Thursday, March 17, 2011

Review: Waiting for Odysseus

Title: Waiting for Odysseus
Author: Clemence McLaren
Release Date: March 1, 2000
Publisher: Atheneum
Cover Designer: Michael Nelson
Age Audience: YA
Genre: Mythology
Summary: Odysseus. His epic tale has been told countless times, but rarely is it heard through the voices of the women who loved and served him. Penelope, Circe, Athena, Eurycleia: Theirs are the silent voices, the voices of longing, waiting, strength. They are the women who moved him and motivated him. And now they shed new light on his age-old journey.

My Review:

This was a good book. The writing was catchy and easy to follow, so it will only take you a couple hours or so to read this (the only reason I took days was because I was distracted by a nonfiction book, Yes Man). It was interesting to see Odysseus' story told from all different points of view. To me, the most interesting part of the book was the portion told from the goddess Athena's point of view.

This book wasn't completely mythologically accurate, but at least the author said she changed some things in the afterword. Esther M. Friesner, for example, completely botches up Greek myths in her books Nobody's Princess and Nobody's Prize (but she is still a very good writer). And believe it or not, the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series is also pretty mythologically inaccurate. So the point is, don't base your knowledge of Greek myths on YA fiction.

My only criticism of this book is that McLaren kind of brushed over the actual Trojan War. I think it would have been really interesting to read about and was disappointed that the author skipped it. But, that could have to do with the fact that this is based on The Odyssey rather than The Iliad.

Overall, this was a great book, and if you liked it I recommend Aphrodite's Blessings and Inside the Walls of Troy, also by this author.

1 comment:

  1. I read some of this book before and I believe I also like Athena's narrative.

    ReplyDelete

I read and appreciate every comment, so thank you in advance!

**This blog is an award-free zone.**