, "But Homer's Odyssey is not the only version of the story. Mythic material was originally oral, and also local -- a myth would be told one way in one place and quite differently in another. I have drawn on material other than The Odyssey, especially for the details of Penelope's parentage, her early life and marriage, and the scandalous rumours circulating about her. I've chosen to give the telling of the story to Penelope and the twelve hanged maids. The maids form a chanting and singing Chorus which focuses on two questions that must pose themselves after any close reading of The Odyssey: what led to the hanging of the maids, and what was Penelope really up to? The story told in the Odyssey doesn't hold water: there are too many inconsistencies. I've always been haunted by the hanged maids; and, in The Penelopiad, so is Penelope herself."

Atwood is such a great writer, that she even makes the introduction interesting and entertaining. Then the very first line of the book hooks you and you're suddenly ensconced in Penelope's world. "Now that I'm dead I know everything." Thus Penelope begins telling her story from Purgatory where she is still trying to piece together the puzzle that was her life. I love that Atwood gives us complete access to Penelope's thoughts, fears, and desires. She begins with her somewhat troubled childhood and tells us the story of her life both before and after her marriage. The chapters alternate between Penelope's story and the Chorus of the hanged maids. Atwood brings everything into sharp focus with vivid description and beautiful language.

"I can't make myself understood, not in your world, the world of bodies, of tongue and fingers; and most of the time I have no listeners, not on your side of the river. Those of you who may catch the odd whisper, the odd squeak, so easily mistake my words for breezes rustling the dry reeds, for bats at twilight, for bad dreams (pg. 4)."

I don't know that I have the answers to the questions that Atwood poses in the introduction, but it doesn't really matter, either. This is a multi-faceted story with rich characters, especially Penelope, that can't be easily pinned down. It would take someone much better qualified than me to actually do this one justice in a review. But, just take my word for it -- this book is a treat -- plain and simple.

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The Penelopiad is part of the first set of books in the Canongate Myth Series where contemporary authors rewrite ancient myths (other authors who wrote as part of this series include A.S. Byatt, Chinua Achebe, and Donna Tartt along with several others). In Atwood’s novella, Homer’s Odyssey gets

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retold from the point of view of Penelope (Odysseus’s wife). Atwood also gives a voice to the twelve murdered maids by allowing them to interrupt Penelope’s narrative with songs and even a play. I have never read The Odyssey, although I am familiar with this popular myth. Atwood’s interest in the story centers around Penelope – Who was she? What were her feelings towards the maids who died upon the return of Odysseus? Was she really faithful all those years? Atwood also tells the reader in a forward to the novella: ‘I’ve always been haunted by the hanged maids: and, in The Penelopiad, so is Penelope herself.‘

Penelope narrates the story from the grave (Hades to be more exact), and uses humor and sarcasm effectively to make her points. Other characters make their appearance as Penelope strolls around the afterlife – including Helen of Troy (Penelope’s beautiful and spoiled cousin), Eurycleia (the nanny when Odysseus was a boy), and one of the murdered suitors.

The Penelopiad takes a hard look at women’s rights (not a surprise for those who have read and enjoyed other Atwood novels). Atwood uses her sardonic sense of humor to explore how Penelope might have felt before and during her marriage.

And so I was handed over to Odysseus, like a package of meat. A package of meat in a wrapping of gold, mind you. A sort of gilded blood pudding. – from The Penelopiad, page 39 -

She also reveals the servitude and abuse of the maids who had no rights to their bodies or minds, and who were used by not only Penelope, but the suitors who pursued her.

We were dirty. Dirt was our concern, dirt our fault. we were the dirty girls. If our owners of the sons of our owners or a visiting nobleman or the sons of a visiting nobleman wanted to sleep with us, we could not refuse. It did us no good to weep, it did us no good to say we were in pain. All this happened to us when we were children. If we were pretty children our lives were worse. - from The Penelopiad, page 13-14 -

Atwood stands the myth on its head – pulling apart the story and rewriting it with a more modern twist.

You’ve probably heard that my father ran after our departing chariot, begging me to stay with him, and that Odysseus asked me if I was going to Ithaca with him of my own free will or did I prefer to remain with my father? It’s said that in answer I pulled down my veil, being too modest to proclaim in words my desire for my husband, and that a statue was later erected of me in tribute to the virtue of Modesty.

There’s some truth to this story. But I pulled down my veil to hide the fact that I was laughing. You have to admit there was something humorous about a father who’d once tossed his own child into the sea capering down the road after that very child and calling, ‘Stay with me!’ – from The Penelopiad, page 49 -

Atwood allows the maids to explain why they were murdered and they conclude their murder and rape symbolize the overthrow of the matriarchal society in favor of patriarchy.

You don’t have to think of us as real girls, real flesh and blood, real pain, real injustice. That might be too upsetting. Just discard the sordid part. Consider us pure symbol. We’re no more than real money. – from The Penelopiad, page 168 -

As with all Atwood novels, I put this one down feeling that once again Atwood has proven why she is one of the most brilliant writers out there. She is funny. She is incredibly thoughtful. She can string together words like no one else. Despite this, I can’t say this is a favorite Atwood book for me – which is no fault of the author. I am not a lover of mythology, although I enjoy the lessons about humanity which rise from it. So this was just an okay read for me.

Readers who love reading the myths and want a different perspective on The Odyssey will most likely enjoy this slim book.

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Great fun! And some feminism, too. I love the chorus of maids.

Definitely different than any Atwood I’ve read. Told from the perspective of Penelope, Odysseus’s long suffering, devoted wife, about what really went on during his travels ... and most of it is not flattering of Odysseus or, frankly, of Penelope. This story is light and satirical, if a bit

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racy at times. An amusing and extremely quick read that broke up the heavy subject matter I have been reading as of late (e.g., The Road, No Country for Old Men). Makes me want to go back and read The Odyssey all over again!

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