An Odyssey : A Father, a Son, and an Epic

from streamsong

Author Daniel Mendelsohn's father, Jay, had always loved his son and the classics. But Jay had given up his literary bent in order to pursue a scientific job to support his family. He and his son had also grown away from each other in the intervening years and lost any sense of closeness. So, whe...

from meandmybooks

Well, now I'm ready for a reread of the Odyssey! Mendelsohn's book, which successfully combines the genres of family memoir and literary criticism, is wonderfully engaging. Mendelsohn, a writer and professor of Classics at Bard College in New York, uses the story of how his father sat in on his "...

from banjo123

This is just a lovely memoir. Mendelsohn's father, Jay, asks to sit in on a class that he is teaching at Bard College on the Odyssey. Mendelsohn weaves in the story of that class; a themed cruise that he takes with his father, to visit the historical sites in the Odyssey; his relationship with hi...

from auntmarge64

What a beautiful book to read! Classicist and author Mendelsohn teaches part time at Bard College, but his primary occupation is as a writer. I've previously read his "The Lost: A Search for Six of Six Million", about a years-long inquiry into his family's past. Here he weaves an exposition of Ho...

from PDCRead

Mendelsohn has been passionate about the classics, so much so that it is he teaches it at Bard College. One year his eighty-one-year-old father, Jay, decides that he will sign up and join the young people learning about this epic tale for the first time. Jay is a retired research scientist who wa...