Song of achilles gay book
Book review — The Song of Achilles
This is a manual about exactly what the title says. Singing the ballad of Achilles. From the point of view of his companion/boyfriend Patroclus.
First of all: spoiler sharp. By which I mean I will not care for spoilers in this book. This story is thousands of years old, after all.
So, I’m sorry to say that Patroclus dies, and Achilles dies too. The Greeks are renowned for their tragedies after all.
The first question (the one I asked myself when picking up this novel after reading about it for months on tumblr) is then: what’s the point? We already know the story, isn’t that the whole purpose of reading a book?
Well, yes and no. It’s a tough question to address, but I’ll endeavor my best. If you have any interest in Greek mythology (like I do) or possess just lived prolonged enough to spot at least one of the bajillion adaptations of the Trojan war that Hollywood has produced, you’ll be familiar with the story at least enough to recognize it.
But this book. This book, man. It outdoes all of those.
At the terminate of
The Song of Achilles, Madeline Miller
Rating: No Good Genre: Fantasy Representation: Gay men, Greek/Mediterranean cast Trigger Warnings: rape, rape culture, explicit sex scenes, child sexualization, exotified ethnicity, character death
I stopped reading The Tune of Achilles a third of the way through. I started the novel with high hopes, as The Song of Achilles promised to be an exploration of the idealistic relationship between Achilles and Patroclus—taking what The Iliad only implied and putting it to paper.
Here's what I was hoping for: an honest exploration of the ancient Greek conception of sexuality, taking into account that homoeroticism that we today would dial “homosexual” was not considered part of one's sexual identity, simply what one did (in addition to taking a wife, of course). What would a boy growing up in (mythical) ancient Greece, a land where even Zeus took male lovers, assess about his own amorous and sexual desires? Does he desire only men (in The Song of Achilles this is true of both Achilles and Patroclus), and what does
Goodreads
Summary: The Song of Achilles is a book written by Madeline Miller and is the story of Achilles and Patroclus&#; connection. The book is written in first person from Patroclus&#; signal of view. In the guide we are told more about the background of Patroclus, how Patroclus and Achilles met, their training by Chiron, and the Trojan war. It is similar in setting to the Iliad and the Odyssey. The gods and man conspire and battle together and in the complete there is always tragedy.
My take: The book is beautifully written. Ms. Miller is an exceptional writer. Her way of depicting what is happening makes the scenes in my head so much more detailed. Her description of the gods was also very well done. I could see Thetis, Apollo and Chiron so clearly I had to stop several times to soak in the visions. The story was also very entertaining and all the characters involved in the book were very adv described and developed. The obstacle I mostly had with this book was the story line, especially towards the end.
The commencement of the book tells us about Patroclus and his difficult
My Writing on Medium
A retelling of the love story of Achilles and Patroclus. The Song of Achilles follows the story from Patroclus’ point of view, from boyhood, charting his friendship and eventual association with Achilles, all the way until their tragic end in the Trojan War. (And I’m not going to apologise for spoilers. That would be silly.) Not a recent publication, but I loved it a lot, so I’m going to stick a review here.
It’s taken me a little while to process this one. Not because I had problems with it, but because the emotions are so huge, they took a little longer to digest than normal sized non-mythic emotions. It is a joy as a story, and also caused me to reflect on the use of legendary emotions in storytelling, and the role tragic stories play in modern literature. As a love story, it is beautiful and well studied, and those epic emotions are heartbreaking at times. I admire the larger than existence quality of it—Miller really captures the mythic character of the originals, while making it all much more personal and focused. The writing style is simple but lyrical.
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