The Last Song of Penelope by Claire North
I would like to thank Nazia from Orbit for an advance copy o this novel in exchange for a fair and honest review
Publisher – Orbit
Published – Out Now
Price – £20 hardback £11.49 Kindle eBook
Many years ago, Odysseus sailed to war and never returned. For twenty years his wife Penelope and the women of Ithaca have guarded the isle against suitors and rival kings. But peace cannot be kept forever, and the balance of power is about to break . . .
A beggar has arrived at the Palace. Salt-crusted and ocean-battered, he is scorned by the suitors - but Penelope recognises in him something terrible: her husband, Odysseus, returned at last. Yet this Odysseus is no hero. By returning to the island in disguise, he is not merely plotting his revenge against the suitors - vengeance that will spark a civil war - but he's testing the loyalty of his queen. Has she been faithful to him all these years? And how much blood is Odysseus willing to shed to be sure?
The song of Penelope is ending, and the song of Odysseus must ring through Ithaca's halls. But first, Penelope must use all her cunning to win a war for the fate of the island and keep her family alive, whatever the cost . . .
Warning this book is the third party of The Songs of Penelope trilogy starting with Ithaca and House of Odysseus
With retellings there is of course often a lack of surprise especially when the source is well known. The focus is then on what is an author adding to the mix. With Greek mythology there has been lot of reinterpretation of the women in the myths with a modern feminist perspective. What though I’ve been very impressed with Claire North’s The Songs of Penelope trilogy has been the exploration of how the myths and masculinity are explored now in the concluding instalment The Last Song of Penelope we have the well known conclusion to the Odyssey and manages to find an unexpected direction neatly encompassing the series’ themes and creating a beautiful bittersweet conclusion to the series.
Penelope, Queen and wife of Odysseus has now spent twenty years navigating a hundred suitors vying for her hand and access to the throne. The ambiguity as to whether Odysseus is dead has created an uncertain tension. Penelope and her maids though have created their own network of spies and warriors to aid her when Ithaca is at stake. But now a strange beggar has arrived in the island shores; Penelope’s son Telemachus is catching furtively, and the Goddess Athena has arrived to ensure her preferred direction of history takes effect and Penelope may find all she has worked for is about to be taken away from her.
In many ways I’ve been dreading this conclusion as over the course of the series I’ve got to know Penelope who previously I’m more aware as merely someone who waited for her husband, In North’s series instead we see Penelope as an character in her own right able to navigate intrigue, play many sides and at the same time North has mixed in the tales of Helen and Clytemnestra alongside the Goddesses Hera and Aphrodite who in many ways are blamed for the events leading to the war of Troy. How men see Penelope as a possession and how women who are felt to push the boundaries of the male world get punished. While Penelope has had victories there have been prices paid. Hence as we come to the end of the saga the fear rises that Penelope cannot escape the fate coming in the form of her husband. So it is really interesting that the most famous part of the story’s ending – the bow and the suitors is just over a third in the novel. North uses this in a fascinating way to explore a different kind of dangerous masculinity not when men like to be violent and take power but when they fight for honour.
When I was a little geek Odysseus was viewed as a cool character to hear stories about. Wily, brains more than brawn and defeats the Trojans with a horse before more adventures. Interestingly the horrific rapes and murder at the fall of Troy get overlooked in primary school and the various liaisons Odysseus has with Circe and Calypso too were not mentioned as ultimately, it’s a tale the powers that be determined instead where husband meets faithful wife and all is well at the end. The King cannot be unfaithful, and the wife must wait and wait loyally. How the Greek myths have been re-edited and used by so many cultures to enforce other types of stereotypes and messages is not a new thing only happening in the current retellings. These are stories you would hear in sanitised forms at an early age and promotes certain beliefs. If you explore the actual myths, you then find the pieces omitted and get steadily horrified at what the ‘heroes’ of old actually were doing.
As readers of North series, we now known Penelope is a main character our fear is all her wiles and guile will be lost but actually the story also makes Odysseus a main character in this instalment, and he is an equally complex and initially unlikeable figure. We sense conflict and bloodshed to come as he becomes aware of the suitors vying for the throne what north delivers swiftly and brutally is another part of the same tale. Where Odysseus and Telemachus are driven by a sense of honour and probity to do something truly horrible to people we have known via the earlier stories as key characters. North makes us see the aftermath of this and any ideas of ‘honour’ are soon destroyed and then Penelope and Odysseus must both deal with the political earthquake of the events and what form their relationship is now in. We have two equally powerful characters finally able to speak to one another (or at least try to) interspersed with sieges and battles and the machinations of the gods.
The key here is that Odysseus is not doing this for a land-grab or because he is pathologically cruel as some of the earlier villains in the series have been. Here we have someone doing what he has been taught to do and what in many ways his son as has been taught to do to. Telemachus is disturbing hostile to the idea that any woman can be in charge and has no respect for his mother even though she is a Queen. Odysseus is shocked to see what Penelope is capable of and that she is prepared to stand up to him and put a mirror of his recent actions to him. Their dialogue scenes are gorgeous, layered conversations of things unsaid, anger, shame and the question is raised can Penelope make her own case and what does that mean for her own role.
The power of stories to make men in particular act a certain way is a key theme in the story. Odysseus’ revenge on the suitors itself leads to more people seeking revenge on him. This is always the honourable thing to do., Everyone understands a war must be fought and people killed. But North regularly shows us the brutality and banality of a battle. People die just being in the wrong place. Great warriors can make mistakes or not be lucky forever. The contrast with Telemachus’ ideal of a dying in glory (which all the old stories he has been told have re-enforced) and the real thing is actually brutal and both Odysseus and his father Laertes start to suspect that their own upbringings have led their son to these erroneous conclusions. Other fathers and sons are featured on a similar path throughout the story. The regular reminder that The Iliad and the Odyssey have (particularly for British audiences) been used an example of what the correct thing to do is. Fight for honour to reclaim a queen; remove the unworthy from sight and that men clearly have more importance than women. The wider story starts to challenge this in a really interesting set of encounters and support the story’s final dimension – what the Greek Gods themselves are up to.
For the choice of narrator here Athena is our guide. A fascinating complex and enigmatic character we start to get to know. Unusually the Goddess of War and Wisdom where there is already a God of war in the form of Ares (who we also meet). Athena is intelligent, perceptive and incredibly reserved. Dry humour and unlikely to share her emptions. North though that Athena too is trapped by the stories shaping her world. She is a woman in a society of Gods where the men are seen as powerful. How can she gain acceptance - act more like a man? What we have though is Athena raising the idea that she has a way to challenge this orthodoxy and to which Odysseus is key, but Penelope will have an unexpected impact on the story too. Its a thread reminding us that stories can cast long shadows and be used for many purposes neatly coming back to the wider themes.
The Last Song of Penelope is a very satisfying and thoughtful conclusion to this trilogy of stories. It delivers unique spins on familiar characters and tackles how these stories have been used and the issues those perspectives have caused. Combined with North’s excellent writing and ability to make scenes come alive be they funny, tragic or poignant this is a strongly recommended read!
