Member Reviews

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  1 of 1 members found this review helpful.

  • Rated 2 stars

  “Intrigued by greek mythology. Light read. Found songs/poems somewhat disjointed from book. Loved how she casually referred to the Gods as if they exist without questions and how your soul lives on forever in many afterlives.”

  Chantelle B wrote this review Sunday, April 27 2008. ( reply | permalink )
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  1 of 1 members found this review helpful.

  • Rated 4 stars

  “Pretty much classic Atwood, her dry, mildly sarcastic tone throughout the retelling of the Odyssey. She puts a feminist perspective on a tradionally chauvinisitic tale, almost undermining the famed Greek heros. It's a good, quick read, but by the time you start feeling engrossed in Penelope's character the story is over.”

  NinaC wrote this review Friday, August 31 2007. ( reply | permalink )
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  • Rated 2 stars

  “I guess you have to give points for the idea of putting in a Greek chorus but after the first few had so many silly rhymes I was put off by the whole thing. As for the rest? Well, Penelope does tend to go on. Maybe I would be bitter too after her life and then how ever many years in the underworld. But I hope not because it turned Penelope into a terrible bore.”

  Becca wrote this review 3 days ago. ( reply | permalink )
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  • Rated 2 stars

  “I was actually fairly disappointed in this book. I love Margaret Atwood's feminist poetry and her take on many other fairy tales and myths. However, in the Penelopiad, it seemed glossed over - it didn't feel like a very dramatic Atwood retelling. With subject matter such as this, Atwood really needed to keep it gritty and angry rather than mopey and obnoxious. As gritty and angry, Penelope could have made a phenomenal character.
  
  When I read the Odyssey, I still haven't read the Iliad (something I mean to remedy soon), I despised Odysseus, so when I found out about this retelling I was ecstatic. I mean, I remember writing a poem for the class that I read it in, and we had to write a poem in the voice of one of the characters - my poem was Penelope's suicide note. Really, I hated Odysseus that much; but I digress.”

  Baranorewen wrote this review Wednesday, August 13 2008. ( reply | permalink )
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  • Rated 2 stars

  “I don't think I'll ever give a book 1 star but if I was strict enough I could do it for this one... Boring, supposedly funny but she was trying too hard, it felt as if someone told her to write a book on Penelope as fast as she could and 'Penelopiad' is the outcome of this hastiness.
  As a Greek I also felt somewhat vexed, I can't determine exactly why, maybe the other books of the Myth series will do the same to me. Am I too sensitive about the "legacy of Greek Mythology"? Who knows. But I know I didn't enjoy this book at all.”

  nakupenda wrote this review Tuesday, August 5 2008. ( reply | permalink )
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  • Rated 4 stars

  “Witty and clever, but not Atwood's best. I really enjoy the entire Helen of Troy myth, and I wish she had done a little more with this. I still enjoyed it, however. Maybe my expectations of Atwood's writing are a little too high--she is my fave writer.”

  Jenna D wrote this review Friday, July 11 2008. ( reply | permalink )
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  • Rated 5 stars

  “i love Margaret Atwood's work, for starters, and this little gem is no exception...i read parts of The Iliad, The Odyssey, and The Aneaiad in High School...in LATIN for cripes' sake...but this puts the whol FaithfulPenelope bit on its ear....thankfully....sly humor...clever wordplay..and hey, you could learn a thing or two along the way...yep, i like this one...has anyone read the rest of the CANONGATE series THE MYTHS, of which this is a part???”

  Judith L wrote this review Friday, June 27 2008. ( reply | permalink )
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  • Rated 4 stars

  “*Sigh* I went through a very evangelical Margaret Atwood phase, in which I was reading every book I could get my hands on, and pushing my used copies on all my friends. I would give Margaret Atwood a tongue-bath if she wanted me to (Hear that old lady? Call me) and this book just shores up my delight in her. It's a retelling of the myth of Odysseus and Penelope (his wife) from Penelope's point of view. It's an imaginative and sharp look at the story from another angle, and at 196 pages, you can tear through this in a day or two. Sounds like Atwood was always bothered by the fact that Odysseus hangs 12 of his own slave girls when he returns home, and her rewrite centers around addressing why. The conceit works. I especially appreciated that a greek chorus made up of said slave girls addresses the reader through pop songs, sea shantys, a drama. I guess this is part of a series by Canongate where modern authors retell classic myths. I'm ready to add the others to my bookshelf and check them out. ”

  Deanna wrote this review Wednesday, June 25 2008. ( reply | permalink )
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  • Rated 3 stars

  “I really enjoyed this book. Margaret Atwood has a way with words and I loved her feminine take on what Penelope might have gone through while Odysseus was travelling the world and sleeping with godesses. Very interesting.”

  Melissa R wrote this review Saturday, June 14 2008. ( reply | permalink )
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  • Rated 4 stars

  “In this refreshingly funny retelling of the classical adventures of Odysseus, Penelope, his faithful stay at home wife finally gets to tell her side of the tale. Her story, told from beyond the Styx, is interspersed with a chorus made up of the twelve maidens Odysseus had hanged on his return. Penelope, always overshadowed by the lovely, spiteful Helen, the Helen who ruined her life begins her tale as a child in Sparta relating how her father threw her into the sea. We see another side of Odysseus, the con man masquerading as a hero of whom she says “I knew he was tricky and a liar, I just didn't think he would play his tricks and try out his lies on me." She relates the difficulties of running a kingdom at the age of 15, bringing up a small child and getting on with the in-laws without her husband. All the while hearing the rumors of Odysseus fighting one eyed Cyclops, (or perhaps one eyed tavern keepers,) sleeping with a goddess on an enchanted isle, (or perhaps just a beautiful courtesan). And having to deal with suitors who come just to eat her food. The maidens, meanwhile, relate through poetry, sea chantey, courtroom sketch and anthropological lecture their side of the tale, and their undying indignation at having been murdered.”

  Jenne J wrote this review Thursday, May 1 2008. ( reply | permalink )