Yes, shamefully Booktok had introduced me to this masterpiece. Promise of a boy's love story was such a shallow way to present this absolute masterpiece - the retelling of the epic legend of Achilles.
Song of Achilles - Madeline Miller
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Summary
The song of Achilles is a retelling of the legend of demigod Achilles - born to a king of Phthia Peleus and a sea nymph Thetis. Achilles is know to be the strongest and best warrior (of Trojan War).
We all know the saying "it's his Achilles' heel" as in "it's his only weakness". In Slovakia, it is a regular saying used quite often, and I had known about Achilles' heel way sooner than I learned about Greek Mythology as a whole.
Anyway. The story of the main character of Homer's Iliad is told by his "companion" Patroclus, who is the official narrator of the whole book.
From early childhood, to the last days of the Trojan War, with beautiful descriptions and awful gruesome details.
It is a story of love, pride, intrigues... It has everything. Madeline Miller painted us a truthful picture of how things were back in Ancient Greece and she did not mince her words. It was raw in the best way possible.
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About the author
Quoting from the book: "Madeline Miller has BA and MA from Brown University in Latin and Ancient Greek, and has been teaching both for the past nine years. She has also studied at the Yale School of Drama, specialising in adapting classical tales to a modern audience.
The Song of Achilles is her first novel."
This was my introduction to Madeline Miller and I was not disappointed. Well, not too much anyway. The story had a tendency to drag, but it is more likely to be my laziness to read after a looong break from books that the book. In the end, based on all the colorful tabs, I can see that I had fun nevertheless.
I am not done with Madeline Miller - Circe is ready in my suitcase, waiting for me to pick it up on my vacation.
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Technical side
Publisher: BLOOMSBURY PUBLISHING
Year: 2012
ISBN: 978-1-4088-2198-5
Pages: 352
Narrator: Patroclus, the main character
Bought: ???
Read: 17. 07. 2024
This book is divided into 33 chapters, it doesn't use any special divider between scenes or parts of chapters.
For quotation marks/speech, the book uses ‘…’ which I hate with passion.
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Rating
I loved the book. I adored it from start to finish and the ending left me looking at a blank wall for ten minutes, smiling like a dumbass.
It worked for me. I was the target audience.
I learned new things about ancient Greece, I had finally learned about Achilles and Patroclus the way God intended (😂) and thanks to a lot of unknown words my vocabulary grew.
The only thing I was confused about was Patroclus' feelings about Briseis. But... maybe the confusion is... better for me.
There are sexual themes, death, gay panic...
All in all I wholeheartedly RECOMMEND this book, it is a must read and it gets a place on my "showing off" bookshelf.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
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Colorful tabs
I... jumped on the wave of "booktok girlies" and I went and bought colorful pens and colorful tabs to highlight some important information, descriptions, funny moments, quotes and sad parts, or parts that I loved.
I got into it so hard, I started doing it with all the books I am reading.
At first it was "scary". I was taught to NEVER write in my books. But they are my books and I want to go through the pages and see what stuck with me or what I considered important. Have it as a bookmark so I can access it anytime I pick the book up and get thrown right back into it.
Because there is nothing sadder about books than not remembering what you loved about it.
So let me pick a few tabs and write them down, and also write down the meaning of some words I learned.
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Quotes:
Page 28:
This was the cruelty of adults. Do you understand?
Page 79:
And perhaps it is the greater grief, after all, to be left on earth, when another is gone.
Page 147:
Useless information is my curse, I'm afraid.
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Vocabulary:
- Therapon - companion of lower rank, comrade, attendant, aide Synonym: servant, slave
- supplication - the action of asking or begging for something earnestly or humbly
- Aristos Achaion - the best of the Greeks
- egyptian kohl - eye cosmetic, traditionally made by grinding stibnite for use similar to that of charcoal in mascara. It is widely used throughout the world, typically as eyeliner to contour or darken the eyelids
- ewer - a large jug with a wide mouth, formerly used for carrying water
- augurs - noun(in ancient Rome) a religious official who observed natural signs, especially the behaviour of birds, interpreting these as an indication of divine approval or disapproval of a proposed action.
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