Title: The Odyssey
Author: Homer
What I think so far: For longer than it took brave Odysseus to get home to Ithaca, Homer’s mythological masterpiece, The Odyssey, has been occupying a small space on my windowsill, nestled in amongst a heap of useless junk and tarnished with various tea stains. Though not the authentic text, my Walter Shrewing prose translation is a beautiful read, one that remains seemingly faithful to the original epic poem. Shrewing takes on a graceful style, reminiscent of the Romantic era, which lavishes onto the reader an ethereal sense of wonder, right from the opening chapters of the book. This astonishment endures throughout the text as the escapades of the mighty Odysseus are gradually unfurled.
If truth be told, I haven’t even finished reading the book, and I doubt I will anytime soon. It’s something I pick up in between other books and on those lonely sleepless nights. But the almost episodic narrative allows me to do this and I keep returning, each time more intrigued than the last.
Would I recommend?: If you have a fanciful mind like myself, then the complete otherworldliness of The Odyssey is enough to produce an allaying kind of transcendence from reality.
Words by Jake Lister