Weight: The Myth of Atlas and Heracles (Myths, The)
With wit and verve, the prize-winning author of Sexing the Cherry and Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit brings the mythical figure of Atlas into the space age and sets him free at last. In her retelling of the story of a god tricked into holding the world on his shoulders and his brief reprieve,...
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With wit and verve, the prize-winning author of Sexing the Cherry and Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit brings the mythical figure of Atlas into the space age and sets him free at last. In her retelling of the story of a god tricked into holding the world on his shoulders and his brief reprieve, she sets difficult questions about the nature of choice and coercion, how we choose our own destiny and at the same time can liberate ourselves from our seeming fate. Finally in paperback, Weight is a daring, seductive addition to Canongate’s ambitious series of myths by the world’s most acclaimed authors.
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Format: paperback
ISBN:
9781841957999 (1841957992)
ASIN: 1841957992
Publish date: September 14th 2006
Publisher: Canongate U.S.
Pages no: 176
Edition language: English
Category:
Fantasy,
Novels,
Academic,
School,
Literature,
European Literature,
British Literature,
Historical Fiction,
Literary Fiction,
Contemporary,
Short Stories,
Mythology
Series: Canongate Myths (#3)
Retelling of the myth of Atlas, with some Heracles and Prometeus and Hera and Zeus thrown in as well as Laika - the russian space dog. It is a book that had passages that I had to read out aloud cause of the poetry in them, and some rather embarrassing passages I skim-read fast. It's a short book, a...
I never really liked Hercules. Okay, I liked the Kevin Sorbo series, but Hercules wasn't my favorite character, and Sorbo's Hercules wasn't the Greek Hercules, not really. There was something about Hercules I never liked. Maybe because he was so self-centered. Maybe because he killed horses. Ma...
Disappointing. While I consider myself a rabid Winterson fan, Weight left me cold. I am a bit biased; I *loved* Anne Carson's 'Autobiography of Red' which retells the Hercules/Gerymon myth. Compared to that, Winterson's retelling falls very, very flat.
One of the marks of an "important" book is that you know you'll have to read it several times to figure out everything it has to say to you. Weight is one of those books. In my first reading of the book, I think the most important theme I pulled from it is that people make their own fates. Both Atla...
This was an odd one. I love Winterson's poetic prose, but it was a kind of mash of mythology and introspection and wish fulfillment. The two readers read it a bit over emphatically, like they were in a play, which makes sense with the text, but was also distracting.
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 by Jeanette Winterson, now listed on BookLikes)