Exemplary book 2 of The Song of Penelope

 

 ⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑ This is what a Greek myth retelling should be. Fun, charming, intelligent and utterly entertaining. House of Odysseus is perfect in every way and such an amazing delight to give Penelope the attention she deserves. I am in no rush for Odysseus to return! Another 20 years, please.

This book is wholly about girl power - Hooray! Not angry, ugly, man-blaming, I'm-a-victim feminism but beautiful, strong, supportive and smart abilities of women. These qualities are what I hope to find each time I crack the spine of an ancient Greek retelling and I revelled in it, here.

What makes House of Odysseus shine is the genius of Penelope and her band of women warriors. Odysseus is not the only one in mythology to be gifted with such cunning. His lovely wife is equally blessed and, perhaps, more so as she must be far more subtle in deploying it. The Penelope of these books is the one I will always cherish. This is the Penelope I envisaged. The wider world of her supporting women, and even Laertes, is so well crafted, to set her off. Each boasting fully formed personalities and charms all their own to make this a stand out book on multiple levels.

Beyond Penelope's brilliance are two other characters of note - Aphrodite and Elektra. As our narrator, Aphrodite provides great levity and sarcasm whilst leaning the focus toward love, obviously, but is shrewder in her views than one might guess. She is insightful and generous in this book and the best representation of her as a Goddess I have ever read. Also impressive is Elektra. She never comes across well being of grumpy disposition and rather unlikeable. In House of Odysseus I see her truly for the first time. The weight she bears in her anger with her dead mother and the life she could have lead; unflagging support for her ailing brother, now the king of kings Orestes, makes her more human even if in a gruff way. I felt such empathy for her and feel I do know her now.

I hate for this series to end. The close of the book was a real sadness for me as I want Penelope and her ingenious ways of making the worst situation turn to her will carry on and on. But, it has been 20 years and Odysseus is nearing home. I hope Telemachus has grown up during his search for his father and that the next Goddess to narrate is kind to Penelope. I would bet Athena is up to bat, being the Goddess who favours Odysseus most. It will be a grim book, good, too, in many ways, but one I will devour with speed once published. No one can spin a yarn like the ancient Greeks but it takes modern writers to do justice to the little known women who linchpin these epic tales together. Sorry not give you a shout out, Helen, but it feels you've had enough attention being the woman 'who broke the world'. Though the beautiful dumb blonde she plays here is rather impressive. I hope you enjoy House of Odysseus as much as I did.