Petergiaquinta's Reviews > An Iliad

Reading Margaret Atwood's Penelopiad made me think of this book, a re-imagining of the events surrounding Homer's Iliad (and a bit of The Odyssey) as told through the voices of a number of the characters. I pulled this book off the "new" shelf at my public library, so I probably read it in 2006. It's okay, and if you like Homer then I assume you'd more or less like what Baricco is trying to do here. Nonetheless, there seem to be a number of diehard Iliad fanatics on GoodReads who are troubled by Barrico's monkeying with their sacred text, similar to how some readers of Atwood's Penelopiad rejected what she was doing in her book.

Me, I'm not bothered a bit. I'm aware that folks have been re-imagining the Greek myths and the stories of Homer for the past three millenia. (These same tight-ass readers must really get their panties in a bunch when they read Philoctetes--the nerve of that Sophocles guy! What's he think he's doing with Odysseus's character?!?)

I especially enjoyed Barrico's "Demodocus" chapter and keep a copy of it in my Odyssey files. Demodocus is the bard at the Phaeacian court of Alcinous where Odysseus finds himself near the end of his journeys. Demodocus sings the story of the Horse and the Fall of Troy, and as Odysseus listens he begins to weep. Barrico's retelling and expansion of the scene feels right to me, and it is powerfully done.