I'm reading Madeline Miller's The Song of Achilles having received the novel as a very kind gift for Teacher's Day from a generous colleague. It's not a book I would have chosen to read, but I feel sort of compelled to do so. I find much to admire in the writing, so far, at least. Yet for all the virtues of the text I haven't been able to connect so far.
As one might guess from the title, it's a re-telling of the story of the great hero of Greek mythology, this time from the perspective of his friend Patroclus. I'm seven chapters in and the two are now around thirteen-years-old and the homoerotic aspect of their relationship is gathering pace, but not doing much for me, I'm afraid. It isn't that I disapprove exactly, but I've never found Achilles even a remotely interesting character and in this telling he's still not coming alive for me, except as an idea.
Mind you, there's a lot of the novel left to go and I've learnt to avoid rushing to judgement on any text, so I'll just crack on and hope to get drawn in at a deeper level than just admiration for finely turned sentences.
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