Yeah, that's right - 3 stars. Slap me and send me to literary Hell.

Don’t get me wrong, Homer’s classic is just that, a classic and I appreciate this for what it is, but if I'm being brutally honest, I much preferred The Iliad. Maybe I'm just one of those gals that finds drowning in buckets of blood and epic glory more compelling. <-- That's not really true, but I did find The Iliad to be more compelling and a better read.

I get it, and if I rated is strictly as a priceless artifact and founding work of Western literature, it's a five-star. On a personal level, especially when compared to its companion book, it's a three-star.
I'm over it.

While there was adventure here, there was also more repetition (or at least it stood out more), and the tribulations took up far less of the book than I wanted. The insights into domestic life were interesting, but the characters themselves were much less so - Telemachus in particular annoyed the snot out me, and Odysseus was mostly a grating, egomaniacal donkey. Yes, it was 'rightfully' earned that he was in such a way, and his skullduggery was impeccable. He still annoyed me.

The adventures still exist - Cyclops, Siren's song, Land of the Dead - mostly as recounted by Odysseus in his special, blathering way, during his travels home. Cross-threads abound, including seeing new sides to recurring characters, and the insertion of some meddling gods (Poisidon is particulaly pissed off in this installment).

The most interesting aspect for me was the concept of hospitality, and the limits of such, as well as the reactions to breaking the conventions of how guests should treat their hosts and vice-versa. And there is the brutality as Odysseus hands out his punishment for the guest's trangressions, but it significantly toned-down and less enthralling than the battles of . I guess domestic life does that to you.

Still worth the read from a historical perspective, but if I was to reread one, I'd stick with The Iliad.

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Created Dec 01, 2019 at 12:52pm • Submit your own review...