you hope for the best even when you know how it will end

Have you read a story that you kind of know how it will end but you just can't help but be hopeful for it? It has been a long time since I've read a book in one sitting, and this was one I simply cannot put down.

Conclusions have always been a difficult process whenever I write something. Even when the words blurb out and you cannot stop typing, I just can't help but wonder why it's so hard to end things. Maybe because life presents itself that way. I am on a journey and whenever it feels like a dead-end, there's always a path that opens (all I had to do was look).

We've heard of Helen of Troy. There are poems about her and songs and considered to be one of the most beautiful women who ever lived in Greek mythology. Her beauty was so enigmatic that caused a war between the Greeks and the Trojans, a story that is still discussed, and talked about to this day. She is also regarded as the Goddess Aphrodite's altera ego.

And Achilles, his story, is often retold with so many different interpretations. His blessed looks, strength, his famous blonde hair, and his tragic fall. Those are tales that we hear, and names that echoed throughout the centuries.

I have never read a book, that made me hope for the best, knowing full well how it will end. The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller, is a love story that I have read that describes passion, infatuation, and love in ways I have never read before. From a literature standpoint, the book is an easy read, the plot is easy-going and flows in a certain way that you do not feel the need to catch up to it to understand. There have always been debates on Achilles's love life. Was he together Briseis, or his companion who always followed him- Patroclus. From Patroclus's point of view, you get to witness the story of Achilles retold from his perspective.

“I could recognize him by touch alone, by smell; I would know him blind, by the way, his breaths came and his feet struck the earth. I would know him in death, at the end of the world.” Miller uses Patroclus as a driving point for Achilles's story, and the fall of Troy. But instead, she describes what love is in ways that make you feel like you are floating on clouds. The only book that comes close to as romantic as this is probably Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. And this was a book that concluded with so much hope, that it makes you want to know more but at the same time respect the privacy of the characters and leave an open ending.

What sets the story unique is the narration of Patroclus as well as the character Achilles. Recalling their story in the Iliad, Patroclus goes to fight instead of Achilles who refused to fight for the Greeks, where he met his tragic end which causes him to fall in battle. The novel is completely from Patroclus's perspective and you would've guessed the narration could've changed when he died, but that is not the case. This is the first hint from the author that Patroclus is recollecting a memory, telling the story of Achilles to another person. Because you still see him narrating it to someone, you just don't know who. I have read novels where Death is the narrator but I've never read a story where the narrator dies but continues the story.

Achilles, who we might've known to have a weakness on his heel (which we now refer to as Achilles' heel). When he realizes the mistake he has done, he fell into sadness, to the point where all he could utter was Patroclus's name. Miller completely changes the weak fable heart of Achilles's mourning, to the cause of his death and not his heel.

The conclusion of the story is something that I often go back to. It could be interpreted in two ways: an open ending, and a conclusion. It gave me an awestruck moment where I had to take a breath and sit down for a bit to understand how beautiful the storytelling was, and how it was perfectly timed to a knot. The realization that whether the story has an open ending, or it is a conclusion, you can still write it in a way that becomes an end. What is presented to you is how you interpret the ending, and this book is the perfect example of what it means to conclude a book. I love this novel with my heart and will always keep it close to me, carry me in ways where I often go back to read specific quotes, to reading and falling in love with the story between Patroclus and Achilles all over again.

Have you read a novel that gives you an obvious plot ending but you just can't help but want to read it, to know that it's true and that you're not going crazy? Give me a book and I will read it and we can talk about The Song of Achilles, its narrative structure, its plot, and characters, and analyze it with your recommendation!

References:

Miller, Madeline. The Song of Achilles. New York :Ecco, 2012.

Chicago. Homer. Iliad. London : New York :Dent; Dutton, 1955.