This is a version of the myth told by Patroclus, Achilles’s companion. Patroclus is a prince who accidentally kills another boy and is exiled, fostered to King Peleus whose son is Achilles. Initially feeling like an outsider, something about Patroclus catches Achilles’s eye and they become friends. When Achilles is sent to train with the centaur Chiron, Patroclus goes with him, against Achilles’s goddess mother, Thetis’s wishes. They spend a few glorious years cut off from the world, and their relationship deepens. Eventually they fall in love.
Then Helen is stolen, or runs away with Paris by her own volition, and an oath is called on to bring her back. Kings and princes and soldiers gather together at Troy, a war that lasts a decade. Achilles has been given a choice, live a long life in obscurity or a short life and be remembered forever. He chooses the latter, much to Patroclus’s dismay.
And so they go to war, and the machinations may tear them apart long before death does.
Man, this is a hard one to summarise and review. I suppose a lot of people are very familiar with the Iliad and Achilles, and while I know of them I’ve never read it and don’t have a deep knowledge of all the goings on and characters. Which maybe helps since I don’t know what is being missed out or how it is being interpreted. I enjoyed the beginning a lot and getting to know Achilles and Patroclus as children/watching them grow, but once the war started it got pretty dull. This feels a little bit like a young adult book which I wasn’t expecting from the gushing reviews (nothing against YA, I LOVE YA, but it’s often looked down on). I don’t know if that’s what she was going for or if it’s just their ages/the simplicity of the language that makes it feel that way to me.
I struggled with Patroclus being the narrator. He’s a bit wishy washy. A lot of what he does (until the end at least) is based on what Achilles is doing/wanting. All he wants is for Achilles to live, because he loves him, but I don’t know what Patrolcus wants outside of that. And I didn’t really feel the love between the two of them. It’s explicit on the page but not something I was invested in, at least not as they got older. Patroclus seems to love Achilles because he’s a golden god and little more (and we’re not shown much more about Achilles either), and Achilles just liked having Patroclus around I guess? I wanted to be wrecked by the ending but I wasn’t. I felt very held at arm’s length the whole way through.
I will still read whatever Miller does next, as I loved Circe so.