The Penelopiad

Book Review

Margaret Atwood

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.

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.

"When telling the story later I used to say that it was Pallas Athene, goddess of weaving, who'd given me this idea, and perhaps this was true, for all I know, but crediting some god for one's inspirations was always a good way to avoid accusations of pride should the scheme succeed, as well as the blame if it did not."

“I then made the Is-this-all-the-thanks-I-get, you-have-no-idea-what –I've-been-through-for-your-sake, no-woman-should-have-to-put-up-with-this-sort-of-suffering, I-might-as-well-kill-myself speech. But I'm afraid he heard it before, and showed by his folded arms and rolled-up eyes that he was irritated by it, and was waiting for me to finish.”