a subversive reading??

It might not be one of her best written books, but Margaret Atwood's The Penelopiad makes an interesting read against The Odyssey. It retells The Odyssey from the perspective of Penelope and the twelve maids in an attempt to reclaim a bit of personality for poor ol' Penelope, who gets a bit of a raw deal in Homer's version! It's quite funny but if you ask me I might not say it's as cutting as it perhaps intends to be. It doesn't really create a new perspective but merely defends Penelope and the maids of Homer by giving them a bit more depth and a good dose of synicism. All the good ones (Helen, Eurycleia, Telemachus etc.) are irritating and unrealistic and the Gods aren't all they're cracked up to be, is the general take. Taster below to see if you're interested. It's an easy read and won't take very long to get through but it gave me a bit to think about:

"He was always so plausible. Many people have believed that his version of events was the true one, give or take a few murders, a few beautiful seductresses, a few one-eyed monsters. Even I believed him, from time to time. I knew he was tricky and a liar. I just didn't think he would play his tricks and try out his lies on me. Hadn't I been faithful? ... And what did I amount to, once the official version gained ground? An edifying legend. A stick used to beat other women with.

...

"Day after day I would climb up to the top floor of the palace and look out over the harbour. Day after day there was no sign. Sometimes there were ships, but never the ship I longed to see.

Rumours came, carried by other ships. Odysseus and his men had got drunk at their first port of call and the men had mutinied, said some; no, said others, they'd eaten a magic plant that had caused them to lose their memories, and Odysseus had saved them by having them tied up and carried onto the ships. Odysseus had been in a fight with a giant one-eyed Cyclops, said some; no, it was only a one-eyed tavern keeper, said another, and the fight was over non-payment of the bill. Some of the men had been eaten by cannibals, said some; no, it was just a brawl of the usual kind, said others, with ear-bitings and nosebleeds and stabbings and eviscerations. Odysseus was the guest of a goddess on an enchanted isle, said some; she'd turned his men into pigs - not a hard job in my view - but had turned them back into men because she'd fallen in love with him and was feeding him unheard-of delicacies prepared by her own immortal hands, and the two of them made love deliriously every night; no, said others, it was just an expensive whorehouse, and he was sponging off the Madam"