If you ever want to read a book that will make you happy, then sad, and then even sadder “The Song of Achilles” is for you. “The Song of Achilles” by Madeline Miller is a retelling of the timeless epic “The Iliad” with a romantic plot line between the two main characters, Achillies and Patroculus. The story takes place in 12th century B.C. in the Mediterranean. As you follow the two boys’ journey of growing into men, you slowly become encapsulated with the feeling of a forbidden love and the heartbreak that comes with it.
Patroclus, who is the narrator of the story, is an awkward young boy who got exiled by his father, the king of Opus, and ends up on the island of Phthia the home of Achilles, son of Peleus. Achilles is the best warrior of his time. This unlikely pair finds that they have a sense of comfort in each other that they can’t find in anyone else. However, the odds are stacked against the two of them; Achilles’ mother, a minor goddess Thetis, never liked Patroclus and would do anything to keep him away from her son.
The book is told from the perspective of Patroclus, so you get to hear the story of the greatest hero in Greece from the perspective of someone who is an exile. When I read this book, I found that I felt the emotions that Patroclus was feeling. In the moments of the novel that conveyed high emotions, the way Miller wrote made the emotions that Patrocolus felt seem real and not as fictional.
In the story, you get introduced to familiar names from “The Iliad” and “The Odyssey.” People like Odysseus, Diamedes, Agamemnon and other characters everyone knows. I felt more a part of the Trojan war while reading this book than I did while reading “The Iliad.” The connections that you see form in this book make this fantasy more of a reality.
The beauty of books that are retellings of other stories is that you get to see a different point of view that you think you know very well. I never imagined what Achilles was going through during “The Iliad.” I always thought that his reasoning for not fighting was dumb and incosiderate. After this book, I realized that every character in a book has their own story that can be expanded on and I think that Miller did a really good job of showing that. In certain parts of the book, characters will talk about themselves and their stories, and those moments were some of my favorite parts. How Odysseus always talks about his wife and Diomedes makes fun of him for it shows that they are actual people, instead of being portrayed as heroes and great powerful men.
Miller also does a really good job of capturing how dynamic the characters are in the way the characters talk and how they act. Many times when Patroculus talks to Thetis he is scared and has a lot of anxiety. Right before he goes to Troy, one of the last times he talks to Thetis, he speaks less like he is not afraid and more like he is in control of the conversation. Thetis tells him the prophecy and it makes him sad, but he knows that Achillies now has to go to Troy and become a hero. In the beginning of the book, Patroculus is reserved and apprehensive, but as the novel advances we see him grow into someone more confident with his emotions.
Overall, this book does a very good job of transporting you into this world. At times, certain parts could come off as wordy and hard to follow, the characters speak differently than most people are used to. However, this is still a beautiful book that I fell in love with just a few pages in. I would highly recommend adding it to your reading list.