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Cover of The Penelopiad

The Penelopiad

Margaret Atwood

224 pages

A sharp, darkly witty dismantling of a classic myth told from the afterlife by the women left behind to pay the hero's debts.

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What it feels like

Reading this book feels like sitting in the shadowy corners of the underworld, listening to a famously patient woman finally lose her temper. The narrative moves at a brisk, theatrical clip, alternating between a wry, conversational monologue and the haunting, rhythmic chants of a ghostly chorus. It is a deeply subversive experience, stripping away the golden veneer of heroic myth to expose the grim, claustrophobic reality of the women left behind to manage the estate. The prose is sharp and darkly comedic, yet an undeniable current of grief and guilt runs beneath the wit. It will thoroughly delight readers who crave feminist retellings that refuse to neatly absolve their heroines, offering instead a messy, brilliant, and lingering exploration of complicity and silenced voices.

Mood
  • theatrical
  • haunting
  • claustrophobic
  • subversive
Tone
  • wry
  • cynical
  • sharp
  • defiant
  • darkly comedic
Pace
brisk
Themes
the silencing of women · myth-making vs. truth · female complicity · class disparity · the burden of loyalty
The writing
Sharp, conversational, and darkly witty, interspersed with varied, rhythmic poetic forms that mimic a Greek chorus.
The arc
Begins as a wry, detached reflection on a legendary life and descends into a haunting, unresolved confrontation with guilt and the voices of the silenced.
Who it's for
Readers who love feminist retellings of mythology and appreciate a sharp, cynical narrator who dismantles classic hero worship.
Content notes
  • execution by hanging
  • sexual assault (implied)
  • misogyny
  • class-based violence

About the book

Homer's Odyssey is not the only version of the story. Mythic material was originally oral, and also local -- a myth would be told one way in one place and quite differently in another. I have drawn on material other than the Odyssey, especially for the details of Penelope's parentage, her early life and marriage, and the scandalous rumors circulating about her. I've chosen to give the telling of the story to Penelope and to the twelve hanged maids. The maids form a chanting and singing Chorus, which focuses on two questions that must pose themselves after any close reading of the Odyssey: What led to the hanging of the maids, and what was Penelope really up to? The story as told in the Odyssey doesn't hold water: there are too many inconsistencies. I've always been haunted by the hanged maids and, in The Penelopiad, so is Penelope herself. The author of The Handmaid's Tale and The Blind Assassin presents a cycle of stories about Penelope, wife of Odysseus, through the eyes of the twelve maids hanged for disloyalty to Odysseus in his absence.

Description from Open Library.

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