Author: Homer
Translator: E.V Rieu
Published November 30th 2006 by Penguin Classics (first published -720)
Genres: Classics, Fantasy
Pages: 541
“The Odyssey, Homer’s best-loved poem, recounting Odysseus’ wanderings after the Trojan War. With wit and wile, the ‘man of twists and turns’ meets the challenges of the sea-god Poseidon, and monsters ranging from the many-headed Scylla to the cannibalistic Cyclops Polyphemus – only to return after twenty years to a home besieged by his wife Penelope’s suitors. In the myths and legends retold in this immortal poem, Fagles has captured the energy of Homer’s original in a bold, contemporary idiom.” -Goodreads
My review:
I always believe school books are going to be good….
Well as you can probably infer, I did not like yet another school book. Again I don’t know if it was the pressure and the fact that I was being forced to read this book super fast and not take the time to fully understand it or if it was that it was a bad book. I think my age makes me hate the book. I don’t know many people my age who enjoy that book. I think I am to into very fantastical books so these classical books about life and teaching you lessons don’t thrill me as much as I hoped they would. I know this story is more fantastical than any of the other classics out there and maybe that is why I liked it better then some of the ones I have read. But this book predates all the classics. Its language was super hard to read. I don’t know who wrote the translation I read but it was very confusing. Maybe another translation will be good enough.
So I love mythology and creatures like satyrs and the Minotaur etc, so I enjoyed that part about this book. I liked seeing how people lived in another time period. It was interesting to see the different ways people lived and what they believed back when this story originated. I loved learning about gods and other legends and myths during this unit in school. It helped me understand the story more.
Odysseus was a pretty cool character. I didn’t get to see much of him until near the middle even though the story revolves around him. I loved how he was really set on getting home and he kept fighting to get there. He wasn’t all to loyal to his wife but the road to hell was paved with good intentions. I mean he really had no choice when you’re trapped on an island with someone and you don’t think anyone is gonna save you. Telemachus was pretty cool to. He had a lot of trust in his dad. He never even met the guy and he sets off to try and find out if he is alive. Penelope is the most loyal of them all and she never marries anyone and waits for her long lost husband to come hope. Athena a.k.a Athene is super awesome in helping Odysseus get home.
The plot was good I guess. It just was so much packed in to so little. The descriptions of places were long and sort of dull but then the action came out to descriptive for how fast paced it went.
As I review this I see that is wasn’t a terrible story but I just didn’t get into it like I felt like I wanted to.
Well, thank you for reading another one of my short school book reviews. I know these probably aren’t as entertaining as the rest of my reviews but I would feel weird not giving you guys all my opinions on all the books I read.
Thanks for read. Tell me what you thought of this book.
Star Rating: 3
Good description of your personal experience with the story. Wish you had more time to absorb it!
Your review of this book is great. I am impressed that you understand that part of the problem is your own age. I do believe that once a person has been exposed to many forms of literature they can appreciate the classics and why they are classics more. One thing I try to do when facing classical and especially ancient texts is to put myself in the place of the people who were told the story at the time. Here I am, at the Colosseum and I have paid my coin to get in to have this story teller take me away to a fantastical place, like Hogwarts. Strange and weird and yet full of deeper meaning. All that being said, I do prefer to spend my time reading light easy escape stories I can better relate to but I think it helps to realize that for those people that “The Oddyssey” was what this might have been. What you have experienced with this book is an understanding of how “story” has been captivating from the beginning of the human race. And how powerful and long lasting a really good story can actually be.