Dan Trefethen's Reviews > The Last Song of Penelope

I had thought the second book in this series, House of Odysseus, was the last book. The series is about the women of Ithaca surviving for twenty years after Odysseus left, and the book ends with Odysseus washing up on the shore of Ithaca. That might have been a reasonable point to end it.

Claire North wasn't done. She wanted to dive into the story of Odysseus reclaiming his kingdom, slaughtering the suitors, and triumphing over his enemies who would have usurped his role.

But wait, that's not entirely what happens, even though that's the legend we know. Once again North tells us the story behind the story, how the women attempt to survive and overcome Odysseus's massive mistakes. And it tells the story about the notoriously wiliest man in ancient Greece, and how he might, just might, come to break out of the macho constraints that bind his behavior.

It's a heartbreaking story, but a compelling one. As narrated by the goddess Athena who has mixed feelings about her 'favorite', Odysseus, it allows the author both an omniscient viewpoint on all characters but also a more distanced one, giving us a unique view into the legend that we think we know, but really have no idea what really happened. North's telling seems more realistic than most of what is told in the Odyssey.