A Review of ‘The Song of Achilles’ by Madeline Miller

[fiona13]

Comments

[selket531]

Hi Fiona, I read the book and loved it, and enjoyed your excellent review. You write beautifully yourself, and your review made pasages of the book live again for me. I agree that this was an excellent story, it held me entranced and when I had finished it I sat back down and re-read it all over again. I'm also glad to see that a woman's writing iwth regard to an area that has previously been considdered male territory is becoming accepted. That warms my heart. Personally, I think women can write of war just as well as men. Thank you for sharing your comments.

[fiona13]

It's an interesting point about women writing about war - why shouldn't they be as free to write of war as any man who hasn't been in a war? Yet it hasn't always been so, so this is progress. I do think that in this particular case, though, she is writing about war from a very female perspective. The giveaway is not the sense of the futility of war - not an exclusively female opinion, anyway - but the lack of interest in weapons and technique. I don't think it is going to convince the sort of men who read Andy McNab that women can write about war. You'd have to enter into the male psyche to find out why they like the idea of war, and if you did that, would you still be writing as a woman? All the same, I'm going to keep trying, and I'm sure you are too.

[jun_yumemakura]

Thank you for this review Fiona. I enjoyed reading your opinion very much, even though I haven't finished the book yet. I fit into all three types of reader that you described. So, this book is for me. I love well written historical stories, and it's even better if they dealt with male/male love relationship. The very reason why I am so passionate about Alexander's world.

I just started the book, so I am not in Troy yet, but I agree with you. I cannot imagine Patroclus for not fighting. Maybe that is because I have always shadowed Achilles and Patroclus over Alexander and Hephaistion, and I definitely cannot imagine Hephaistion not fighting by Alexander in the battle field.

It is good to know that the ending is better than Homer. I would like to see the hope at the end, and it seems that this book would give it me.

[fiona13]

Thank you, I'm glad you enjoyed reading it. I think I am all three kinds of reader too, so it is a treat for us, apart from some bits! This is it, you simply can't imagine Hephaistion not fighting by Alexander's side, or at least being there in the same battle, and we are so used to thinking of Patroclus as a sort of Homeric Hephaistion. This Patroclus is fine as a child and a young man, but as an adult, he is just not what we expect.

[kizzikat]

Part 1
Hi, Fiona, thanks very much for this review. I only got the book this week and so far am only up to page 40, so I can only comment on this so far.

So far, I would disagree with you about the book presenting a convincing archaic world. There are some howling anachronisms - carpets and tapestries in Peleus's Bronze Age megaron? And lemon in the food (from India/China)? I thought Madeline Miller was a history teacher!There is very little description about every day items, about what the world looks like to bring it alive, apart from the food. I want to know what sort of clothes they are wearing, the chair Peleus is sitting on, the countryside, the quality of the light etc

[fiona13]

D'you know, I did wonder about the lemons. I had a feeling they were one of the (many!) things Alexander is reputed to have introduced into Greece. I am glad you thought this too, and we shall put this down as an anachronism - not good! (But actually I think she teaches classics rather than history) Carpets and tapestries, I just don't know - I suppose I just thought that if they had woven clothes, they could have had woven stuff for the home, though now you mention it, tapestries does sound a bit too much. I see what you mean about the details of everyday items

[kizzikat]

Part 2

[fiona13]

Very interesting indeed! It's great, this, getting someone else's perspectives! I don't know why, but as soon as I saw the book was written in the first person, I assumed it was Patroclus. Never even crossed my mind that it might not be. But it is very true, it is a long time until we find out for sure. About the dice, I didn't mean the dice he treasured, the posh ones that he tried so hard to keep, I was thinking of earlier ( and did not describe what I meant very well) when he is hanging around at Tyndareus', for days, with only a toy horse, and a soldier takes pity on him and lends him his dice. I thought a sense of boredom came through strongly there, but that might just be because he was cooped up away from home.

[kizzikat]

Part 3

[fiona13]

A great point, and one I completely forgot to mention - what is it that Achilles sees to like in Patroclus? He seems to have nothing going for him at all. He is undersized, haunted and desperately unhappy. I can see what he sees in Achilles - as you say, there is some idolising going on there - and I do feel very sorry for him, he has had a terrible life so far, but just the fact that he does not, like the other boys, vie for Achilles' attention doesn't seem much to make Achilles choose him.