Grendel
Books | Fiction / Literary
3.9
(407)
John Gardner
This classic and much lauded retelling of Beowulf follows the monster Grendel as he learns about humans and fights the war at the center of the Anglo Saxon classic epic."An extraordinary achievement."—New York TimesThe first and most terrifying monster in English literature, from the great early epic Beowulf, tells his own side of the story in this frequently banned book. This is the novel William Gass called "one of the finest of our contemporary fictions."
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More Details:
Author
John Gardner
Pages
192
Publisher
Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Published Date
2010-06-02
ISBN
0307756785 9780307756787
Ratings
Google: 4.5
Community ReviewsSee all
"It's wasn't bad, but just kinda meh. Just seemed like a very flat plot and even the "twist" was pretty predictable. "
Alexandra Jones
"Not the biggest fan of contemporary friction because i’m unable to process the story but very exciting and different. lots of laughing moments."
Emily .
"am i grendel? "
k c
kristin corley
"Okaayyyy...clearly I’m missing something here. The only saving grace to this novel is that is slightly less tedious than the original."
Lesley Williams
"It's been awhile since I read Beowulf, but I've had this book on my to read list for awhile. Grendel reminded me of Frankinstein's creature in the way he discovered his world. The book did offer some good food for thought about time, life, lives and religion. It was mostly with a dragon ; )"
Jessica A
"I read this book once a year every year. Definitely my #1"
Carrie Gray
"My opinion may just be because I was forced to read this for school and post-modernism is not my cup of tea but...<br/><br/>1) Grendel (Gardner) is incredibly aware that he is writing a book. The entire thing is him fishing for sympathy. He is also very whiny for trying to come off as some great rational being.<br/><br/>2) blatant sexism? Grendel wants our sympathy yet treats women like they are far below him and his peak rationality. <br/><br/>3) The only part of this book I really like is the dragon. It led to some really interesting in class discussions about whether the dragon is real and what it represents.<br/><br/>4) Gardner's (or Grendel's, I guess) nonchalant descriptions of extremely violent things like "I tore off his head then chomped on his arm" were a little much for me. Added to my dislike of Grendel."
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