November 11, 2012
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Week 46: The Penelopiad
I think someone recommended this book to me, but I honestly cannot remember who it was. Maybe it was given in a list of “fractured fairy tales” which I’ve recently been inclined toward (they’re so fun, and they’re relaxing, quick reads, and the authors usually manage to surprise you, which also surprises you).
Anyway. The Penelopiad is a “fractured fairy tale” of The Odyssey told from the point of view of Odysseus’s wife, Penelope. Because it was written by Margaret Atwood (and also because it’s based on a Greek myth), I thought it would be deeper than the fractured fairy tale series I’ve been previously reading that goes through the more mainstream fairy tales (Beauty and the Beast, Cinderella, Snow White, etc.). It really wasn’t. It was very light, and it started out with Penelope just getting married at the age of 15, so it had that youthful feel of the other princess-y books.
I did learn a lot of things about the myth surrounding Penelope and Odysseus and various factoids about Ancient Greece, so I liked that Atwood threw in those tidbits. And it refreshed my memory about The Odyssey. Atwood did a very clever thing with Penelope’s twelve maids, making them the chorus (ah, Greek tragedy). It sort of reminded me of the group project we did on Antigone in high school. Anyway, even though it was an interesting device, it seemed a little sloppy sometimes and I’m not quite sure how I feel about it. The anthropology one though, reminded me of Tom Robbins somehow.
