I've had another short holiday. I broke up with my boyfriend, so I had to move house again. I'm in a lovely flat now with a good friend and all's good again in the world. In 2011 I read 36 books and in 2012 I manages to read 42. I'm quite impressed, but I hope 2013 will be better.
The first book of the year is an excellent start. Madeline Miller's first novel The Song of Achilles is a re-telling of the Greek Mythology around half-god Achilles and his friend Patroclus, who has always been undervalued but who's the centre of this novel.
The story will be familiar to many people. Some, like me, love Greek mythology and have read about Achilles and the Trojan War, others have watched Troy (2004) with Brad Pitt as Achilles. In any case, this book gives us a different point-of-view. We are now looking at the events through the eyes of Achilles' lover Patroclus, who isn't a hero, or a half-god, he's an exiled prince whose mother was close to being retarded and whose father has always hated the ground he walked on because he saw him as weak.
"But fame is a strange thing. Some men gain glory after they die, while others fade. What is admired in one generation is abhorred in another." (Miller 347)Achilles, however, saw something in him. Patroclus blossoms and the Trojan War suddenly because a love story that isn't centred on Paris and Helen. I hope that this isn't Miller's final book, because I would love for her to rewrite all the Greek mythologies, there are so many beautiful stories hidden in there. I hope that Odysseus tale will be next, but who knows...
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