Wednesday, March 01, 2023

Review of "The Song of Achilles" by Madeline Miller

Not as enjoyable as her Circe. The latter part seems to be mainly a straightforward retelling of the Illiad, which was made even less enjoyable because I'd just read the rather more creative retelling in Pat Barker's "The Silence of The Girls". The earlier sections which seem to me to more made-up (especially the backstory of Achilles and Patroclus) are more enjoyable, though I think there's something not quite right about the shame that the two boys seem to feel about their homosexual love - not very Greek, surely?

Also by making Patroclus the first-person narrator she's sort of stuck once he dies. First it seems that there's no narrator at all - or rather an omniscient third-person narrator...and then it seems that it's Patroclus's spirit after all, which isn't very satisfying either.

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