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Richard Derus's Reviews > The Song of Achilles
The Song of Achilles
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by
Rating: 6* of five, 2012's best read by a mile.
It's A Sin that this gorgeous, very visual story has never been filmed. It would increase the ability of the book to demonstrate the amazing power of books to inform, amuse, delight, and educate, as well as possibly alter our views and viewpoints.
This review can now be seen at
And how wonderful this read remains.
It's A Sin that this gorgeous, very visual story has never been filmed. It would increase the ability of the book to demonstrate the amazing power of books to inform, amuse, delight, and educate, as well as possibly alter our views and viewpoints.
This review can now be seen at
And how wonderful this read remains.
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Quotes Richard Liked
“The ship's boards were still sticky with new resin. We leaned over the railing to wave our last farewell, the sun-warm wood pressed against our bellies. The sailors heaved up the anchor, square and chalky with barnacles, and loosened the sails. Then they took their seats at the oars that fringed the boat like eyelashes, waiting for the count. The drums began to beat, and the oars lifted and fell, taking us to Troy.”
― The Song of Achilles
― The Song of Achilles
“I could recognize him by touch alone, by smell; I would know him blind, by the way his breaths came and his feet struck the earth. I would know him in death, at the end of the world.”
― The Song of Achilles
― The Song of Achilles
“I will never leave him. It will be this, always, for as long as he will let me.
If I had had words to speak such a thing, I would have. But there were none that seemed big enough for it, to hold that swelling truth.
As if he had heard me, he reached for my hand. I did not need to look; his fingers were etched into my memory, slender and petal-veined, strong and quick and never wrong.
“Patroclus,â€� he said. He was always better with words than I.”
― The Song of Achilles
If I had had words to speak such a thing, I would have. But there were none that seemed big enough for it, to hold that swelling truth.
As if he had heard me, he reached for my hand. I did not need to look; his fingers were etched into my memory, slender and petal-veined, strong and quick and never wrong.
“Patroclus,â€� he said. He was always better with words than I.”
― The Song of Achilles
“He is a weapon, a killer. Do not forget it. You can use a spear as a walking stick, but that will not change its nature.”
― The Song of Achilles
― The Song of Achilles
“I have done it," she says. At first I do not understand. But then I see the tomb, and the marks she has made on the stone. A C H I L L E S, it reads. And beside it, P A T R O C L U S.
"Go," she says. "He waits for you."
In the darkness, two shadows, reaching through the hopeless, heavy dusk. Their hands meet, and light spills in a flood like a hundred golden urns pouring out of the sun.”
― The Song of Achilles
"Go," she says. "He waits for you."
In the darkness, two shadows, reaching through the hopeless, heavy dusk. Their hands meet, and light spills in a flood like a hundred golden urns pouring out of the sun.”
― The Song of Achilles
“Chiron had said once that nations were the most foolish of mortal inventions. “No man is worth more than another, wherever he is from.â€�
“But what if he is your friend?� Achilles had asked him, feet kicked up on the wall of the rose-quartz cave. “Or your brother? Should you treat him the same as a stranger?�
“You ask a question that philosophers argue over,� Chiron had said. “He is worth more to you, perhaps. But the stranger is someone else’s friend and brother. So which life is more important?�
We had been silent. We were fourteen, and these things were too hard for us. Now that we are twenty-seven, they still feel too hard.
He is half of my soul, as the poets say. He will be dead soon, and his honor is all that will remain. It is his child, his dearest self. Should I reproach him for it? I have saved Briseis. I cannot save them all.
I know, now, how I would answer Chiron. I would say: there is no answer. Whichever you choose, you are wrong.”
― The Song of Achilles
“But what if he is your friend?� Achilles had asked him, feet kicked up on the wall of the rose-quartz cave. “Or your brother? Should you treat him the same as a stranger?�
“You ask a question that philosophers argue over,� Chiron had said. “He is worth more to you, perhaps. But the stranger is someone else’s friend and brother. So which life is more important?�
We had been silent. We were fourteen, and these things were too hard for us. Now that we are twenty-seven, they still feel too hard.
He is half of my soul, as the poets say. He will be dead soon, and his honor is all that will remain. It is his child, his dearest self. Should I reproach him for it? I have saved Briseis. I cannot save them all.
I know, now, how I would answer Chiron. I would say: there is no answer. Whichever you choose, you are wrong.”
― The Song of Achilles
“I will go,â€� he said. “I will go to Troy.â€�
The rosy gleam of his lip, the fevered green of his eyes. There was not a line anywhere on his face, nothing creased or graying; all crisp. He was spring, golden and bright. Envious death would drink his blood, and grow young again.
He was watching me, his eyes as deep as earth.
“Will you come with me?� he asked.
