Home Feed
Home
Search
Search
Add Review, Blurb, Quote
Add
Activity
Activity
Profile
Profile
Odyssey: A Father, a Son, and an Epic
Odyssey: A Father, a Son, and an Epic | Daniel Mendelsohn
From award-winning memoirist and critic, and bestselling author of The Lost: a deeply moving tale of a father and son's transformative journey in reading--and reliving--Homer's epic masterpiece. When eighty-one-year-old Jay Mendelsohn decides to enroll in the undergraduate Odyssey seminar his son teaches at Bard College, the two find themselves on an adventure as profoundly emotional as it is intellectual. For Jay, a retired research scientist who sees the world through a mathematician's unforgiving eyes, this return to the classroom is his "one last chance" to learn the great literature he'd neglected in his youth--and, even more, a final opportunity to more fully understand his son, a writer and classicist. But through the sometimes uncomfortable months that the two men explore Homer's great work together--first in the classroom, where Jay persistently challenges his son's interpretations, and then during a surprise-filled Mediterranean journey retracing Odysseus's famous voyages--it becomes clear that Daniel has much to learn, too: Jay's responses to both the text and the travels gradually uncover long-buried secrets that allow the son to understand his difficult father at last. As this intricately woven memoir builds to its wrenching climax, Mendelsohn's narrative comes to echo the Odyssey itself, with its timeless themes of deception and recognition, marriage and children, the pleasures of travel and the meaning of home. Rich with literary and emotional insight, An Odyssey is a renowned author-scholar's most triumphant entwining yet of personal narrative and literary exploration.
Amazon Indiebound Barnes and Noble WorldCat Goodreads LibraryThing
Pick icon
100%
blurb
shortsarahrose
post image

The free book table has been restocked! I know who did it because I recognize the name of the English instructor written in the cover of the sudden fiction book. Probably good that I was in a hurry to get to my therapy appointment, otherwise I would‘ve ended up with more! #bookhaul

35 likes1 stack add
review
jlhammar
post image
Pickpick

A brilliantly structured blend of literary analysis and memoir. Mendelsohn is a classics scholar and professor at Bard. His 81 year old father asks to sit in on his undergraduate seminar on The Odyssey. He agrees and it proves to be a surprising and enriching experience. Very moving. Really enjoyed the audiobook narration by Bronson Pinchot.

47 likes3 stack adds
review
Cathy_J
post image
Pickpick

Gosh, where to begin? The author is a professor who teaches a seminar on Homer's Odyssey so there is lots of interesting analysis and discussion of the text BUT his 81 year old father has enrolled in the class so in parallel it is a memoir of their own journey together including a "retracing the Odyssey" cruise. I read this slowly to have thinking time ? It was very good. ⭐⭐⭐.5

68 likes3 stack adds
review
KimHM
post image
Pickpick

ALL the ⭐️s and ALL the 💡!!!

This may be the best memoir I‘ve ever read. The person and his work and his subjects are so perfectly integrated one feels upon reading that one has walked and read and loved and grieved beside him. And I‘m going to give the Odyssey and the Iliad another go.

Graywacke I have this on the shelf. Intimated by the size, but like your comments here 6y
KimHM @Graywacke I read my e-version in three and a half days, in between teaching and yoga and regular life. It is soooo engaging it doesn‘t feel at all intimidating. And I‘ve downloaded two more of his books bc he is so, well, inspiring (a word I almost never use 😄)! 6y
Graywacke @KimHM that‘s nice to know. I‘m a terribly slow reader, but still that sounds more doable than I expected. 6y
12 likes3 stack adds3 comments
quote
KimHM
post image

“a heroism of survival” 📚❤️💙📚💚📚

blurb
KimHM
post image

”Greek‘s vast vocabulary of pain” !!!!

I‘m a third of the way through this combination memoir/exegesis and it‘s like hanging out with a very cool, very smart Classics prof (which, of course, is what Mendelssohn is 😍). Def making me want to give Homer another go 😍

Abailliekaras Oh I‘m dying to read this! A good reminder (it‘s in my shelves at home) - thank you! 📚 6y
10 likes1 stack add1 comment
blurb
JLaurenceCohen

Mendelsohn's memoir imitates Homeric narrative itself through "ring composition," a technique of layered storytelling which circles back to earlier events to contextualize the matter at hand.

38 likes2 stack adds
blurb
JLaurenceCohen

Mendelsohn writes in beautifully clear prose. He conveys tremendous knowledge alongside personal experience in a deeply satisfying way.

33 likes1 stack add
blurb
JLaurenceCohen

Just picked this up and it looks intriguing.

Dogearedcopy In the Oct. 8, 2018 issue of The New Yorker, Daniel Mendelsohn‘s article, “Books: Epic Fail?” bridges his first memoir, ‘Lost‘ with the Homeric epic sagas. Looks like it would be a great prelude of sorts to this book! 6y
JLaurenceCohen @Dogearedcopy ooh, I'll have to check that out 6y
27 likes1 stack add2 comments
review
beaconhillbooks
post image
Pickpick

Unintentional impeccable timing with Father‘s Day. This is a book that should not be missed.

5 likes1 stack add
blurb
beaconhillbooks
post image

#currentlyreading Mendelsohn writes about his journey with his father following Odysseus‘ journey.

blurb
kspenmoll
post image

#Giveaway #Congrats #ThankYou
Congrats @BookaholicNatty ! 25k! 🎉🎉🎉🎉
Thanks for this amazing #giveaway!
Books I chose:
📚The Odyssey( Emily Wilson edition) #blameitonLitsy
📚an Odyssey: A Father, Son and An Epic
Soon to be reading Homer with 9th grade so on my mind...
📚Ask Me About My Uterus: A Quest to Make Doctors Listen to Women‘s Pain
📚 @Lacythebookworm @ValerieAndBooks @Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks @RealLifeReading @Suet624

review
Nitpickyabouttrains
post image
Mehso-so

This book was not long but it was very dense. I liked the parts about his father a lot. The relationship there was interesting. The parts about the odyssey (the epic) were less so to me. I saw the parallels the author was drawing, but I did not need a line for line repetition of the class he taught.

review
BookishMarginalia
post image
Pickpick

A lovely memoir about the relationship between the author and his dad, as mediated by Homer‘s The Odyssey. As much about reading and teaching and learning and striving as it is about marriage and filial relationships and the utter impossibility of ever completely knowing those we love. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

MargoCatts I‘m thrilled to see this. I read, marked, and saved his New Yorker article, and the idea of it in full book form has me all 😍. Added, and will read with pencil in hand! 7y
kspenmoll Gave this to my co-teacher as we teach the Odyssey; she wants me to read it when she is finished. Love your review! 7y
143 likes10 stack adds2 comments
blurb
noonski
post image

Tuesday, 9/12/2017, was an exciting mail day at our house. Much happy dancing ensued.

blurb
jenniferw88
post image
Yeah_I_Read I can't wait for the new James McBride!! 7y
ChasingOm Oof, I have a few of these on NetGalley; need to get on that! 7y
58 likes2 comments