Reviews with content warning for Infidelity - The Penelopiad

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The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood

24 reviews

onyxisalive's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional informative mysterious sad fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.5

I have a tendency to stem towards book that are based around greek mythology and this one did disappoint.
It is a re-telling of the myth of Penelope and Odysseus.
The book starts of telling us about Penelope’s childhood. The story of it was really sad, however there are a few complaints I’d like to make. Most of the logistical problems with the story are not the authors fault, but the fault of greek mythology. E.G. If you were trying to murder your daughter- a naiad- why would you try and drown her? Surely it would make more sense to just push her off a cliff, or hang her? The only reason I can think of is 1) he didn’t really want to kill her, it was just part of the alleged deal with Poseidon or 2) he wasn’t subconsciously committed to the crime. However, this all fringes on the idea that he wasn’t that fond of killing her in the first place- but both explanations given as to why he did it don’t seem to make much sense in that context. For example, if the shroud story were true why would he give up immediately after one attempt? Maybe he lost heart for it, but if he was that hesitant to partake in this in the first place why do it? Why kill her over a prophecy if he wasn’t going to give up?
In story two he made a deal with Poseidon. You can argue that he accepted the deal to try and avoid the wrath of Poseidon, but if that was the case why not make another attempt? As by not going through with it until the end you create a situation where he will still be mad at you.
The only reason I can make sense of this is maybe the mother found out about the murder attempt and threatened the dad into stopping. However, that doesn’t really fit in very well with Penelope’s characterisation of her mother- as her mother is portrayed as someone that doesn’t like direct confrontation, but instead patiently manipulates things over time.

Ignoring that greek mythology mess. The relationship between Penelope and her parents was really interesting. The way that her father treats her after the attempt is really sad, and how Penelope shows her contempt for him by not arguing with Odysseus about moving out of the castle is interesting. However, a lot of the affection he shows towards her is just told to us by the author and never shown to us, so a lot of the potential impact is reduced as it feels like I am just being told about the relationship instead of experiencing it.
With Penelope’s mother on the other hand, I am very interested. Penelope’s mother is portrayed as very distant but tempered, this results in us knowing very little about her. However, the author successfully paints her as a very interesting character that I wished to know more about.

The final thing I want to mention in regards to her childhood is the ducks saving Penelope. It was stated originally that she was saved by them because of her affiliation with water due to being a naiad, however the author seems to forget this and seems to move on and present other scenarios for why even though they presented the naiad ability reason as fact originally. If the author wasn’t sure about the water affiliation being the reason they should’ve presented the idea differently originally.

Moving on to Penelope and Odysseus. Odysseus vying for Penelope over Helene is interesting. In other things I read it seemed that Odysseus thought of Penelope as an underrated gem that was better than Helen. However, the characterisation in this is very different. In here it comes across as he made a deal with Helen’s uncle for Penelope as he knew he wouldn’t get Helen, so as a result he settled for second best (which made me feel really bad for Penelope). Odysseus manages to get the 15 year old Penelope infatuated with him of the bat, even though Penelope herself isn’t sure if he even likes her or not (even though he behaves like he does). However, the further on you get into the book the less valid his feelings for her seem to be. He gets back from allegedly fucking goddesses and instead of sticking around he paints it like he has to leave (which she accepts) and moves on to probably do more. So her original prognosis of him not really being that fond of her seems to be true.
One thing I do want to say though is Penelope herself seems to not even be sure if his feelings are genuine, which at points doesn’t feel right. Penelope is cast as very intelligent, but even after seeing everything unfold is unsure about this. This would make sense due to the presentation of the relationships as abusive. However, as this story is told retrospectively by Penelope criticising Odysseus but also not- it ends up taking away from the story in my opinion as it ends up making the character of Penelope being unclear to the reader.

Penelope and Helen. Penelope’s dislike of Helen seems to stem from jealousy of not being her. It comes across as really petty as even when she is dead she is still really jealous of Helen. It would’ve been really nice for the author to do some character development in this regard with Penelope, it comes across like a missed opportunity.

Penelope’s intelligence. We are told from the get go that she is really smart. But, this characterisation ends up falling flat as at the beginning we are just told this with not evidence. About 100 pages later we are given some, but by the time this happens it feels way too late. It would’ve hit harder if we were shown and earlier example of her intelligence, therefore through the book it would’ve felt more genuine, instead of coming across like we were just being told this. It is resolved in the end, however it still doesn’t solve the issue with why people thought she was smart originally when we are given no evidence until much later.

Penelope and her time alone. Penelope at the start (before the suitors arrive) really seems to like being in control of the house and the new responsibility as previously she felt useless. This was really nice to see being resolved (even if it is later ruined by the arrival of the suitors). Her not remarrying because she enjoys being in control and like her own life is one of my favourite interpretations of Penelope’s story (even if this doesn’t go all the way in doing that). One of the reasons Penelope seems to want this to go well so much is to impress Odysseus, so it isn’t just for her but for her uncaring husband. However, this makes it even more sad in my eyes due to how young she way and how emotionally manipulated.

Penelope and loneliness. Penelope throughout the book is presented as a relatively lonely character. This stays mostly true throughout the book. She adopts the maid in a way but her that is quickly ruined by her husband.

Penelope’s alleged trust issues. One big complaint I had about this book was the fact that we are told that she has trust issues. However, she quickly trusts

Odysseus and the maids.

So it yet again comes across as something we are being told whilst being shown no evidence. It would’ve been really interesting to see Penelope struggle to

warm up to Odysseus and everyone due to her childhood,

but we are shown no evidence of a struggle (in fact she seems to warm up very quickly).

The lyrical prose throughout the book is really good mostly. Even though sometimes the rhythm is broken which does feel really unnatural and it doesn’t seem like there is much structural reason for this to happen.

Penelope and moving on. When beyond the grave she seems unable to move on by her past (which is really sad). The one complaint I have with this is originally it comes across like she has which really messes with the overall characterisation of her.

All in all it was alright, but had quite a few problems with it.

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agw622's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.25

This is a very heavy book. It is well written, but some of the sections weren't my favorite. One near the end exploring some symbolize that is speculated also gives the feel of as a way out of the horribleness the book covers. It handles sensitive subjects well. While it does give some voice to Penelope, it doesn't fully empower her. I thought it fitting, but keep that in mind. The maid sections were very well done and my favorite part.

Content Warnings