THE SONG OF ACHILLES BY MADELINE MILLER || #reviewfriday

 I’m not usually a big fan of mythological fiction but I thank every one of the Greek and non-Greek gods that I decided to give this one a try. The Song of Achilles is one of the few novels that managed to shake me to the core and affect me in a way that I can’t even describe. All I can say is, I cried me a river reading it. It was simultaneously heart-warming and heart-breaking. And it was a book that stayed with me long after I read it.

      

Title: Song Of Achilles
Author: Madeline Miller

Genre: Mythological fiction

Trigger Warnings: Rape, Violence

TSOA is a retelling of a small, insignificant part of Homer’s The Iliad. For those who don’t know what Iliad is, it is a Greek epic poem about the Trojan War (between the Greeks and the Trojans). Achilles, the Greek warrior, was one of the war-heroes in the Trojan War and one of the most important characters of The Iliad. Miller adapts the story of Achilles and retells it from the point of view of Patroclus, his best friend. She re-imagines their friendship as a romance between the two and succeeds in creating an absolutely brilliant love story.

                       Miller mostly stays true to the original Greek legend and the chronology of the incidents leading to the Trojan war is unaffected. The only artistic license she takes is in exploring the intimacy of the relationship between Greece’s greatest warrior and his best friend. TSOA begins with the young prince Patroclus being exiled to the kingdom of Myrimdons to be raised there. It is there that he meets Achilles, the son of Peleus, king of Myrimdons and the nymph goddess Thetis. The arrogant and perfect Achilles and the underdog Patroclus develops an unlikely friendship. They soon grow close and their friendship blooms into something more. Their love was not easy though. Amid war and vengeful opposition from Thetis, they always had a cloud of inevitable doom hanging over their love for each other. They knew it would never be a happily ever after for them even though that was all they ever wanted.

      

          The love story of Achilles and Patroclus is raw and devastating. Even with a little bit of knowledge about Greek mythology, the reader would know that a story with Achilles will be a tragedy. I have read The Iliad but never had any emotional attachment towards Achilles. But Miller transforms both Achilles and Patroclus to characters we can’t help but root for, even with all their shortcomings. Patroclus is endearing in his earnestness to overcome his fragilities and we sympathise with him as he survives in a culture that respects only heroes and Gods and he is neither.   Achilles, for all his vanity and arrogance, is a brave and righteous man and his intense love for Patroclus makes us wish that they would get the happy ending that they have always dreamed of.

          

            Madeline Miller spins an incredible tale of an unlikely romance in an extremely believable way in TSOA and keeps the reader hooked from the first line to the very last. Her writing is crisp, her plotlines are brilliantly constructed and perfectly executed and most importantly her facts and situations run parallel to the original tale making the adaptation an entirely conceivable one. I suggest everyone give this a try even if mythological fiction is not your thing. You definitely won’t regret it.

Rating: 4.5/5

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Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger || #reviewfriday

It was the summer break of my eleventh grade and I was curled up in front of the television with the worst case of reader's block. So then the great man that my Dad is, he gifted me this book in the hopes off alluring me back to the world of books.

It was a weird phase for me, I was long over my childhood Harry Potter era and just through my embarrassing Twilight era and beginning to question my credibility as a reader. I wanted to read a good book but nothing seemed to capture my attention. And Sci-fi books were never to my taste.

So I began reading this with a huge negative mentality. But before I was ten pages in, I was engrossed, enraptured and enthralled,once again bowing down to the master of books that is my Dad.

Name: The Time Traveler's Wife

Author: Audrey Niffenegger

Genre: Science fiction, Romance novel, Speculative Fiction.

I found it extremely difficult to believe that this was Niffenegger's first novel. The journey of the book is so smooth even with all the to and fro's in the time periods. The novel told in alternating first person focuses on the love story between Henry De Tample, a librarian and Claire Ann Abshire, an artist who makes paper sculptures. 

What makes their story unique is Henry's genetic disorder which makes him travel through time involuntarily. The first time Henry meets Claire he is twenty- eight. But the first time Claire meets Henry, he is in his forties. The transitions between Henry's time-travels and his day to day life is beautifully handled and at no time does the reader feel confused or out of the loop.

Also the novel is presented in a very normal way and never do we think of Henry's time-traveling as a super power or anything. It's treated by him as well as those around him in the same way one would treat a normal disorder. Even the readers won't be able to see Henry's disorder as anything else. Such kind of easy acceptance of a foreign concept can be achieved only by brilliant writing.

The common misconception that having the power to go back in our past and change things will make everything right is overridden in the book. Henry's helplessness and his inability to control his 'jumps', especially towards the end caused some weird sensations in me as a reader. In fact the latter half of the book contained a whole lot of emotional scenes which made me tear up quite a bit. This was one of those very few books, which I finished with tears in my eyes and a smile on my lips.

It is now a major motion picture. I can't say anything about the movie since I haven't seen it. But as a firm believer of "movies never do justice to the books" I would advice everyone to read the book before spending two hours in front of the idiot box. 

Also Niffengger has revealed that she is doing a second part for the book which will release in 2018. I was skeptical at first because I felt the book was complete on it's own. But I have been reading more and more about it and it seems to be good. It's the story of Henry's and Claire's daughter and the grape wine is that there is a love triangle. I am excited. I will catch you all in 2018 with a review of Alba De Tample's tale.

Rating- 5/5.

                                       

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