As someone who once SKIMMED through Beowulf, and found it intriguing and wonderful, but I was not very committed to the whole LANGUAGE of it at the time, this book was both amazing and extraordinarily hard to read.
I heard about this book from 1001 Books For Every Mood, and then happened to find it on my Christmas binge shopping. Now, I really did mean to read Beowulf first, but I did not :(
Grendel is probably the sweetest most misunderstood monster in the bunch. Seriously. His whole story is about him searching for kindness and acceptance. He searches at first for companionship and when Man turns against him, he searches for it in other forms and takes out his anger and pain on Hrothgar's kingdom. (justifiably I would say).
Grendel has this disgusting, pitiful mother who clings to him and is vile. He acknowledges this and breaks out frequently on his own while searching for his place in the meaninglessness of the world.
Its very touching as Grendel can't grasp why he doesn't belong, and why he is so despicable to others. I strongly recommend it, though heads up! Its hard to follow at times. I had to reread chapters several times to understand the plot flow.
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