there's no doubt that margaret atwood is good at what she does, but i've never been crazy about her. i've read a few of her novels and while enjoyable, there was nothing about them that really spoke to me. that saying, i loved this book.perhaps it was due to the fact that i just read 'the odyssey', but i found this novella a brilliant retelling of homer's epic poem from odysseus' wife's perspective. as one critic put it, penelope is the perfect atwood heroine and i couldn't imagine a better author to tell this story.
atwood's penelope is very sly and sarcastic as she tells her story from the underworld. atwood has brilliantly made penelope's (spoiler alert for the odyssey!) 12 hanged maids a sort of vaudevillian chorus that pop up to sing witty and dark and sardonic interludes.
i'm not sure if i would have enjoyed this as much had i not been familiar with 'the odyssey', but in my mind, atwood has pulled herself out of the humdrum and into the sublime.
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