re:mote voices

Title: Weight
Author: Jeanette Winterson
Publisher: Canongate

The Myth series from the publisher Canongate is a series of novels commissioned from an acclaimed group of contemporary literary novelists that reimagine/rewrite classic myths. Each being published in batches of 3, starting with Karen Armstrong's Short History of Myth, Margaret Attwood's Penelopiad and Jeanette Winterson's Weight. With novels by AS Byatt, Donna Tarrt and Victor Pelevin, to name a few, to appear in the next sets.

The weight of the title is the weight of the world. A weight that rests of the shoulders of the Titan Atlas, and briefly on the shoulders of Heracles. The story follows the interaction between the pair - Titan and Demi-God, the only two strong enough to actually carry the weight of the world.

Both have been punished by the gods, Atlas to bare the weight of the world for eternity and Heracles to perform 12 tasks. Heracles has reached his 11th task, to retrieve 3 golden apples from the goddess Hera's special tree. A tree that lies in a garden that belonged to Atlas, and that only Heracles can approach.

Traditionally the story told here would be from Heracles point of view, instead Winterson concentrates on Atlas. Though the narrative alternates to a degree between the two, and uses Heracles as a contrast to Atlas. Heracles comes across as a braggard, a man of action and little thought, though his encounter with Atlas forces him to ask why they do what they do?

At about 150 pages Weight must be borderline in whether you would class it as a novel or a novella - it is a quick read either way, I read it in a day. Like the other work by Winterson that I have read there is a certain playfullness to the story, a certain aspect of what she calls doing a "cover version" and of "telling the story again". The edition is currently available in a nice hardback, consistent with the other available editions, mixing periodic text in with the regular black. Particularly striking is the way Winterson makes Atlas a sympathetic character, and the way she manages to bring the story up to date with her own unique twist.