Penelope, wife of Odysseus, has long been viewed as a clever and faithful spouse. In The Odyssey, she managed the vast estates on Ithaca, raises her son Telemachus alone, keeps numerous suitors at bay, and remains true to Odysseus during the twenty years of his absence. In The Penelopiad, Canadian writer Margaret Atwood presents a different view of the faithful Penelope. Through narrative and poetry, Atwood gives the reader a more rounded and modern woman with a complicated personal history and a critical eye. Atwood’s novel begins in Hades with a deceased Penelope telling the reader “Now that I’m dead I know everything.” The knowledge that most troubles her is the death of her twelve favorite maids at the hands of Odysseus and Telemachus. In Hades these twelve maids form a chorus that harmonizes with Penelope.
This lyrical novel gives voice to Penelope’s story in her own words. She evolves from a young girl whose father tried to kill her, to the young bride of a powerful warrior, to a mother and wife who loves, but does not completely trust, her husband, to a shadow who knows all there is to know. The relationship between Penelope and Odysseus is tenderly built on mutual story-telling with the caveat, “The two of us were—by our own admission—proficient and shameless liars of long standing. It’s a wonder either one of us believed a word the other said. But we did. Or so we told each other.”
— Review by Judith Malone-Neville.
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