Margaret Atwood takes the well-known story of Odysseus and turns it into a brand new story about Penelope. The smart ways Atwood presents the twelve maids is inspired, from songs and poems to the final court-room style drama.
What Atwood does is retells the Classical tale and puts a definite feminist twist on it. Sometimes feminist retellings can be too in your face but Atwood's creation of Penelope is brilliant, both slightly sarcastic and cynical as well as being true to other versions of her.
This is a brilliantly quick read and one that I will be reading again and again.