The Song of Achilles - Madeline Miller - ★★★★.½

AUTHOR: Madeline Miller

GENRE: Greek Mythology Retelling.

PUBLICATION DATE: September 20, 2011

RATING: 4.5 stars.

If I tell you that I read a book named "The Song of Achilles", you might think it's a story containing Greek Mythology and/or Kings & Gods and/or Fighting for Honour and/or a great mythological storyline. Well, you're right; the book does have all these. But above all, The Song of Achilles is the story of true love.

As the title suggests, the story is built around the famous Greek warrior, Achilles. However, the perspective that reveals Achilles to us is that of Patroclus, the narrator. (I shan't speak much more on this because I don't wish to reveal any spoiler here.) Patroclus' narrative style partly reminded me of Shams of Tabriz from "The Forty Rules of Love". His love is real but not blind. His narrative stays loyal and yet doesn't hide Achilles' flaws.

Madeline Miller uses the story of Achilles and the infamous Trojan war to weave a mesmerising and compelling book. At the start, I felt like this was the Greek myth version of what Amish did with his Shiva trilogy: taking a God and creating a story about his life that intermingles legend and creative license to build a perfect narrative. But as I progressed through the book, the Shiva trilogy seemed to fall further and further behind in quality. This book is much more gripping and doesn't lose its focus by adding unnecessary details or characters.

Of course, this book wasn't entirely a comfortable read. There were many, many scenes where I was squirming with discomfort, almost as if I were actually there on site, watching the occurrence. Some of the details, especially regarding sacrifices and the subjugation of women were torturous to read. But then again, Greek mythology is replete with such stories, so I should have been better prepared mentally. My fault entirely.

My interest level while reading this, if plotted on a graph, would reveal an inverted bell curve: a fabulous start, a slightly boring dip in the middle (maybe that's my fault too; I was very sleepy! 😁), but before soon, the story is back with a bang and stays at that height right till the end.

This book is a must-read if you enjoy mythological narratives. But even if you don't, just read it for a really different story of True Love.