Fiction Reviews
The Last Song of Penelope
(2024) Claire North, Orbit, £20, hrdbk, 388pp, ISBN 978-0-356-51611-0
There is now quite a tradition of feminist retellings of ‘classic’ stories, embracing such diverse works as Vaishnavi Patel’s Kaikeyi, taken from the Ramayana, and Maria Dahvana Headley’s Beowulf. The Greek epics in particular have provided fertile prompts in this regard, for the likes of Madeline Miller (Circe) and, perhaps most notably, Margaret Atwood (The Penelopiad). It might be wondered, then, what Claire North might bring to this now well-laden table with her Songs of Penelope trilogy, of which this is the concluding volume.
Well, there is her choice of narrative voice to begin with: in the first book in the series, Ithaca, it was that of the goddess Hera, and then for the sequel, The House of Odysseus, it was Aphrodite’s turn. Here it switches again, to that of Athena, goddess of war but also of wisdom. This dual nature provides North with a handy device through which she can reflect contemporary concerns. So, for example, in a flashback conversation with her brother Ares, likewise a god of war but one who is associated more with bloodlust than strategy, Athena waxes lyrical about her hopes that eventually the need for warfare will dissipate as democracy takes hold and new forms of society come into being. Ares, of course, mocks his sister and dismisses her vision, insisting that people would soon enough be crying out for a man of power to lead them, praising and thanking him even as he stamps on their collective neck.
This contrast between a progressive dream of what humanity could become and that darker, populist alternative runs throughout the book, as Penelope’s years-long efforts to maintain peace and the integrity of Ithaca are wrecked by Odysseus’s homecoming. He returns – and here I’m assuming I don’t need to add a spoiler alert! – not as a hero or even as simply her husband, but disguised as a beggar, jealous and suspicious as he is of the attentions from the hundred or so suitors cluttering up the palace. And it is when it comes to the subsequent slaughter of these men that North departs, as she does elsewhere but perhaps most acutely here, from Homer’s classic tale in its portrayal of Odysseus’ supposed heroism. By contrast, she paints a picture that is both more realistic and more nuanced, in which Penelope again occupies central stage (although Athena retains some role in nudging the various actors in certain directions).
And again, North skilfully weaves in current anxieties regarding the nature of masculinity as Odysseus comes to understand how the relationship with his wife has shifted, fatefully as it turns out. Unfortunately, Telemachus, their son, remains caught in the grip of the traditional image of manhood, dangerously so, even as his father walks out of the epic at the end and into a new kind of story. The deeply ironic aspect of the dramatic finale, in which it is Penelope and not the gods and certainly not Odysseus, who saves the day, is that, as the queen herself realises, this fact must never appear in the songs and poems, if Ithaca is to be safeguarded. And so, she gracefully retreats, if not into the shadows, then definitely into the backstory.
Lest all this sound too worthy, I should emphasise that North writes with verve and wit, nicely capturing and skewering various personages while also conveying the brutality of battle and the anguish of its aftermath. Her description of the infamous murder of Penelope’s maids is hand-over-the-mouth ghastly while that of the women who fight alongside her in the final battle singing a lament for their dead is both beautiful and also gut-punch powerful.
This is an outstanding contribution to that tradition I referred to above, one that not only offers a fresh interpretation of an age-old story but also uses it to illuminate our own attitudes and, beyond that, to explore the power of story-telling itself.
Steven French
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