Answer: The Penelopiad, written by Margaret Atwood in 2005, is one of the most recent retellings of The Odyssey. There have been a lot throughout the centuries: Ulysses, Cold Mountain, and even the movie Oh brother where art thou?, to name a few. Retelling a story is always a challenge, because you can no longer rely on your plot to set you apart from other books in the competitive writing industry. An author must then find some other way to make their novel truly special. In The Penelopiad, Margaret Atwood attempts to do so through spinning the tale from the point of view of the faithful wife, Penelope. To take over the role of “the chorus”, Ms. Atwood employs the twelve maids, whom Odysseus kills upon his return to Ithaca. Throughout the novel, the maids write poetry to showcase their point of view, while Penelope acts as the narrator. It is definitely an interesting idea, but I don’t think Margaret Atwood succeeds as well as she would have liked.
The novel is funny, witty, and amusing. It took me less than a day to finish and when I did, I wanted more. Something is missing in the novel, however. Penelope is depicted like a real person: she is jealous of her beautiful cousin Helen, she is angry that her son is growing up and rebelling, etc. but I don’t think any reader could truly relate to her. In fact, I think Ms. Atwood struggled with relating to her protagonist as well.
One thing that I did enjoy in the story was the sense of humor. It was engaging, and I laughed out loud more than once. I think Margaret Atwood succeeded in portraying the maids through their crude jokes, bad habits, and sneaky methods of retrieving information. The maids served as the comedic relief, while Penelope recounted the plot. It was interesting how Ms. Atwood weaved the maids into the story through poems and songs, although at times it was a little awkward. As the author herself said, it was her intention to answer the question of “what lead to the hanging of Penelope’s maids?”. Ms. Atwood succeeds in answering that question, as well as several others that The Odyssey forgot to touch on.
To summarize, The Penelopiad is a very enjoyable book that provides interesting insights, but would’ve benefited from a certain depth, like that in The Housekeeper and the Professor.
