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The Penelopiad
The Myth Of Penelope And Odysseus
by Margaret Atwood
This retelling of Homer’s Odyssey centers on the wife he left behind.
Canongate, 192 pages
11/09/2005
$18.00
ISBN: 1841957178
Fiction
General Literature & Fiction
Historical Fiction
NOTES:
Part of the "Myths" series of books which also includes "Weight" by Jeanette Winterson and "A Short History of Myth" by Karen Armstrong.
All reviews are classified as one of five grades: Outstanding (4 points), Favorable (3), Mixed (2), Unfavorable (1) and Terrible (0). To calculate the Metascore, we divide total points achieved by the total points possible (i.e., 4 x the number of reviews), with the resulting percentage (multiplied by 100) being the Metascore. Learn more...
Entertainment Weekly Rebecca Ascher-Walsh
While the story isn't new, Atwood's approach reminds us that there are endlessly original ways to tell it.
The Globe And Mail [Toronto] Donald Harman Akenson
This is a wonderful book, and if in the end it suggests not just one, but two, three or maybe four possible reinventions of The Odyssey, that's all bonus. [22 Oct 2005]
The Spectator Sam Leith
'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.
TLS: The Times Literary Supplement Carolyne Larrington
Despite the jokiness, anachronism and rumbustiousness, Margaret Atwood's Penelope is coherently and persuasively imagined; a heroine transplanted from contemporary Toronto to the Elysian Fields.
Washington Post Elizabeth Hand
Atwood doesn't exactly give [Penelope] a makeover, but she gives her a voice, at once plaintive and wise, as well as a long view.
New York Review Of Books Jasper Griffin
[A] subtle and perceptive retelling.
Daily Telegraph David Flusfeder
Unhurried, unshowy, [Atwood] gives us the huge pleasures of rhythm and structure and story, and characters too
Daily Telegraph Christopher Tayler
Atwood's book is an enjoyable, intelligent variation on Penelope's story.
Publishers Weekly
This format works well, though sometimes the cadence and rhyming scheme are off beat.
Salon Laura Miller
[Atwood] takes the Greeks' notion of heroism and turns it inside out, like a shirt, so that we can see the seams.
The Guardian Mary Beard
The only blot on this brilliant book is a chapter entitled "An Anthropology Lecture". This insists, through the mouth of the murdered maids, that deep beneath the story of Penelope lies the cult of the Mother Goddess, and that anyone who does not accept the matriarchal substrate of Greek myth has not learned the lessons of feminism.
The Independent Catherine Taylor
In the mischievously titled The Penelopiad, Atwood, with typical audacity, repositions The Odyssey from the viewpoint of Penelope, Odysseus's wife.
The Onion A.V. Club Tasha Robinson
The conflicts in viewpoint cunningly provide a dramatic and tonal tension that neatly complements the story's accomplished but relatively uneventful flow.
Chicago Tribune Alan Cheuse
If Atwood's presentation of Penelope's story doesn't fully shift our understanding of Odysseus' return home, it does make for a fascinating and rather attractive version of this old, old story. [23 Oct 2005, pg. 1]
London Review Of Books Thomas Jones
In The Penelopiad, Penelope gets the chance to put her side of the story. One of the functions of literature, after all, is to give a voice to the voiceless, and that can include characters from other works of literature.
Los Angeles Times Susan Salter Reynolds
"No man will ever kill himself for love of me," says Penelope, who, with her whiny jealousy of her cousin Helen and her continual efforts to make a virtue of plainness, is (it must be said) not all that likable. [30 Oct 2005, R11]
The New York Times Book Review Caroline Alexander
This marvelous material seems not to have been metabolized by Atwood's imagination, and the result is merely a riff on a better story that comes dangerously close to being a spoof.
Boston Globe Amanda Heller
This is an ''Odyssey" that sets sail on a sea of theory. Without language that sings, myth isn't myth at all.
 The average user rating for this book is 7.6 (out of 10) based on 8 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
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