Jeanette Winterson

The author of Oranges are Not the Only Fruit and The Passion: Written on the Body rewrites the myth of Atlas and Hercules, finding new meaning in this ancient tale. 75,000 first printing. $100,000 ad/promo.

Weight

Meagan Fischer 

I have just finished this book and may need some time to think about it before giving a "better," or more comprehensive review. For now I will say that there are some very pretty/insightful turns of phrase throughout the prose. The chapters feel disjointed at times, and I was struck by some seemingly major tonal or subject shifts in different chapters. It is an easy read with relatively simple prose and short chapters. One chapter toward the end made me cry: I won't say which.

This wasn’t for me. I usually love a myth retelling but it made reference to a specific thing I hate being “reimagined” because I always feel like it is adding this twee spin to like one of the worst and most abjectly monstrous cases of animal abuse in popular culture and that always just smashes me out of a story and makes me like irrevocably bummed out. So like, it may be great, if that’s not you, but it wasn’t a book for me. 

Apiecalypse Jen

Risa C

Jeanette Winterson has blown apart my tiny, literary world with this heavyweight of a novel. It's a quick read, but I found myself poring over paragraphs and whole chapters repeatedly, too stunned by their artistry the first time reading to let the meaning of her words sink through. Nothing I can write will come even close to capturing the beauty of this book. Winterson paints the cosmos as grand and unknowably vast, as against actual gods and figures of mythological proportions rendered flawed, complex, human. I'm only casually familiar with the myth of Atlas, but this intimate and personal portrayal really brought his story to life.

Katie Kite

I definitely need more mythological retellings in my life and this one was so great!

lili🎐

Maisie MacDonald

evan

Condemned to shoulder the world forever by the gods he dared defy, freedom seems unattainable to Atlas. But then he receives an unexpected visit from Heracles, the one man strong enough to share the burden . . .Jeanette Winterson's retelling of the myth of Atlas and Heracles asks difficult and eternal questions about the nature of choice and coercion. Visionary and inventive, Weight turns the familiar on its head to show us ourselves in a new light.

Weight

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