technicat reviewed The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller
Brilliant, beautifully written with a lot of emotional heft
5 stars
I never found Greek mythology, Homer, Virgil, etc. very interesting or accessible, just another high school lit duty, but this original retelling from a traditionally minor character's viewpoint is brilliant and beautifully written with a deep emotional arc. I was mesmerized by the last few chapters (really had no idea where it was going even though big picture we know how it turns out). Often these serious lit books end with a set of canned discussion questions that seem geared toward high school classes or suburban weekend reading groups, and that is in the book, but there is a much more interesting interview with the author describing her own journey in writing the book (Ten years! Ten years!), her own emotional travel experience after writing the book, and a review of the cast of characters with references to the Iliad, which would have looked like a Cliff Notes before reading …
I never found Greek mythology, Homer, Virgil, etc. very interesting or accessible, just another high school lit duty, but this original retelling from a traditionally minor character's viewpoint is brilliant and beautifully written with a deep emotional arc. I was mesmerized by the last few chapters (really had no idea where it was going even though big picture we know how it turns out). Often these serious lit books end with a set of canned discussion questions that seem geared toward high school classes or suburban weekend reading groups, and that is in the book, but there is a much more interesting interview with the author describing her own journey in writing the book (Ten years! Ten years!), her own emotional travel experience after writing the book, and a review of the cast of characters with references to the Iliad, which would have looked like a Cliff Notes before reading the book, but afterwards you just want to find out more about that person. Which I plan to do in part by reading the author's followup retelling of the Odyssey (that took her only seven years to write!).
