Penelope's Reading List

You don’t have to be a scholar to enjoy The Penelopiad, Margaret Atwood’s contemporary, feminist retelling of The Odyssey, from the point of view of Odysseus’ put-upon and misunderstood wife, Penelope.

In The Penelopiad, we read of how Penelope (obviously) bore the brunt of her husband’s absence, spending twenty years in Ithaca, warding off a throng of brutish suitors and her ill-willed mother-in-law. All the while her wayward husband is bedding goddesses and getting fat off of a growing legend and rumours that it is entirely possible he himself has been spreading as rapidly as an ancient STD. (Surely Syphilis was some goddess’ dirty stable boy)

This is an entirely plausible version of Penelope’s life, of her afterlife and of her greatest regret and sadness – the slaying of her twelve favourite maids upon her husband’s return. Atwood’s Penelope is doomed to carry the weight of their deaths on her demure shoulders for eternity – a weight that the slayer has absolved himself of shouldering.

Alwood also delivers a juicy account of Penelope’s acrimonious relationship with her bitchy, war-mongering cousin Helen, whose shallow and spiteful demeanour is dullened little by an event as insignificant as death.

What is most impressive about The Penelopiad is Atwood’s deft handling of the logistics of it all; Penelope is telling her story to a modern audience, and the ease with which Atwood handles details – like the acknowledgement that Penelope’s mythical Hades is little like our own modern, Satan-patrolled hell – is genius.

This is the author at her best: light-hearted yet lightening sharp, academic yet entertaining. If you have ever seen Margaret Atwood speaking in person, or even in a taped interview, you’ll know what I mean. The Penelopiad is Atwood speaking to us – the clever, casual tone; the dry wit and the ability to make us open our eyes to struggles we would prefer not even acknowledge the existence of. This is the fun version of Alias Grace.

That Atwood almost passed on this project (being one of several in The Myths Series including Jeanette Winterson, Alexander McCall Smith, David Grossman and others) is unfortunate, as it ranks as high on the list of required reading re-tellings as Anita Diamant’s The Red Tent, and Jean Rhys’ Wide Sargasso Sea. Surely, Penelope would be pleased.

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Apologies in advance to all involved in NaBloPoMo (or is it NoGoBloMe?) -
it is only day 3 and i am already behind in my reading. i can't keep up. go on without me; we'll always have october.
(but i'll do my very best, because you all have such smart, funny, amazing things to say, and your blogs are pretty much my mommy crack. i just might not get to comment as much.)