The Odyssey by Homer
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I’m fairly certain I had read at least parts of this epic poem for one of my high school English Literature classes, but I did not remember that it read such as this.
The Odyssey starts in the middle of Ulysses troubles, where he is imprisoned on Calypso’s island after losing all his men. From there the story progresses as his son travels in search of news of his father. From there, other soldiers tell of what happened after the fall of Troy, but the story leaves off before the the present state of events.
Meanwhile Ulysses finally gets off the island and meets a new crowd of people who help him get home. He tells these peoples his story in two parts. There are also a series of prophecies prediction future troubles.
Ulysses does indeed get home, but disguises himself for awhile until he has a battle plan. Then commits murder, makes peace with everyone for it and the story ends.
It is sometimes hard to follow and I did have to re-read a few bits, but there have been so many modern takes on this classic that I already knew what was going to happen when I started reading. I do like that the time line wasn’t so straight forward, it gave interest to an already overdone story-line.
If you haven’t read it already, you should.
