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Title details for The Lost Books of the Odyssey by Zachary Mason - Available

The Lost Books of the Odyssey

A Novel

by Zachary Mason
Simon Vance
Audiobook
1 of 1 copy available
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1 of 1 copy available

A BRILLIANT AND BEGUILING REIMAGINING OF ONE OF OUR GREATEST MYTHS BY A GIFTED YOUNG WRITER
Zachary Mason's brilliant and beguiling debut novel, The Lost Books of the Odyssey, reimagines Homer's classic story of the hero Odysseus and his long journey home after the fall of Troy. With brilliant prose, terrific imagination, and dazzling literary skill, Mason creates alternative episodes, fragments, and revisions of Homer's original that taken together open up this classic Greek myth to endless reverberating interpretations. The Lost Books of the Odyssey is punctuated with great wit, beauty, and playfulness; it is a daring literary page-turner that marks the emergence of an extraordinary new talent.
Cover and title design by Chin-Yee Lai.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    February 2, 2010

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9781427210043
      • File size: 135988 KB
      • Duration: 04:43:18

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • AudioFile Magazine
      Though Simon Vance doesn't play a lute, he is a bard, or maybe the Classics professor everyone wishes to have had, as he spins these revisionist tales of Odysseus and his travels. Each of the many short chapters is an alternative version of Homer's original, and in each Vance becomes the familiar characters. In one chapter, Odysseus confronts the older impostor that Penelope has married; in another, Penelope speaks to him from the underworld. The haggard voices of those shades on the other side of the River Styx are offset by those of their living counterparts--crafty, sarcastic, audacious--all with convincing inflection. Eventually, Mason's big revelation of the meaning of these seemingly contradictory stories leads listeners out of the labyrinth. B.V.M. (c) AudioFile 2010, Portland, Maine
    • Publisher's Weekly

      Starred review from September 28, 2009
      Mason's fantastic first novel, a deft reimagining of Homer's Odyssey
      , begins with the story as we know it before altering the perspective or fate of the characters in subsequent short story–like chapters. Legendary moments of myth are played differently throughout, as when Odysseus forgoes the Trojan horse, or when the Cyclops—here a gentle farmer—is blinded by Odysseus while he burgles the Cyclops's cave. Mason's other life—as a computer scientist—informs some chapters, such as “The Long Way Back” in which Daedalus's labyrinth ensnares Theseus in a much different way. Part of what makes this so enjoyable is the firm grasp Mason has on the source material; the footnotes double as humorous asides while reminding readers who aren't familiar with the original that, for instance, Eumaios is “the swineherd who sheltered Odysseus when he first returned to Ithaca and later helped him kill the suitors.” This original work consistently surprises and delights.

    • Library Journal

      June 15, 2010

      Debut novelist Mason compiles and re-imagines 44 short Homeric episodes, portraying Odysseus as less of a hero and more of a mariner's bard. Classical characters are redefined as the Odyssey serves as a springboard for extrapolation on ancient themes, characters, and even chess. (References to more modern technologies, like paper and books, jarred this listener's sense of the ancient.) Unfortunately, much of the understated humor is lost in the polished, classical, British theater voice of Simon Vance (see Behind the Mike, LJ 10/15/09). Listeners with a strong background in classical literature may appreciate the humor and Vance's rendering, but those libraries whose budgets are strained should pass. [Audio clip available through us.macmillan.com; the Farrar hc was a Young Lions Fiction Award finalist of 2009 and won the Starcherone Fiction Prize; for another recent retelling of The Odyssey, see also Ioanna Karystiani's Swell (LJ 1/10).--Ed.]--Sandy Glover, Camas P.L., WA

      Copyright 2010 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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