The never-ending ache of love and sorrow. Perhaps in some other life I could have refused, could have torn my hair and screamed, and made him face his choice alone. But not in this one. He would sail to Troy and I would follow, even into death. “Yes,� I whispered. “Yes.�
Relief broke in his face, and he reached for me. I let him hold me, let him press us length to length so close that nothing might fit between us.
Tears came, and fell. Above us, the constellations spun and the moon paced her weary course. We lay stricken and sleepless as the hours passed.”
― The Song of Achilles
The rosy gleam of his lip, the fevered green of his eyes. There was not a line anywhere on his face, nothing creased or graying; all crisp. He was spring, golden and bright. Envious death would drink his blood, and grow young again.
He was watching me, his eyes as deep as earth.
“Will you come with me?� he asked.
The never-ending ache of love and sorrow. Perhaps in some other life I could have refused, could have torn my hair and screamed, and made him face his choice alone. But not in this one. He would sail to Troy and I would follow, even into death. “Yes,� I whispered. “Yes.�
Relief broke in his face, and he reached for me. I let him hold me, let him press us length to length so close that nothing might fit between us.
Tears came, and fell. Above us, the constellations spun and the moon paced her weary course. We lay stricken and sleepless as the hours passed.”
― The Song of Achilles
“I stopped watching for ridicule, the scorpion's tail hidden in his words. He said what he meant; he was puzzled if you did not. Some people might have mistaken this for simplicity. But is it not a sort of genius to cut always to the heart?”
― The Song of Achilles
― The Song of Achilles
“In the darkness, two shadows, reaching through the hopeless, heavy dusk. Their hands meet, and light spills in a flood like a hundred golden urns pouring out of the sun.”
― The Song of Achilles
― The Song of Achilles
“And perhaps it is the greater grief, after all, to be left on earth when another is gone.”
― The Song of Achilles
― The Song of Achilles
Reading Progress
February 10, 2012
– Shelved
March 13, 2012
–
Started Reading
March 15, 2012
–
76.98%
"p168: "He was watching me, his eyes as deep as earth. 'Will you come with me?' he asked. The never-ending ache of love and sorrow. Perhaps in some other life I could have refused...But not in this one. He would sail to Troy and I would follow, even into death. 'Yes,' I whispered. 'Yes.' Relief broke in his face, and he reached for me... Tears came, and fell. Above us, the constellations spun...""
page
291
March 17, 2012
–
Finished Reading
November 6, 2024
– Shelved as:
quiltbag
November 6, 2024
– Shelved as:
reading-is-resistance
Comments Showing 1-50 of 51 (51 new)
message 1:
by
Riku
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rated it 5 stars
Mar 13, 2012 12:56PM
is the plot changed in anyway?
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Yes, in several minor ways...no ways that are silly or obnoxious.
I'm looking forward to your review of this one.
A thoughtful review :}
It took forever to write. I hope it's persuaded you to read the book!
Nicely done. Great book and review! Very interesting subject.
Thank you, Brittany. The book is a delight. I hope you'll read it!
The line between oral history and Mythology is so blurred. It makes books like these a treat.
I was particularly taken with Miller's absence of modernization in the book. She doesn't arch her eyebrows or purse her lips and "explain" the miracles, the gods, the centaurs, are all misinterpretations of "reality." She lets the characters live in their world, and never says it's not ours. I love that!
You have convinced me to read this one !
*rubs hands gleefully*It's long-listed for the 2012 Orange Prize, if that carries any weight. I can't say enough how much I loved the book.
Great review. I liked the first part of the book better than the last. Once they got to Troy, it seemed like a rather blah run-down of the battles and combats and conflicts with Patroclus being the observer but not really having much of interest to say on what was happening. He was too busy being cow-eyed about Achilles and Florence Nightingale with the wounded. He sort of stepped OUTSIDE of being Achilles' lover in those scenes, but he was a pale and uninteresting guy overall in that segment.
It'll probably take me a day or two to figure out what I want to say about it in a review. There was stuff I really liked and stuff I really disliked.
Oh, and the "This is the story" and "Let me tell you about the myth of" dialogue dumps were pretty dull too.
It'll probably take me a day or two to figure out what I want to say about it in a review. There was stuff I really liked and stuff I really disliked.
Oh, and the "This is the story" and "Let me tell you about the myth of" dialogue dumps were pretty dull too.
Isn't it interesting to learn how the same book can elicit such wildly different responses from people? I didn't find Patroclus pale or uninteresting, and the info-dumps were fascinating to me!Hmmm. I guess it's just more evidence that a really good book will polarize people's opinions.
