The Song of Achilles: A Novel
By: Madeline Miller / Narrated By: Frazer Douglas
Length: 11 hrs and 15 mins
Sheer poetry, this!
Though Frazer Douglas kinda threw me at the beginning, giving Patroclus and Achilles the voices of grown men even as they were but tykes, his narration grew on me. And when the two are older and are struggling through the Trojan War, Douglas’s majestic tones provide The Song of Achilles with just the sweeping grandeur the story deserves.
Madeline Miller crafted a truly LOVELY book about the gods and pride and love and war. It’s a story of boyhood friendships that turn into the truest love. It’s about loyalty and wonder and, like Miller’s next book, Circe, it’s epic. Unlike Circe, however, it reads like poetry. I was trying to figure out why this book should be written more elegantly, but I s’pose I shall just take it as it is, and I shall enjoy it as such.
Because, really! What beautiful language! Plus, Miller doesn’t make the gods, or Achilles, caricatures. They come down to our level, and we can understand their motives, their ways, their wiles.
And we can understand their pride (This means you, Achilles!). And we can understand their good and pure hearts (Yes, I’m looking at YOU, Patroclus!). It was sooooo refreshing that this, The Song of Achilles, winds up being about love and friendship, loyalty and devotion—something that is often lacking in dramatic mythology. I’m used to mythology being about gods filled with hubris and rage, and mortals reaching beyond their due and suffering grievously for it. So to listen to this story about Patroclus and his journey with Achilles, which starts when he’s but an exiled boy, and follows their young manhood to their studies with Chiron, and winds up with them outside the walls of Troy? Magnificent! You can’t get a hero more pure of heart and intention than Patroclus!
NATURALLY, both this story and Circe had me hitting Wikipedia to learn the many variations of the myths, had me hitting Google for other sites that went into the stories in-depth. I looooove it when stories inspire me to learn more, much more!
Okay, okay, okay! So TOTALLY exciting book with just the right amount of sweetness, and certainly with its share of bitterness. And oh! my! god(s)! I am soooooooo ready for Madeline Miller to set another book loose into the world. It can’t happen soon enough, and I wait with bated breath!
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