Elizabeth Cook, Achilles ***

Achilles retells the story of Achilles in prose that is as close to poetry as you can get. It's a small book that I (re-)read in a single sitting. It offers several beautiful passages, with the best being its account of Odysseus' visit to the underworld at the very beginning.

Cook focuses our attention on the sensual and emotional aspects of the scenes, thereby supplementing the epic narrative in the classical sources. You need to know the outline of the story already. The last third of the book drifts away from Achilles himself to consider Helen, the centaur Chiron, and, most surprisingly, the poet John Keats.