Trail Therapy

If bravery is the wind that makes us soar like kites, fear is the string that keeps us from going too far.

Tress of the Emerald Sea, Brandon Sanderson

Do you lay bread on your tongue and think of me [...] do you swallow it like a sacrament, do you still get down on your knees?

Sophie Mackintosh, from 'Cursed Bread'

The Penelopiad || Margaret Atwood ★★★★★ Started: 28.07.2024 Finished: 29.07.2024 In Homer's account in The Odyssey, Penelope—wife of Odysseus and cousin of the beautiful Helen of Troy—is portrayed as the quintessential faithful wife, her story a salutary lesson through the ages. Left alone for twenty years when Odysseus goes off to fight in the Trojan War after the abduction of Helen, Penelope manages, in the face of scandalous rumors, to maintain the kingdom of Ithaca, bring up her wayward son, and keep over a hundred suitors at bay, simultaneously. When Odysseus finally comes home after enduring hardships, overcoming monsters, and sleeping with goddesses, he kills her suitors and—curiously—twelve of her maids. In a splendid contemporary twist to the ancient story, Margaret Atwood has chosen to give the telling of it to Penelope and to her twelve hanged maids, asking: "What led to the hanging of the maids, and what was Penelope really up to?" In Atwood's dazzling, playful retelling, the story becomes as wise and compassionate as it is haunting, and as wildly entertaining as it is disturbing. With wit and verve, drawing on the story-telling and poetic talent for which she herself is renowned, she gives Penelope new life and reality—and sets out to provide an answer to an ancient mystery. What a singularly brilliant exploration of Penelope, as she sees herself and as she is in turn seen by the twelve hanged maids. Atwood hasn't contented herself with depicting Penelope as the singular archetype of the faithful wife, but rather sought to illuminate the woman behind the myth. The writing, of course, is beyond reproach, and the approach to Penelope and the maidens as deities of their own matriarchal cult was a real highlight. And at only about two hundred pages, "The Penelopiad" is the very definition of "small but mighty" - I read it in a day and have been thinking about it ever since.