I'm glad that your enthusiastic updates prompted me to read it. I liked it and it's a good book, but I don't think I'll ever want to re-read it. The Achilles/Patroclus relationship dynamics (and the very strong half and more softer Patroclus half) reminded me a lot of many slash fics I've read. I wonder of Miller's ever posted fanfic out there in internetland? It wouldn't surprise me if she has.
I haven't looked...I wonder?
Great review, Richard. I loved the book. I was intrigued by one comment above which stated that Patroclus became uninteresting in the second half. Oddly, for me, it was the reverse. I found him slightly annoying in the first half: scared and passive. It's in the second half that he comes into his strength: he finds a personality, purpose, and a skill outside of being Achilles' husband.
I think Patroclus, in the second half of Miller's book, becomes all that he'll ever be in life. And that's either to one's taste or it isn't. I myownself liked Patroclus comparatively little throughout. I loved him for his ability to be in love. I admired his skills as a healer. I was impatient with his "yes dear"ness. I sorta agreed with Thetis, in other words...not really what one would choose as the love of one's megastar son's life. And yet, would one wish falling in love with the aristos achaion on anyone? He's so far above, so enormously untouchably superior! He needed Patroclus to be his anchor. Patroclus needed Achilles to be his wings. And they each got what they needed, the right size, the right fit.
It is the reason I loved the book so much. The *rightness* of the men's love as a relationship that met each man's needs.
Most def on my tbr. Though hard to improve on the poetry of the original, especially in the hands of Fagles.
How many long-haired Achaeans lie here dead! And now Ares, the slashing god of war has swirled their dark blood in Scamander’s deep clear stream and their souls have drifted down to the House of Death.
Thus it is destiny for us both to stain the same soil. (Iliad, B18, 328)
How many long-haired Achaeans lie here dead! And now Ares, the slashing god of war has swirled their dark blood in Scamander’s deep clear stream and their souls have drifted down to the House of Death.
Thus it is destiny for us both to stain the same soil. (Iliad, B18, 328)
Sorry one more gratuitous quote from the collector of quotations, but I can't really use them much in Redistan.
Priam wept freely for man-killing Hector, throbbing, crouching before Achilles� feet as Achilles wept himself, now for his father, now for Patroclus once again, and their sobbing rose and fell throughout the house. Then, when brilliant Achilles had had his fill of tears and longing for it had left his mind and body, he rose from his seat, raised the old man by the hand and filled with pity now for his gray head and gray beard, he spoke out winging words, flying straight to the heart: Poor man, how much you’ve borne� pain to break the spirit! What daring brought you down to the ships, all alone, to face the glance of the man who killed your sons, so many fine brave boys? You have a heart of iron. Let us put our griefs to rest in our own hearts, take them up no more, raw as we are with mourning. What good’s to be won from tears that chill the sprit? So the immortals spun our lives that we, we wretched men live on to bear such torments� the gods live free of sorrows. There are two great jars that stand on the floor of Zeus’s halls and hold his gifts, our miseries one, the other blessings. When Zeus who loves the lightning mixes gifts for a man, now he meets with misfortune, now good times in turn. When Zeus dispenses gifts from the jar of sorrows only, he makes a man an outcast� brutal, ravenous hunger drives him down the face of the shining earth, stalking far and wide, cursed by gods and men. (The Iliad, 800 BC, Fagles, Book 24, 605)
Priam wept freely for man-killing Hector, throbbing, crouching before Achilles� feet as Achilles wept himself, now for his father, now for Patroclus once again, and their sobbing rose and fell throughout the house. Then, when brilliant Achilles had had his fill of tears and longing for it had left his mind and body, he rose from his seat, raised the old man by the hand and filled with pity now for his gray head and gray beard, he spoke out winging words, flying straight to the heart: Poor man, how much you’ve borne� pain to break the spirit! What daring brought you down to the ships, all alone, to face the glance of the man who killed your sons, so many fine brave boys? You have a heart of iron. Let us put our griefs to rest in our own hearts, take them up no more, raw as we are with mourning. What good’s to be won from tears that chill the sprit? So the immortals spun our lives that we, we wretched men live on to bear such torments� the gods live free of sorrows. There are two great jars that stand on the floor of Zeus’s halls and hold his gifts, our miseries one, the other blessings. When Zeus who loves the lightning mixes gifts for a man, now he meets with misfortune, now good times in turn. When Zeus dispenses gifts from the jar of sorrows only, he makes a man an outcast� brutal, ravenous hunger drives him down the face of the shining earth, stalking far and wide, cursed by gods and men. (The Iliad, 800 BC, Fagles, Book 24, 605)
Richard wrote: "I think Patroclus, in the second half of Miller's book, becomes all that he'll ever be in life. And that's either to one's taste or it isn't. I myownself liked Patroclus comparatively little throug..."Yeah. Kind of like dating a supermodel, huh. Destined to really give one an inferiority complex. LOL!
