Twelve in 12: Grendel
Poetry in the Margins
Sometimes I feel like I am standing at the edge of the universe screaming “I am here,” and a phrase echos back at me, distant and cold – “so what?”
January:
February
Twelve in 12 Reading Challenge.
Title:Grendel
Author: John Gardner
Twelve in 12: Book 11
State Date: December 23, 2010 (put down because other books caught my attention) – Restarted 2-13-11
Fished: 2-20-11
Format: Paperback – 174 pages
Read as part of The Escapists: A Book Club on Goodreads.com
Grendel is the “biography” of sorts of Grendel from Beowulf. In it Grendel tells his story, of how he came to watch and to torment Hrothgar’s meadhall, and how he came to BE. Not how he was born, but his through process, his education or learning to leads him to become the monster from legends.
Of course in his story he is not a monster – he is an agent of change, a reminder to the Thanes that they are mortal and the stories they tell themselves, the false world that they create in their minds and then try to force on the world around them, is not real.
It starts off being written in a stream of conciseness sort of narration, and then morphs as Grendel becomes more aware of himself and his own knowledge, place, and meaning in the world. As I know the story of Beowulf fairly well, nothing was really new or surprising, other then seeing Grendel’s side of the story. It’s a concept I’ve found fascinating since I watched the film Beowulf & Grendel and saw a story version that presented Grendel not as a monster, but as a misunderstood character.
Ultimately I really do not know what I think of this book. The end, even though I know how it is coming, still seems abrupt and there is an aspect of confusion…I don’t know how to describe it at all.
It’s not that I didn’t enjoy this novel, I am just unsure of what my opinion of it actually is…