Review: The Song of Achilles

The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

WOW.

This was brilliantly written, and so elegant, considering the subject. Well worth all the praise I've been seeing!

Honest and captivating from the start, this story re-tells the life of the Greek hero Achilles in a much more accessible fashion than the old classic, The Iliad. We get to read about him as a young boy, as he trains, and as he falls in love with our narrator, Patroclus.

I'll admit it - I was worried. I knew there was going to be a focus on this romance, and knowing how brutal things were in that age, I was concerned there would be graphic content that would be too much for me. But this love story is told so elegantly and with great respect, and it really warmed my heart. Patroclus is the softer of the two - he's an exiled prince with no taste for killing, whereas Prince Achilles is destined to be the greatest warrior of the Greeks. But while there is this difference between them, the relationship is one of equals, and I really loved the way their story was told.

The first half of the story is fairly light, as the two learn and grow. Then begins the Trojan War, and we all have an idea of what went down there. The detail in this story is meticulous, and I actually learned a lot about the legend that I never knew. I could not stop reading. It was absolutely captivating as they dealt with one thing after another, and the brutalities of war are again described in such a way that the picture is clear with only a few words.

The only thing I really took issue with was the way it ended - I was curious the whole time, knowing how the legend ends, but it went in an unexpected direction that left me more puzzled than delighted. Fitting, perhaps, but it ended things on a bit of a strange note for me.

On the whole, this is a sweet love story set against the backdrop of the Trojan war. It's an easy way to get to know the legend, and it tells the truth of things concisely and with a sophistication that makes this a very classy novel. Well worth reading.

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