The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller
My rating: 1 of 5 stars
I read this book in early February of this year and I have been dreading writing a review ever since for two reasons.
For one, according to the reviews and ratings of it mine is a very unpopular opinion.
Secondly, I’m not sure I can keep my sarcasm in check, but I will try my best and as a result turn this into a very boring and dull review…maybe.
The Song of Achilles has been on my to-read list for a very long time and I finally took the opportunity to read it now that I have finished grad school and I’m more in control of what I get to read.
It kept popping up, especially after the author’s second novel, Circe was published, and it is one of a friend’s favourite books. I’m also very partial to Greek mythology, although in recent years (decades) I haven’t had the time to do any sort of personal research to become more familiar with it.
So, I thought what do I have to lose? Well, the short answer would be my patience and my ability to understand why I couldn’t stand this book, while everyone else was so enamoured by it.
What was wrong with me? Did I miss something? Did I get a knock-off book that looked almost identical to the actual book that is so amazing? Did I forget how to read in English. These were all very viable questions that were running through my head as I checked out other readers’ ratings and reviews.
Here is the thing: it started out so well. I was excited to take this book on my way to and from the gym, spending my commute reading and I really thought this was going to be an amazing story all the way through.
But alas, when you start looking at a book with a slight sneer on your face and the idea of mopping your apartment floors is more appealing than reading a certain book, then you know there is a problem.
Please don’t get me wrong. I had no problem whatsoever with the nature of the love portrayed. On the contrary, I loved it and I’m starting to see more books that stray from the classic boy-girl story lines, which is refreshing to see and quite frankly about time.
It’s just that I wasn’t sure what was going on with the characters. I think that has mostly to do with the writing style the author chose to use, but more on that in just a minute.
I get that some of the characters were supposed to reflect the heaviness and melancholy of their fate/destiny/lot in life, but there was nothing else. There were no characters that provided a real contrast to it.
Also, the reader gets to read quite a bit about Achilles, yet I felt completely clueless about this character. Nothing was ever concretely revealed about him.
Characters were kept at an arm’s length. They had little depth and just weren’t enough to make up for my next problem I had with this story.
The biggest question I have is what was the author trying to accomplish in regards to the writing style she chose. What was the desired end result?
It got confusing, because as I admitted above, I don’t have that much knowledge of Greek mythology, but I am very much interested in it.
So, when you have a very complex topic, such as Greek mythology, it is important that the story pertaining to the topic is not lost in semantics. It is already difficult enough to keep everything from getting very confusing, don’t start throwing a lyrical writing style into the mix, which came across as condescending.
The writing style reminded me of Homer’s The Iliad/The Odyssey. if the author wants to write another epic poem about Greek mythology, why not, but be honest about it and don’t confuse the readers with a novel that gets lost in an homage to an ancient storyteller.
Overall, this story had great potential, but I thought it got lost in the author’s attempt to create something that was to rival the ancient writings. The way this story was executed just made me feel stupid and I didn’t enjoy it.
It’s a big pass from me on this one.
