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An Odyssey: A Father, A Son and an Epic
- Narrated by: Bronson Pinchot
- Length: 10 hrs and 36 mins
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Publisher's Summary
From the award-winning, best-selling writer: a deeply moving tale of a father and son's transformative journey in reading - and reliving - Homer's epic masterpiece.
When 81-year-old Jay Mendelsohn decides to enrol in the undergraduate seminar on The Odyssey that his son Daniel 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 about the great literature he'd neglected in his youth - and, even more, a final opportunity to understand his son.
But through the sometimes uncomfortable months that follow, as 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' legendary voyages - it becomes clear that Daniel has much to learn, too, for 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 revelatory entwining yet of personal narrative and literary exploration.
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- Anonymous User
- 16-04-2020
A very interesting and informative book
Daniel Mendelsohn tells the story of his relationship with his father through the prism of Homer’s Odyssey! The reader learns just as much about Odysseus and the 24 chapters of Homer’s poem as they do about Mendelsohn and his father - He provides great analysis of the chapters of the Odessey through his teaching of it to his students and his father including an Odyssey cruise they take tracing the steps of Odysseus - a very good book
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- Amazon Customer
- 06-04-2023
Instructive and touching
Amazing the way in which he makes a parallel between the odyssey and the real life. This book will become a classic you must read it
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