Title: Vintage Atwood
Review: It is the distress of Penelope, wife of Odysseus, that is the subject of Margarat Atwood's latest book. A daughter of King Icarius by one of his concubines, a minor courtesan, auctioned off to the great warrior.The prose contains the best of Atwood's spare, earthy, plucky language. The story is a tragedy, narrated to us by the disembodied spirit of Penelope, strangled along with her maids by the same cord, by her husband, to join the corpses of her suitors and lovers. They, butchered, after the return of Odysseus from his long campaign at Troy.Atwood trancends easily classical and modern spheres and reference points, maintaining an ironic connection to the modern world, the plight of women.. but she never loses her sardonic wit. The mood is breezy and cheerful, but with an unmistakable brine from its propellants of desire and vengeance. She floats away on a boat harnessed to the moon in a starry majesty, accompanied by her foil and rival Helen.A remarkable book, one of Atwood's best.
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