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The Last Song of Penelope - Claire North
Jun. 20th, 2024 09:29 pmRead The Last Song of Penelope by Claire North, the third and final installment of her Penelope-centric retelling of the Odyssey (+ Oresteia crossover). This trilogy is so, so good, and considering I'm kind of a snob about the Feminist Greek Mythology Retelling Industrial Complex, that's saying something. I think what really makes North's books click for me is that a. she colors outside of the lines, as it were - inventing new characters and storylines wholesale - and b. each book is narrated by a different goddess (Hera, Aphrodite, and Athena, respectively) in a way that casts interesting light on the mortal characters and Olympians alike.
The end of the Odyssey is, of course, a hell of a thing. Given the way that the story unfolded over the first two books— painting Penelope's maids as individuals, loyal and clever and brave and indispensable as her eyes and ears around the palace; the invention of a sympathetic Egyptian suitor who becomes Penelope's trusted ally and woulda-coulda-shoulda-been love interest; Penelope's subtle, scrappy reign as spymaster-strategist-queen— I read the first third of the book with a sense of dread because Odysseus' return was going to ruin everything. It would have been too easy, with the story North had been telling so far, to make Odysseus an outright villain, and I'm glad that she went a much more interesting, nuanced route. (Telemachus, on the other hand. What a little prick.)
( Read more... )
Anyway, 10/10, this book was great and I'm so relieved this trilogy stuck the landing. (I didn't doubt that it would, exactly, but I was biting my nails for a minute.)
The end of the Odyssey is, of course, a hell of a thing. Given the way that the story unfolded over the first two books— painting Penelope's maids as individuals, loyal and clever and brave and indispensable as her eyes and ears around the palace; the invention of a sympathetic Egyptian suitor who becomes Penelope's trusted ally and woulda-coulda-shoulda-been love interest; Penelope's subtle, scrappy reign as spymaster-strategist-queen— I read the first third of the book with a sense of dread because Odysseus' return was going to ruin everything. It would have been too easy, with the story North had been telling so far, to make Odysseus an outright villain, and I'm glad that she went a much more interesting, nuanced route. (Telemachus, on the other hand. What a little prick.)
( Read more... )
Anyway, 10/10, this book was great and I'm so relieved this trilogy stuck the landing. (I didn't doubt that it would, exactly, but I was biting my nails for a minute.)