Wow, I am definitely going to read it!
What a beautiful review Richard. Definitely adding to my TBR list.
Tracy wrote: "What a beautiful review Richard. Definitely adding to my TBR list."Thank you, Tracy! I liked the book quite a lot so I'm very pleased you're putting it on the TBR.
Shovelmonkey1 wrote: "Sold!"Excellent. My rake-off grows ever larger.
Heh. I'll probably get it on kindle as am contemplating a house move so CANNOT get any more actual books as they'll all have to be boxed and carried down three flights of stairs.
MOVING?! Oh dear dear dear, wouldn't it be simpler to kill yourself and let the mortician move you? I think that's what I'll do next time.
Never thought of it like that before. Moving myself is not the issue, I am still young enough to be quite portable. It is moving all my books which will create the headache i fear. Still nothing is decided yet so I haven't had to bust out the packing tape already.
To piggy back on this, I am converting my house into a duplex and have had to box 8 boxes (!) of book and put them in the garage and then decide which ones stay in the house. What a pain. I do have a Nook and have read 8 books on it, I do like the Nook but I prefer the read tree-book which is my undoing. Ha.I'll probably read Song of Achilles in tree format since Richard says it's so good. If I'm unsure about a book I'll download it onto Nook. LOL
Shovelmonkey1 wrote: "Never thought of it like that before. Moving myself is not the issue, I am still young enough to be quite portable. It is moving all my books which will create the headache i fear. Still nothing is..."Think loooonnnnng and hard before doing it!
Naftoli wrote: "To piggy back on this, I am converting my house into a duplex and have had to box 8 boxes (!) of book and put them in the garage and then decide which ones stay in the house. What a pain. I do hav..."That's always a good policy...if it's iffy, an ebook is no big loss!
Getting back to Achilles ... Hollywood completely destroyed in the movie Troy. Brad Pitt (the idiot par excellence)played Achilles and instead of being the lover of Patroculus (I hope I got the characters correct!) he is the insurmountable playboy womanizer who we first meet in a scene in which he expended himself on two women! The movie was a complete heterosexualization of a great gay fighter. There was not one hint in the movie that Achilles and Patroculus were lovers. Greek society was a homosexual society (just as our, in contrast, is a heterosexual one) and I get the idea that we are unabashedly heterosexist in our culture (the collective "we") but it pisses me off to no end when Hollywood heterosexualizes the great Greek stories. They did this in the movie 300 as well. Sparta was definitely a gay culture but in the movie it portrayed the Spartans a straight society and came up with these unrealistic affirmations of heterosexual love in a place and time when the affirmations would have been between two men. Okay, I'll get off my soapbox.
While you're correct in the main, that love between men was the norm and love for one's woman was a little, well, odd, the movies can't afford to portray gay sex if they're going to appeal to any straight man in Murrika. He'll watch gay porn on the internet (look at the viewing numbers, ain't that many fags in the country and wimmins don't watch porn, do they?), but in PUBLIC where PEOPLE might SEE? Hypocrisy is alive and well in chrisssschin Murrika.
I love my country. I hate conservatives and what they do to my country.
Precisely. And LOL straight men put up quite a charade. The thing about heterosexuality is that it is performance-driven. It has to be continually acted out ... the posturing, the objectifying comments about women, etc. ... if the man does not continually perform this identity it slips away. Exhausting!
Not to mention as boring as it's possible for anything to be.
LOL true, I watch it and I can predict the gestures and the comments. It is so BORING.
...with what? The review, the thread chat?
I'm late to the party on this book, but your heartfelt review inspired me to give it a whirl. The beauty, love, and heartbreak in this story resonated with me in a really incredible way. Typically I'm a lurker, but I felt strongly enough about this book to 'de-lurk' in order to properly thank you for this review. So, thank you. Really.
You're quite welcome, and thank YOU for stopping in to say such a lovely thing! I appreciate that a lot. I like knowing that my review helped lead you to read a book you enjoyed.
Despite my interest in the setting, I always pass over this book in the bookstore; fear of disappointment, I suppose. It's heartening to know you were not!
I was really, really not disappointed. I hope you won't be either.
Lovely review, Richard. Just fix the typo on your blog.
Nancy wrote: "Lovely review, Richard. Just fix the typo on your blog."AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
WHAT TYPO?!?!
Literary Ficiton & Short Story Collections
Nancy wrote: "Literary Ficiton & Short Story Collections"*smoochiesmoochsmooch* thankyouthankyouthankyou
I happen to HATE the siege of troy
Misty Reed wrote: "I happen to HATE the siege of troy"This is definitely not a book you should read, then!
