I actually would recommend THE PENELOPIAD. Margaret plays with Homer's mythic archetypes in charming and inventive ways. It's more BROTHER WHERE ART THOU than Konchalovsky's ODYSSEY (which ain't necessarily a bad thing) and, at just under 200 pages, constitutes a pleasant afternoon's reading.
Of course, I don't have to tell YOU there's a rich haul of possibility in exploring the women of the Classical world ... Margaret's Penelope is (in many respects) a typical Atwood heroine (shy but sarcastic, withdrawn but sensual). The writer's elaborations on the heroine's tale (drawn principally from Rieu's ODYSSEY and Graves' GREEK MYTHS) are clever and the observations about Odysseus she places in Penelope's mouth ("his clothes were rustic; he had the manners of a small-town big-shot, and had already expressed several complicated ideas that others considered peculiar") are unceasingly clever.
no subject
Of course, I don't have to tell YOU there's a rich haul of possibility in exploring the women of the Classical world ... Margaret's Penelope is (in many respects) a typical Atwood heroine (shy but sarcastic, withdrawn but sensual). The writer's elaborations on the heroine's tale (drawn principally from Rieu's ODYSSEY and Graves' GREEK MYTHS) are clever and the observations about Odysseus she places in Penelope's mouth ("his clothes were rustic; he had the manners of a small-town big-shot, and had already expressed several complicated ideas that others considered peculiar") are unceasingly clever.