A retelling of the Odyssey
Son of NobodyYann Martel timed this retelling of the Odyssey really well given the recent Hollywood blockbuster release of the same. There is a new relevance in our war-troubled times. This is not an easy read and took some getting into. It starts with an academic abstract by a fictional historian who is piecing together an ancient Greek text for his PhD thesis. He presents a version of the Trojan war from the point of view of a common soldier, Psoas - son of nobody, rather that of the traditional heroes. Making it even more intimidating, each page is divided in two, with the top half telling the story in the style of epic verse, and the lower half presented as academic footnotes explaining the text, and also telling the academic's own war-like story of a difficult marriage. I came very close to giving up.... But within 50 pages I was completely entranced and could not put it down. The story of the war unfolds with plenty of gore and timeless Greek philosophy, enriched by the 'commoner as cannon fodder' perspective. The parallel footnote story of the academic's personal struggles adds a modern emotional resonance so that the 2 echo and enhance one another. An exciting and rewarding read that I can highly recommend - I was helped a lot in understanding it by the author interview I will put a link to in the links section on this book.