Book Review: ‘The Last Song of Penelope’ by Claire North
Odysseus returns; will Penelope forgive him for twenty years' absence?
Claire North’s The Last Song of Penelope doesn’t quite meet the high expectations set by the first and second books in their acclaimed “Songs of Penelope” series, which reimagines The Odyssey from the perspective of Odysseus’s long-suffering wife, Penelope, but fans of Greek myth retellings in general and Ithaca and House of Odysseus in particular will be all-in for this third and final installment.
The novel’s new narrator is Athena, the goddess of war and wisdom and Odysseus’s divine protector. Unlike Hera, goddess of women and mothers, who narrated the first book, or Aphrodite, goddess of love and romance, who narrated the second, Athena isn’t nurturing or passionate. Instead, her voice is ironic, irreverent, and at times imperial. It’s a voice that suits Odysseus’s story, but robs it of some of its potential emotional appeal.
With her divine power of foresight, Athena knows she and her relatives—the other gods and goddesses—will have to ride Odysseus’s coattails into Homer’s heroic poem in which he, the mortal king, is remembered and celebrated. Still, she’s fond of Odysseus and determined to tell his story as only she can.
“The poets will not sing the truth of Odysseus,” she warns. “Their verses are bought and sold, their stories subject to the whims of kings and cruel men who would use their words for power and power alone. . . . Listen closely, for this is the only time I will tell it. A whispered secret, a hidden tale—this is the story of what actually happened when Odysseus returned to Ithaca.”
The novel begins with a slow pace as North recaps the first two books and sets up the central conflicts of the third. The action then turns to Odysseus, who disguises himself as a beggar in order to infiltrate and observe the nightly feast at which Penelope’s unsuccessful yet still dangerous suitors indulge themselves with food and wine at Ithaca’s expense.
Violence ensues.
In the aftermath, Odysseus commits a rash act that shocks and horrifies Penelope. Distressed and grieving, she wonders if her husband, now middle-aged and almost a stranger to her, has become as cruel and impulsive as his actions suggest. Should she relinquish the quiet, queenly power she’s amassed to become his meek, faithful wife in fact as she pretended for twenty years or should she have him killed before he suspects she’s too powerful or has been unfaithful to him and kills her first? A murder, she thinks, would simple to arrange: “so very, very simple.”
While Penelope wrestles with her dilemmas, Odysseus tries to reassert his authority after two decades during which he was not only missing, but also often presumed dead. Can he trust Penelope to support him? How powerful is she, exactly? And who are all these people, most of them women, who answer to her and seem to be secretly in charge of, well, everything?
Athena’s voice shows well in her pithy, insightful, and pitiless observations:
“Aegyptius is not prone to getting overexcited about anything, but like most men of [Odysseus’s counsel] he has spent the last ten years growing increasingly aware that his power stems from the authority of a king who may be dead, and when dies Odysseus, so dies that thin semblance of relevance that Aegyptius may have crudely retained.”
“[Odysseus’s father] Laertes considered [his modest farm with “a few pigs, a couple of foul-mannered goats” and “a meagre harvest of somewhat unpleasant olives”] entirely adequate – he put enough labor in to feel like he had something to do with his old age, but could also absolutely take naps as often as he wanted and get someone else to do any dirty work. This suited the old adventurer down to the ground.”
While Odysseus’s and Penelope’s struggle to reconnect with each other rings true, the novel’s multiple battle scenes run into trouble as some of the action feels stage-managed and the dialogue at times turns awkwardly comedic:
“[Odysseus’s and Penelope’s son] Telemachus wants to know: does his father not have some wonderful scheme involving liquid fire or secret traps or some…some cunning trickery like…well, Telemachus is not sure what, but he’s sure his father will have it.
‘Very effective, a rock on the head,’ muses Odysseus.”
Though the story’s outcome is never doubt, North’s retelling contains plenty of surprising plot twists as Ithaca’s power couple tiptoe around each other in their attempts to reboot their relationship and retain their position on Ithaca and beyond. For readers who enjoy heroic, romantic stories with likeable characters and strong female voices, the Songs of Penelope series is, overall, a win. #
Marcie Geffner is a former contributor to Publisher’s Weekly and Kirkus, and current contributor to the Washington Independent Review of Books. Originally from Los Angeles, she lives in Ventura, California. Her Substack, “Mostly Books,” publishes book reviews and recommendations and occasional essays. Subscribers can access the full archives and join book discussions on the Substack app.
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The Last Song of Penelope
Claire North
Redhook
February 2025
416 pages