More on Achilles

I did several things today as a result of reading this novel called Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller. One was to read a review in the New York Times about her book, in which I gained some information from the Times critic. Another was to go to the search engines to see what is being said about Achilles. I had written my own bit of information about this legend for my novel, some of which came from a book on Greek myths for a fraternity house, and other information from the internet, and sources therein. I bookmarked a source from the University of Oregon which seemed to sound a loot like the info I had obtained from the book from the SAE house. I actually relied upon the translation from the Iliad to build my character in the book I am writing,so I have been having fits and starts with the kind of character that Madeline Miller writes. I am very critical of her, liking her very much at times, and disliking her intently at other times. One of the problems in authoring is to not let the author show in the piece one is writing. The writing should flow naturally so that the authors attempt to sound literary purposefully does not intrude upon the piece. She fails in that respect at times as I can feel her struggling with her words to sound letter perfect, thus, losing the tone she is wanting to create. When she describes Achilles so well at one point, she reverts to a language that is totally out of sync with her intent to sound polished and skilled. Using the term sloppy and awry in the negative truly turned me off, and made me very annoyed at her...wishing that she would have a sharp-eyed editor to make her rewrite that paragraph.