The Song of Achilles

The Song of Achilles is Madeline Miller's debut novel, released in 2011. It took her ten years to write. The novel is a modern retelling of the Iliad that focuses on Achilles' friendship with his friend Patroclus. Miller was inspired by Homer's story from the Iliad. She wanted to explore who Patroclus was to Achilles, and in this case Patroclus is Achilles' best friend and lover. This idea is quite old as Miller says she stole the idea from Plato. The actual Iliad doesn't explicitly say they are lovers, but its sort of implied. The book won the 17th annual Orange Prize for Fiction. Homer would be proud of  her! 

Before I go in depth here I want to say that this is an amazing novel. After finishing the novel I was riding a high for nearly two days straight. Its only 360 pages but it feels like it was a 1,000 pages, 1,000 grand pages of beautiful prose. It was like falling in love in a way, like how I am with music. I was so into it that I finished it in nearly 4 days, forget the two week library rental. That being said, lets talk about what makes this book great. 

The prose. The fact that Miller worked on the novel for five years, but completely scrapped everything because the narrator's voice wasn't developed well enough shows you the depth of her writing powers. The writing style here is very much a la Homer, like the Iliad. Its a modernized version so its all complete sentences and full thoughts, a little less poetic because of these fully thought out sentences, but it still has a poetic beauty, albeit a modernized one. Like her second novel Circe, The Song of Achilles has a young adult novel feel to it, in the sense that the story is about two boys who grow up together and fall in love. Miller really knows how to describe young people in love, I learned this from Circe as well as this book. If there's one thing I learned from Miller its that one can never underestimate young love, its one of the greatest and most powerful things in the universe. 

The story is told from the first person point of view, from Patroclus' point of view, Achilles' lover and best friend. Patroclus is somewhat of a loser, he was exiled from his Princely happenstance after he killed a boy by accident. He becomes a somebody when Achilles wants him to be forever by his side. In addition, Patroclus becomes a hero in the Trojan War when he kills Serpedon, a son of Zeus, a god. This makes Patroclus a hero in the Trojan War. 

Next, lets talk about the story. So the story is sort of slow until the end, then it builds to a climax and ends on a high note, its fantastic. It begins with Achilles and Patroclus meeting in their youth, they begin a friendship, and then eventually a romantic, sexual relationship. The boys meet each other as young as 10 or 12. They get trained in the art of war as well as other things men should learn by a centaur, that Achilles' mother, a goddess named Thetis, is an associate of. 

From there Achilles gets asked to fight in the Trojan War, to save Helen, the most beautiful woman in the world, "the face that launched a thousand ships." This is where the novel really takes off as something else, not just a loving relationship. Its interesting to note that the war parts of the novel are very graphic and gory. However, the sex scenes here are all polka dots and moonbeams, like softcore porn. Miller is willing to describe men's guts hanging out of their stomachs but won't go near the physicality of gay sex, interesting choice, can't say I blame her. But we as an audience know better than that. 

Inspiration. This book is inspiring to read. There's something about it that sticks with you for a long time. Its only been two days since I finished reading it and not only do I have a great sense of accomplishment from reading it but I also realize that this is something I will remember for a long time because a) its terrific writing b) its a great story and c) its inspirational. 

By inspirational I mean that the novel got me reading the actual Iliad, of which I have two different translations. This book prepared me for the epic poetry of the Iliad, which was indispensable. I have read epic poetry before. I've read the Bible in its entirely about ten years ago. I've read Shakespeare. Now I'm finding myself reading more of that kind of material. The interesting thing to note is that I bought two different copies of the Iliad, a hardcover and a paperback, but I never read any of them until now. Now is the time. This is what I call a great inspiration. 

If a writer can get you to go back and read what is arguably the beginning of Western Literature you know that's a great writer. This is a novel fit for young adults, adults, anyone curious and sophisticated enough to appreciate fine literature.