Amazon.com: Customer reviews: Galatea (Kindle Single): A Short Story

Top positive review

Cleverly Done

Reviewed in the United States on February 24, 2019

I will admit that I was a bit unhappy with paying four dollars for a ten minute read. However, I will be honest with how good those ten minutes were. I guess I'm just a hog, because I wanted to hear MORE. Yet, perhaps it's best told this way. Who the heck am I to question Madeline Miller's decisions on her writing?

Is it worth reading? Yes. Is it worth 4 bucks... you decide. If you love Miller's work, then you will likely be happy and four dollars poorer, like I. If not, who knows? Short stories are actually harder to write, and are rarely appreciated for the efforts of the author. I do appreciate her efforts and I will not begrudge a few dollars to read a well-told story.

How about you?

As Always I Wish Happy Reads to All from the Unapologetic Book Junkie 😉!

55 people found this helpful

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Lynsteph

Shocking

Reviewed in the United States on November 13, 2021

I was thrilled, afyer reading Circe by the same author, to discover another book by her. I immediately purchased it for $8.99 to read thru Kindle on my phone.
I settled in under the covers for a nice, juicy read. Afterthe very first page, I was hooked. I was reading and the world disappeared as it does when it's a good story. Then, suddenly, after LESS THAN 30 PAGES, the book abruptly ended.
At least when you go to the theater and they play a "short" you're AWARE that it's going to be short. I feel robbed of more than my $8.99; I need to know what happens to the characters now; I was so upset I couldn't nap.
Extremely disappointed by this.

12 people found this helpful

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From the United States

Book Junkie

Cleverly Done

Reviewed in the United States on February 24, 2019

Verified Purchase

55 people found this helpful

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Lynsteph

Shocking

Reviewed in the United States on November 13, 2021

Verified Purchase

12 people found this helpful

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featherlashes

Super short retelling of Pygmalion and Galatea

Reviewed in the United States on January 12, 2019

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Galatea is a super short retelling featuring the myth of Pygmalion and Galatea.

Brief myth summary: Pygmalion was a sculptor who avoided and scorned all women based on his revulsion towards the local prostitutes. As such, he invested himself completely into creating the perfect woman out of ivory. He ended up falling deeply in love with this female form made of stone. After witnessing Pygmalion's devotion, Aphrodite: Goddess of Love gave life to the statue who was named Galatea. Pygmalion and Galatea married and had a son: Paphos. (Use your favorite search engine for more details.)

In Madeline Miller's retelling, she removes the glow of myth off this story and reveals its bare bones. Misogyny, ownership, power imbalance, abuse. Through Galatea's POV, readers feel the effects of it all and then watch as she problem solves how best to protect her children, who are female in this retelling. Although I wish this story was longer, it communicated its message beautifully. Check it out

25 people found this helpful

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Ga303

No, seriously. This is a SHORT story.

Reviewed in the United States on June 12, 2019

Verified Purchase

Take seriously the description "short story." I have read short stories that were longer than this. So do understand that you are paying $4 and some change for something that will be over and done with in a few minutes' time. With that being said, short stories can be great -- I'm just not entirely sure I thought this one was.

I'd love to see the same themes explored here developed into a full-length novel -- and surely they could be. Instead, rather than a narrative that has a clear beginning, this seems more like a snapshot of a random time in the story. (Though it does have a pretty definitive end.) And while I'm not squeamish about sex, there's a LOT of sex here -- maybe overmuch for such a short piece when some of that time could have been used in describing the title character's thoughts.

18 people found this helpful

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Gail N.

Brilliant adaptation of an ancient story into a modern feminist allegory.

Reviewed in the United States on April 3, 2017

Verified Purchase

This is a short story based on the various myths and stories about the sea nymph Galatea. Madeline Miller has deftly retold the story of a statue which comes to life after the sculptor falls in love with his creation. The story comes down to us from Ovid in his poem Metamorphoses. But Wikipedia notes that "The trope of a sculpture so lifelike that it seemed about to move was a commonplace with writers on works of art in antiquity." Reading about Galatea and Pygmalion (the sculptor) online is very interesting. Ms. Miller's genius was to use this story and its various nuances to create a tale about the lives of women down through the ages and what they have had to endure at the hands of their possessive and controlling lovers, husbands, and employers, and enforced by society even to this day. However, I do not think the ending is as dark as others have described. There is a bright ray of hope to be found in the selflessness of Ms. Miller's Galatea. I do not want to write a spoiler, but I would say that it is a gift symbolizing what each generation of women have tried to pass down to the next generation since the dawn of time.

13 people found this helpful

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Lisa E

meh

Reviewed in the United States on November 6, 2018

Verified Purchase

I have read other works by this author and enjoyed them. This seems incomplete. I got to the end and wanted a better conclusion- questions answered. Not in the good pensive way- but in the annoying, unfinished way. It is also distracting her use of the F word and I do wonder if the word is of greek origin or just used for the vulgar shock factor. Maybe this was the outline of a book that will never be.

9 people found this helpful

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JRussell

Told beautifully, as always with this author

Reviewed in the United States on June 7, 2019

Verified Purchase

Madeline Miller has such a knack for taking mythology and presenting it in a surprising, yet believable, way. She does that here with the Pygmalion story. Her greatest strength is the simplicity and elegance with which she composes prose. I've loved Circe and The Song of Achilles. This story was quick and sad. And now that I've read it, I won't be able to see the Pygmalion story in any other way.

5 people found this helpful

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Kindle Customer

The Freedom in Stone

Reviewed in the United States on November 27, 2018

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Pygmalion, creator, father, mother, husband and lover of Galatea wanted a docile slave and perfect companion, but he got a human being instead. How could he be that shortsighted? Every child should be given wings, not shackles at the outset of life and that is the point of Madeline Miller's razor sharp retelling of this ancient Greek fable.

6 people found this helpful

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Short story, not a novella

Reviewed in the United States on November 24, 2019

Verified Purchase

This is a short story, very short. Very abstract. Love Madeline Miller, but this book was odd and not worth the price. It isn't a novella. It is a short story. Even at free, I'm not sure I'd recommend it to others. It wasn't bad, but... it wasn't good. Perhaps it was the sketch of perhaps a longer novel that could have had some more behind it, but as short as it was I never got to care about the characters or "get into it." Pass, unless it's free. Then it's an interesting short ditty to read.

2 people found this helpful

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VLP

A Little Gem of a Book

Reviewed in the United States on April 21, 2022

Verified Purchase

Yes, this is basically a short story in book form that won’t take you any time to read. Yet, it is another piece of Madeleine Miller’s beautiful writing and perspective, and I am happy to have this lovely little book in my collection. It will be reread many times.

If you are a fan of Ms. Miller, I strongly recommend this one. Also, kudos to merchant Book Depository- their packaging is always appropriate & orders are sent out timely.

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