I always enjoy reading Margaret Atwood, and I enjoy reading modern retellings of the ancient myths, especially when they reimagine the female characters (e.g. Lavinia by Ursula K. Le Guin and Kassandra by Christa Wolf come to mind). The combination of the two should have been a mindblowing experience for me, especially so since the original story of Penelope & Odysseus is one of my favourites. Maybe my expectations were too high, because I was a little underwhelmed.

The retelling of the Penelopiad is mostly a retelling of things we already know, though I enjoyed the plot twists personally, too many things were a bit too unchanged to be that mindblowing experience I was looking for. I liked Atwood's reimagining of Penelope, but I would have liked that tiny bit more depth, that extra personality. I felt this was lacking.. I appreciate that this was a bit more a feminist retelling, pointing out things that were wrong with the ancient society regarding the way it treats women, but somehow that just wasn't enough.

It really was mostly the same story we're all familiar with, though now told with Atwood's wonderful prose. And my, her prose is beautiful, as it always is. Still, this is probably not the best introduction to Atwood's work, so if you've not read any Atwood before, I would not recommend you to start with this book, and otherwise to go in with lower expectations than usual. It's not an unenjoyable book at all, I just have the feeling it does not measure up to other things Atwood has written.