Now on to much weightier matters. Winterson takes a much different
approach than Atwood. She tells this tale as herself telling her
tale retelling a tale. Confusing? No not really. She begins with
herself, tells the story of Heracles ad Atlas and then returns to
her own life and lessons learnt.
Unlike the Penelopiad, this book Weight is very dark and brooding
and leaves one with a feeling of unease as if we missed something,
or even that in reading this book, like Pandora, we have opened a
box and cannot now close it and will be forever different. Though
we are not sure how.
How does Winterson accomplish this? In this deep brooding book she
touches something primal inside. Much as Heracles is awoken and
bothered by the question "Why? Why? Why?" this question arises and
will not let him go.
So too, this book will awaken questions in your mind and your
spirit, and maybe, just maybe, if we are lucky, in this book we
will find the questions to lift our weight. If we can learn from it
to tell our story we can be freed, and step out from under the
burden on our shoulders, as Atlas so desperately desired.