Diane's Reviews > Grendel

This is a clever little novel, letting the monster in Beowulf tell his own story.

Truthfully, I hadn't thought about Beowulf since world lit class in high school, so I had to Google a quick recap of the poem. I did appreciate reading about Grendel's loneliness and angst, but I think I would have enjoyed this book more had I spent more time reading Beowulf first.

Recommended for those who like literary perspectives.

Favorite Passage
[the dragon's advice to Grendel]
"You improve them, my boy! Can't you see that yourself? You stimulate them! You make them think and scheme. You drive them to poetry, science, religion, all that makes them what they are for as long as they last. You are, so to speak, the brute existent by which they learn to define themselves. The exile, captivity, death they shrink from — the blunt facts of their mortality, their abandonment — that's what you make them recognize, embrace! You are mankind, or man's condition: inseparable as the mountain-climber and the mountain. If you withdraw, you'll instantly be replaced ... My advice to you, my violent friend, is to seek out gold and sit on it."