GEH Wellbeing Reading Group review of The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller

In June our reading group read The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller. This month I’m using the synopsis from the author’s web site, as it’s so good!

“Greece in the age of Heroes. Patroclus, an awkward young prince, has been exiled to the kingdom of Phthia. Here he is nobody, just another unwanted boy living in the shadow of King Peleus and his golden son, Achilles.

Achilles, “best of all the Greeks,” is everything Patroclus is not—strong, beautiful, the child of a goddess—and by all rights their paths should never cross. Yet one day, Achilles takes the shamed prince under his wing and soon their tentative connection gives way to a steadfast friendship. As they grow into young men skilled in the arts of war and medicine, their bond blossoms into something far deeper—despite the displeasure of Achilles’ mother Thetis, a cruel sea goddess with a hatred of mortals.

Fate is never far from the heels of Achilles. When word comes that Helen of Sparta has been kidnapped, the men of Greece are called upon to lay siege to Troy in her name. Seduced by the promise of a glorious destiny, Achilles joins their cause. Torn between love and fear for his friend, Patroclus follows Achilles into war, little knowing that the years that follow will test everything they have learned, everything they hold dear. And that, before he is ready, he will be forced to surrender his friend to the hands of Fate.”

We liked this book- although one reader got slightly bored with the war/battle section, the majority of us really enjoyed reading the novel. Most of us praised the writing, and read it easily and quickly. The story is that of the Illiad, and so there are no apologies for spoilers- the ending has been about for millennia.

We enjoyed the new take on the Illiad story with Patroclus as narrator. We felt he brought something new to the story, a different point of view. One of our number described Patroclus as a highly emotionally intelligent character, with 21st century sensibilities. Given that we knew the tragic ending for our narrator, we were impressed that the writing style of the author kept us interested throughout.

Our discussion covered the youth of the protagonists, the idea of free will and that Achilles always knew he was going to meet his destiny. The greatest fighter in Greece was always going to be involved in the greatest war of his time. We talked about Odysseus and his manipulative nature, we questioned his motivations and decided he just wanted the war to end and to get home to his wife.

We wondered about Thetis, Achilles’ goddess mother, and her disapproval of Patroclus’ relationship with Achilles, we thought perhaps no-one would have been good enough for him in her eyes. We also questioned whether the final kindness Thetis showed for Patroclus was in her nature. It was a satisfying ending to the book, but was it true to her?

A favourite tidbit from the meeting is that the name of Chiron, the centaur mentor of Achilles, is said to be where the modern word surgeon originates. Chiron- chirugeon- surgeon. I’ll leave that with you to research further…
In the end our readers enjoyed the love story in the novel, the different portrayals of masculinity, and reading a well-known story from a different character’s point of view.

“I’ve always been fascinated with Greek mythology since I watched Jason and the Argonauts, so I really enjoyed this. I thought it was well-written and kept me interested all through. Although it was about ‘great deeds’ and ‘great men’, the author made them real with a large part of the story being about the relationship between Achilles and Patroclus.”
“I’m so glad we got to read this because I hadn’t finished a book for about a year and was beginning to think my attention span was shrinking, so it’s a 10/10 from me.”
Wellbeing Reading Group member

Our readers at the meeting awarded The Song of Achilles an impressive 8.5 out of 10.