From the Bookshelf of She-Geeks…

The Penelopiad

Margaret Atwood

Start date: March 1, 2016

Finish date: March 31, 2016

Discussion: Themed reads

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Themed reads

August 2016 Read 1 (Warrior Women): Company Town
By K.N. · 3 posts · 26 views

last updated Aug 27, 2016 05:15AM

August 2016 Read 2 (Warrior Women): The Girl with Ghost Eyes
By K.N. · 2 posts · 30 views

last updated Aug 19, 2016 11:35AM

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What Members Thought

Aug 23, 2012 V rated it really liked it

Shelves: fantasy, fiction, myth-folklore

I love Greek myths. I love retellings of Greek myths. Yet, this book went beyond a retelling and read like a biography interspersed with acts from a play. Penelope, the wife of Odysseus who waited twenty long years for her husband's return, tells her end of things from the Asphodel Fields. Twelve maids who worked for her interject here and there, as if to remind and to rebuke.

I'm off to read Atwood's "Oryx and Crake", now. I 've read "The Handmaid's Tale," loved it, and can't wait to get my han ...more

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Dec 21, 2019 Jennifer rated it liked it

Shelves: classics-etc, fantasy

I've never read a book by Margaret Atwood where she pulls her punches, but the protagonist in the Penelopiad is almost spitting with fury at times - it's an intense read. This is the second retelling of The Odyssesy I've read this year, this time from the perspective of Penelope (Odysseus' wife). It gives a voice to the woman who is celebrated as being virtuous and patient while her husband goes off adventuring and shagging around for years. Atwood crafts the novel cleverly and holds the narrati ...more

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