Fascinating to finally read what Godard adapted, thematically and plot-wise, from this novel detailing the painstaking details of a dissolving marriage. Making the producer American was a better decision considering he wanted to adapt Homer's Odyssey as a bigger budget action-adventure. Godard saw himself as the protagonist: a creative filmmaker taking a paycheck job to appease his wife being the exact reason she feels contempt for him. A feedback loop that Godard routinely played with in the first half of the sixties. Richard Brody, Godard's present-day biographer, attributed this as an almost 1:1 depiction of Godard and Karina's marriage, but he might be grasping at one too many straws.
Overall, this novel is a quick plunge into the complicated feelings of a man trying to interpret his wife's actions and feelings in relation to the literal work he's been assigned and the metaphoric connection between Penelope and Ulysses. The ending is different from the film, in a way, which was a pleasant surprise. Excited to read more from the great Moravia.