# of Words: 405

Now's the time to ask yourself what you really know about heroes. No, really: what do you know to be true about them? Got it? Now collect all that up into a little mental sack and throw it from your mind. Inside this Grendel, Gardner--a pretty challenging guy in real life, too--compels us to look closely at what we've believed about noble behavior since the earliest of times.

And what better means to do this than to go back to Beowulf, the earliest epic poem composed in (what passes for) English?

But this time, the boasters need to step aside and make room for the real celebrity. In this book, Grendel, Stalker at the Night, Mere Stomper, Slurper-Downer of Thanes, and Basic Terror to all Humanity gets a Significant makeover. As he tells the story from his point of view, we see more than only a gloomy, cave-dwelling creep of a monster. Grendel is really only a sentimental, misunderstood bully who shows us that the "personalities" of the story are a pack of ignorant, wasteful, violent, vengeful, superstitious bottom dwellers.

All that within one experimental, wickedly humorous, awfully awful story. We watch Grendel as he meets the cast of characters out of Beowulf and tries to set himself in relation to these people who are everything he isn't. That's a tough run for a tender young monster. Each of the people he would like to admire behave in unsatisfactory manners; not only that, they also misinterpret his every little missteps (you know, like eating the people who endanger him) as sure signs that he doesn't belong.

Grendel quickly learns that he's going to be excluded from of all meadhall action indefinitely. So what's a monster to do? Sulk in his cave all day? Or take action and make some "fun" for himself? Thus begins 12 years of war against King Hrothgar and his thanes. When you've read Beowulf, you know how it ends.

However, what you can not see from reading Beowulf--at least not as clearly--are the challenges to what we thought we understood about some heavy issues: the nature of heroism; what it means to be monstrous; the way society and household work; what presence really means. This book has everything: life, the universe, everything. Gardner places these issues front and center as he refocuses the story on what's assumed to be the dark side.

You'll be surprised who you locate there--and that you don't.

Related Papers

The Da Vinci Code Dan Brown

You know when you read a bestseller and think, "Hey, this thriller is awesome with all its intrigue and car chases and murders, but what it reallyneeds is a few theological lectures and art history thrown in?" No? Then you obviously weren't looking for a beach read in 2003, when The Da Vinci Code arrived on the scene, then climbed to the tippy top of the New York Times Bestseller list and proceeded to stay there for two whole years. We may sound like we're being snarky (us? snarky? never!) ,......Read More

Angels In America Tony Kushner

Ever since the introduction of the monster megahit Angels in America, Kushner has been one of the most widely admired playwrights on the planet. Angels investigates the AIDS epidemic in the gay community in the 1980s. It was known as by theater critic Frank Rich of the New York Times "a radial rethinking of American political play." This revolutionary bit of theater basically won every award a play could potentially triumph: a Pulitzer, a Tony, a Drama Desk, a New York Critics Circle -- the......Read More

All The King's Men Robert Penn Warren

Since the novel is not linear, it's easy to get confused at different factors. In keeping with the anti-chronological character of All the King's Men, this summary is going to do a little bit of time traveling, but we will keep you up to speed on the time period where the events are happening. When we first meet our protagonist, Jack Burden, '' he's remembering a road trip to Mason City with Willie Stark, Tom Stark (Willie's son), and Lucy Stark (Willie's spouse). The year is 1933, three years......Read More

Related Topics