The Song of Achilles

I think I made a mistake by reading the Illead just before reading this, because I went into the story with a bunch of preconceived notions about the characters, and caught myself thinking, "This doesn't match Patroclus or Achilles as I know them," which I later realized was not a fair thought, because by the end, this story was very faithful to the source material, and it actually took until after I finished the book to respect that. So don't feel like you need to know the original first!!

On the whole, I thought it was a very entertaining and heartfelt book, and also a really cool modern way of learning about the ancient Greek stories. I learned afterwards that while the focus is on retelling The Illead from the perspective of Achilles' companion, Patroclus, it also draws from other ancient poems about Achilles and his family. I'd recommend it to anyone interested in the old stories but maybe not willing to be a Classics major and just wants a good story. It's very well written, and balances modern ideas and expectations against being true to the texts pretty masterfully.

To be honest, I struggled a bit at the beginning, because I wasn't very interested in kid-Patroclus. He struck me as mopey and uninteresting, and as I said, I expected him to be less wimpy, since in the Illead, he was probably one of the top ten most lethal warriors in the story. I also thought that the setup of a monogamous homosexual relationship was a bit too modern for ancient Greek culture, which favoured bisexuality and promiscuity.

All of my criticisms were actually addressed quite well later on, so I'm glad that I kept going, even though I wasn't enthusiastic at first.

The latter half of the book, I thoroughly enjoyed. Patroclus really comes into his own, and the invented backstory about what causes the strife between Achilles and the war's general Agamemnon was a brilliant twist on the original story. Ultimately, it actually felt like a great modernization of the ancient tale... Dare I say an improvement? It certainly makes Achilles a more sympathetic character, and does a lot of great storytelling about the inspirations behind the actions that take place in the poem. Some of it does feel a little too modern to me now and again, but stories need to evolve with the times so I didn't mind it.

And I loved the book's take on Odysseus. He's such a fun character, and Miller nails his spirit. So yeah, don't read the Classics first. If you really love this story, read the Classics after (Emily Wilson's versions).