Title: The Song of Achilles
Author: Madeline Miller
Date Read: January 29th 2018
Published: September 20th 2011 @ Bloomsbury
Genre: Mythology Retelling/Historical Fiction
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
"Name one hero who was happy... You can't. They never let you be famous and happy... I'm going to be the first. Swear it."
"Why me?"
"Because you're the reason. Swear it."
"I swear it."
I've been putting off reading this book for EVER because I was afraid it was going to make me cry. I knew that I would like it (I'm not even going to pretend I'm not a huge Classics-loving cliché) but it was one of those stories that I felt like I had to read at exactly the right time. Which usually means never, but we did it!
This is a beautifully written and exquisitely wrought love story, all wound up in the dangers of pride and ambition and honour. What makes this romance work so well is that the story doesn't shy away from the awfulness of the characters: Achilles, in true heroic fashion, cannot see past his own vanity, and Patroclus leans so hard into the expectation of his impotence that you want to scream. And yet they love each other so much that it costs them both everything. The narrative doesn't try to make apologies for their behaviour or paint it as endearing; instead, it shows how both characters are so wrapped up in one another that they cannot stand to fault the other for their obvious flaws.
No one save for the boys' old mentor Chiron is exempt from this standard of being terrible in some way or another, and I think that largely had to do with the fact that the story is told from Patroclus' point of view, and he saw Chiron as a father figure and a protector. Which leads into one of my favourite aspects of the novel, which is Greek customs and ideas surrounding the patriarchal line. Fatherhood is such a big theme throughout the story, and I loved seeing how particularly Patroclus interacted with these figures, knowing that being subservient to Achilles made him a less-than-ideal image of masculinity.
The only reason that I didn't give The Song of Achilles five stars is because of its pacing. I can imagine it's tough to boil so many years (about 20 years from start to finish, if my math is right??) down into one concise and well-flowing novel, and I don't know that Miller achieved it this time around. The middle of the story felt like it dragged on without much happening and without any great poignancy to the scenes, and then the end felt like it wrapped itself up too quickly in only vague impressions of events. In the end, though, I think the slow and methodical character development that defines the first half of the story more than makes up for the ending.
While this wasn't exactly as amazing as I hoped it would be, I hyped this book up for myself for so long that I think it probably couldn't have lived up to my expectations. Still, it was beautiful and heartbreaking and I would definitely recommend.
This is a beautifully written and exquisitely wrought love story, all wound up in the dangers of pride and ambition and honour. What makes this romance work so well is that the story doesn't shy away from the awfulness of the characters: Achilles, in true heroic fashion, cannot see past his own vanity, and Patroclus leans so hard into the expectation of his impotence that you want to scream. And yet they love each other so much that it costs them both everything. The narrative doesn't try to make apologies for their behaviour or paint it as endearing; instead, it shows how both characters are so wrapped up in one another that they cannot stand to fault the other for their obvious flaws.
No one save for the boys' old mentor Chiron is exempt from this standard of being terrible in some way or another, and I think that largely had to do with the fact that the story is told from Patroclus' point of view, and he saw Chiron as a father figure and a protector. Which leads into one of my favourite aspects of the novel, which is Greek customs and ideas surrounding the patriarchal line. Fatherhood is such a big theme throughout the story, and I loved seeing how particularly Patroclus interacted with these figures, knowing that being subservient to Achilles made him a less-than-ideal image of masculinity.
The only reason that I didn't give The Song of Achilles five stars is because of its pacing. I can imagine it's tough to boil so many years (about 20 years from start to finish, if my math is right??) down into one concise and well-flowing novel, and I don't know that Miller achieved it this time around. The middle of the story felt like it dragged on without much happening and without any great poignancy to the scenes, and then the end felt like it wrapped itself up too quickly in only vague impressions of events. In the end, though, I think the slow and methodical character development that defines the first half of the story more than makes up for the ending.
While this wasn't exactly as amazing as I hoped it would be, I hyped this book up for myself for so long that I think it probably couldn't have lived up to my expectations. Still, it was beautiful and heartbreaking and I would definitely recommend.
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