"Penelopiad" by Margaret Atwood

My very first introduction to Margaret Atwood came in mid-1990s when I lived in London and found every single magazine praising her latest novel "Alias Grace" (which eventually won Booker prize) and that novel was really good. I mean, so good that I bought several copies and gave them away, Atwood was my major discovery back than. Along the way I also read "The Handmaid's Tale", "The Robber Bride" and "Blind Assasin"  but something about the last title bothered me a little bit, I don't recall exactly what it was (the main character?) in any case, something cooled off a bit inside me and Atwood was from than on not in the front but more at the back of my mind as something to check out eventually again. Obviously I loved her writing - she had very recognizable voice - but got distracted elsewhere and now this book is a long overdue.

I was raised on Greek mythology - not that anyone really pointed me to that direction, I came to it completely by myself and loved the interaction between gods and humans - so naturally something like "Penelopiad" would appeal to me. It would still be on my to-read list if it didn't simply happened that book found me - without any particular plan or reason, I browsed the ship's library and there it was, "Penelopiad" like I just ordered it. Well, this was obviously the sign and I dived immediately, purring with pleasure to hear that familiar voice again - Atwood really has her own way with words, slightly surrealistic perhaps, she is kind of writer you can quickly recognise almost like a voice in a crowd. Not unlike "liad" and the "Odyssey", this "Penelopiad" approaches Greek mythology from different angle, this is the story of faithful Penelope told from her perspective and interspersed with chilling chorus of slave girls. Anonymous, voiceless slave girls who eventually all got killed by Odyssey upon his return home and trough centuries we were left to believe this was some kind of punishment but Atwood has different version to tell. She turns to other sources beside Homer for more information who Penelope might have been and what was her family background, until the real person from flesh & blood emerges from fantastic world of mythology. It would fit neatly on the shelf with "Homer's daughter" by Robert Graves and "Cassandra" by Christa Wolf except that in my world Atwood rates higher than they do. She is not just re-creating far gone days of Bronze age but weaving the magic web of fantasy and in fact the whole novel reads like a fantasy novel, just dreamy and cloudy, wonderful. Come to think of it, of all the writers that I know, Atwood is perhaps closest to great Italo Calvino.