This review can now be seen at Expendable Mudge Muses Aloud!

And how wonderful it is.


This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License. More...

*This review is dedicated to Kelly without whose question I would not have thought so hard about why I loved this book.


Miller has called this book “The Song of Achilles”. The title could refer to a song sung by Achilles. It could also refer to a song sung about Achilles. This double meaning is significant as the book retells the story of the Illiad but with a very different focus. The title is significant too because it deliberately recalls the start of the Illiad: “Sing, goddess, of the wrath More...

I'm conflicted here, and 3-stars is my go-to rating when faced with conflict. How ironic, then, that this would be a book about one of the greatest conflicts of all time: Greece v. Troy. Too bad it only sort of is, though. About Troy, I mean. What this book really is about is a relationship: Achilles and Patroclus'. Playing that card means that the characterization had better be all aces.

Jacks, it turns out.

I could have easily 4-starred the book for its writing. Miller has a way with the word a More...

okay, this is gonna be edited cus I'm at the library right now and I'm hungry but here's my quick verdict:

You'd think that I'd be all over this stuff (gratuitous background: former/failed classics student, mildly ashamed reader of trashy slash fanfiction). But I found this novel disappointing, especially since I had read so many gushing reviews. Despite Miller's credentials as a classics instructor at Brown), the book feels curiously fanfiction-y?? Don't get me wrong, the writing is beautiful in More...

This has been one of the most difficult reviews to write in a long time. It's been awhile since I've read a book that had stuff I really liked and stuff that left me feeling really "meh."

There's no real need to give a summary of the plot because it's basically: "Achilles and Patroclus meet, gradually fall in teenaged love, and the events of the Iliad that we all know about happen."

Which is one of the reasons why, when I finished Miller's book, I was left with a feeling of "Eh." The story is not More...

I’m done with my exams, so I can finally write a review for this book…


I’ve been fascinated by Greek mythology since primary school and the Trojan War was my favourite part of it, so the book made me feel a little bit nostalgic. And after reading it I was more than a little bit depressed, which was weird considering the fact that I knew how it was going to end.

This novel focuses on Patroclus (who is the narrator) and Achilles and their relationship, which grows stronger while they grow up. Madel More...

Up to page 55, The Song of Achilles is nothing but a romance between Achilles and Patroclus. There is nothing wrong with that, except this romance is a mopy and gushy wide-eyed affair. I have a hard time believing that a 10-year old boy would wax so poetically about his beloved's appearance, down to his feet:

"In the huge hall, his beauty shone like a flame, vital and bright, drawing my eye against my will. His mouth was a plump bow, his nose an aristocratic arrow." (p. 26)

"His dusty feet scuffed More...

Okay so I'll make this brief because I don't need to belabor how much praise I have for this book.

I think that personally for me this will be the best book I read this year and it's only February! But I already know. Mainly because of this: this is the first book in my life that has moved me to tears, and lots of them. I spent the last three chapters with tears streaming down my face and I was enjoying every agonizing second of it.

I knew from opening it I would love it, based on the beautiful w More...

This is not a review, it's a lot of confused, biased lines:

Everyone who's read the Iliad knows how it ends. Patroclus and Achilles both die. For these two Princes, the Iliad is cruel and inescapably sad. God, what a tragedy. There is no Happily Ever After for them, (or the readers) not even a promise of one. I wanted to hate Madeline Miller, for making me fall in love with the idea of Achilles and Patroclus only to kill them off anyway. But that was Homer. And how could I, when her prose is so d More...

I read this book in two days, and kept pinning the remaining pages together to see how much I had left. It was the sort of book that I kept wanting to go through slower, wanting it to last longer. I'm not entirely sure what it was about this book that got me so involved, but I guess I'm just a sucker for this crap.Maybe it was the Iliad story itself, maybe it was the slow-built romance and friendship between the two leads, maybe it was the lovely poetic prose and the striking description. As lov More...

The thing is, it is in Patroclus' point of view. And from a certain moment on, he shouldn't have a direct view. Because of circumstances I'm sure most are aware of. Also the voice goes from past to present tense back and forth (in the last third I remember it well, because it is recent).

Also, it seems uneven - fast pacing in the last pages, dragging in the middle. But perhaps my judgemant is even more subjective than usual because it took me so long to read it.

I want to give this book one star. More...

Well, it's about Achilles, and of course Achilles’ story has already been told quite a few times. So it begs the question: why another version of Achilles’ legend? Why not just read the Odyssey, or skim wikipedia while watching Troy?

This novel’s answer, in my opinion, is that Achilles deserved to be portrayed by he that had loved him most, he who knew the hero and the son of a goddess but who also shared his most intimate moments.

And of course, by ‘intimate’, I mean gay sex.

So it's unabashedly l More...

Madeline Miller says the idea for her novel The Song of Achilles arose from wondering about the extremity of grief Achilles suffers when his closest friend Patroclus dies in the ancient Homeric poem the Iliad. What kind of relationship did they have that Achilles loved Patroclus that much? She answers that question with depth and sensitivity. The novel focuses primarily on the theme of the human capacity to love. In Miller’s interpretation, the gods, and most especially Thetis, Achilles’s mother More...

At Uni I studied the Iliad --a bit. It's a wonderful classic tale that has been examined and reexamined under multiple lenses and from multiple perspectives. And I was really looking forward to Ms. Miller's rendition, particularly as she has a master's in Latin and Ancient Greek, and because the School Library Journal described the book in such glowing terms. However, as it turned out, I was disappointed.

The book starts out wonderfully. I was immediately engaged as the 'voice' of the book, Patro More...

