"The Penelopiad"

The Penelopiad: The Myth of Penelope and Odysseus (Margaret Atwood)

Boy, I wanted to like this book. It's a retelling of the Odyssey, from Penelope's point of view, with a backup Greek chorus of 12 of her maids who end up murdered when Odysseus finally comes home.
Unfortunately, there's a very basic problem with this premise, which is that Penelope wasn't on the Odyssey, and the author either can't or won't come up with anything nearly as interesting. Want to guess what Penelope was doing while Odysseus was out there? She sat at home worrying and watching the suitors eating all her food. Combine that with the Greek chorus ending up being pages of goofy poems I skipped and I was pretty disappointed with this book. The most amusing part ended up being the chapter titles, which is never a good sign.

Grade: C-