An Odyssey

By Daniel Mendelsohn,

Book cover of An Odyssey: A Father, A Son, and an Epic

Book description

A New York Times/PBS NewsHour Book Club Pick

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…

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Why read it?

1 author picked An Odyssey as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

The author, a professor of classics at Bard College, invites his father to attend his class on The Odyssey. What unfolds is a marvelous father-son story as his opinionated father vigorously participates and the author limns his complicated relationship to this endearing and perplexing man. All this is set against insightful discussions of The Odyssey and the father-son relationship of Odysseus and Telemachus. A surprising and very pleasurable read.

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