Romance as Myth: Madeline Miller’s Retelling of the Love between Achilles and Patroclus

It’s not often that a work of literary fiction incorporates a romance at its heart. That Madeline Miller has won the Orange Prize for 2012—which is popularly known as a women’s award—suggests that gender and genre remain intertwined. Not that The Song of Achilles is about women, or even told from the perspective of The Iliad’s female characters. In fact, they play only a peripheral role. The novel instead foc More...

I love it when you find books like this one. The Song of Achilles is beautiful, lyrical, and magical. It is the story of Achilles and the Iliad told through the voice of Patroclus. It's a historically intriguing and well-written retelling of the Iliad (she did a particularly good job with Odysseus). It's also a wonderful love story.

Miller accomplished the Herculean task of bringing a well-known and often-retold story to life. She clearly has a formidable amount of knowledge about the Classic er More...

The Song of Achilles is essentially a love story about Patroclus and Achilles, the epitome of undying love between two people. The author makes the homosexual relationship beautiful. Speaking as someone who has no background in Greek mythology, this was a really enjoyable, easy to read book. Maybe if I had previously read Homer's Odyssey, I would have a different opinion. But I think this book, when viewed simply as a stand-alone self-contained story, is well-worth the reader's time. I've develo More...

Gosh..first 5 stars in about a year. I was going for a solid 4 but actually really moved by this book. Totally wasnt expecting a really positively portrayed and fully fleshed out same sex love story woven into the Greek legend. Further research reveals, this is most likely how it was intended by Homer in the Iliad though disputed by many sources and clearly dummed down and made palatable by prudish history. To whatever extent the intimacy extended in real life or even in Homers telling, its rare More...

I don't know where to start... My mind's still reeling from the book's glory and tragedy. Madeline Miller has crafted a novel worthy of a thousand praises and a hundred oreo topped cheesecakes! (I would certainly buy her one as a gift if I knew her personally)

That being said, everyone knows who Achilles is (well at least I assume everyone does). And before I read this book, I thought of him only as a this greek demi-god who was invincible in every part of his body other than his heel (my knowle More...

As Randy Jackson would say, "it was just all right for me, man." The problem with this novel is that its narrator, Patroclos, doesn't develop any personality traits until about page 250, and similarly, all of the "action" is consolidated in the book's last third.

Before page 250 or so, Patroclos never says anything but "I'm sorry" and "I don't know." Really. No matter who's talking to him, goddesses, kings, his lover, his lover's wife, you name it - "I'm sorry", "I don't know.". You'll spend much More...

One interesting thing about the shortlist for the Orange Prize is that (unlike the other big British literary prize, the Booker) it isn’t only open to literary fiction; in fact, the rules specifically state that ‘we encourage publishers to submit books from all genres’, the only other specific criteria being the date of publication and the gender of the author. (It must also be the best ladybook of the year, of course, but you probably knew that part already.)

But what’s odd about this is that de More...

In Homer's Iliad, Achilles is a loose cannon who avenges the death of Patroclus by desecrating Hector's body. In her first novel, classics teacher Miller delivers Patroclus's side of the story. Achilles's BFF tells us how his sad, friendless childhood changed completely when the half-god prince took him under his wing. Patroclus's views don't contradict tradition; they are an intimate look at Achilles that brings out the hero's best qualities. This view is an example of how Miller pays tribute t More...

I will preface this review by saying I know nothing about Greek mythology and the classics, nor have I ever had an interest in it; I thought Ajax was a household cleaner and Paris the capital of France. That said, I was swept away by Miller's love story of Achilles and Peraclus and the Trojan War. Her writing is gentle and quiet, crafting each word and sentence carefully. And she brought to life the mother of all evil mothers!

I do have a small quibble and this is just me as a reader as opposed More...

I really loved this book from beginning to end. A truly beautiful story that kept me enthralled all the way through and reduced me to tears at the end.

This story deals with the life of Achilles from childhood, to manhood and to the the very Greek style tragic but bittersweet ending as seen through the eyes of Petroclus. Petroclus is enamoured with Achilles from the word go and becomes Achilles' lover, confidante and support to cope with the pressures of being a prince and demigod. Achilles' moth More...

"I will never leave him. It will be this, always, for as long as he will let me."


You may know how this epic mythological tale ends, but you've never read the story of Achilles and his beloved companion, Patroclus.

I really have no words for how much I loved this story, how much I believe that it deserved the 2012 Orange Prize for Fiction. I was approached by the publisher about a feature of the book on my blog, with an offer for a review copy. I initially turned that offer down, thinking I had n More...

Like Susan, this is not a book I would've expected to love. But the writing was gorgeous (in a slightly archaic way that echoed the lyric Greek poetry that inspired it, without being overly derivative), the characters felt real enough that I got invested in their decisions and emotions, and I was riveted by the plot -- everything from the descriptions of Achilles and Patroclus alone in their tent to Achilles massacring Trojans on the battlefield.

The language made it a bit of a slow read (which w More...

It is fitting that my first review is this book because it was one of the best books that I have read for a while. Having started university (double-degree with double-major) and spending most of my day reading, its difficult to read at night. Seeing this won the Orange Prize for fiction, I thought I would give it a go.

First off, I LOVED the format of this book. It had worn, thick pages that made you believe that you really were reading an epic. It was also one of those books that I wanted to k More...

Greek mythology captured my imagination at an early age. I pored over d'Aulaires' Book of Greek Myths , the classic, beautifully illustrated anthology for children published in 1961. I read everything I could get my hands on, including versions meant for older eyes. Reading Greek mythology was my first glimpse of graphic violence, including rape and human sacrifice. It also brought to my consciousness the many forms of romantic and platonic love; the blurry boundaries in Ancient Greece between m More...