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An Odyssey: A Father, a Son, and an EpicHardcover – Deckle Edge, September 12, 2017
by Daniel Mendelsohn (Author)
4.6 out of 5 stars 132 customer reviews
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Named a Best Book of 2017 by NPR, Library Journal, The Christian Science Monitor, and Newsday
A Kirkus Best Memoir of 2017
Shortlisted for the 2017 Baillie Gifford Prize
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 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 the great literature he'd neglected in his youth--and, even more, a final opportunity to more fully understand his son, a writer and classicist. But through the sometimes uncomfortable months that 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's famous voyages--it becomes clear that Daniel has much to learn, too: 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 triumphant entwining yet of personal narrative and literary exploration.
Editorial Reviews
Review
“Subtle, profoundly moving . . . an intricately constructed, multidimensional journey of a father and son and their travails through life and love. Mendelsohn weaves his basket with many wands; the complexity seems natural, an account of the quality of life itself, a route to revelation. Mendelsohn explicates the Odyssey with exemplary and generous clarity. A book of shimmering, beautiful, dapple-skilled intelligence.” —Adam Nicolson, The New York Times Book Review
“Rich, vivid, a blood-warm book . . . a deeply moving tale of a father and son’s transformative journey in reading—and reliving—the Odyssey. Mendelsohn wears his learning lightly yet superbly. What catches you off guard about this memoir is how moving it is: it has many things to say not only about Homer’s epic poem, but about fathers and sons. Mendelsohn has written a book that’s accessible to nearly any curious reader. The book partakes of at least four genres: classroom drama; travel writing; biographical memoir; literary criticism. Revealing and funny . . . Mendelsohn makes Homer’s epic shine in your mind.” —Dwight Garner, The New York Times
“My favorite classicist once again combines meticulous literary investigation with warm and wrenching human emotion—books like these are why I love reading.” —Lee Child
“Poignant, tender, affecting. . . . Mendelsohn is one of the finest critics writing today; he’s also an elegant and moving memoirist. One of the pleasures of reading him in any genre is being in expert hands. Mendelsohn’s new book draws on all his talents as he braids critical exegeses into intimate reminiscences, to illuminate them both. In An Odyssey, a seminar at Bard College becomes a voyage of discovery, not just for his students but also for Mendelsohn. He is alert to ambiguities, aware that the path to any truth is a winding one; his defining skill is his ability to trace those paths in rich detail and intricate layers of revelations that build to a deeper understanding—of art, of life—that is humanly and artistically satisfying. Mendelsohn’s use of the classical Greek technique of ring composition perfectly captures the stop-and-start rhythms of his progress . . . Brilliant.” —Wendy Smith, The Washington Post
“When Daniel Mendelsohn’s mathematician father lands in his son’s Homer seminar at Bard, the older man sets in motion an odyssey both hilarious and heartfelt. Father and son start in the pages of an epic, board a ship to follow the hero’s path through the Mediterranean, and finally end where all our stories do. An Odyssey melds genius-level lit crit with gut-level moving memoir. Beautiful and wise.” —Mary Karr
“A happy homecoming of another kind. Dread of the alien thrums through [Homer’s] Odyssey; for Mendelsohn, the ancient tale becomes an occasion not only to explore his relationship with his father, but to transform it. He recounts the progress of the seminar he teaches, in which his father is a lively (often obstreperous) presence. The students are invigorated. In acknowledging the power of the Homeric poem to bring depth to human relations, Mendelsohn’s father is acknowledging the value of his son’s world and expertise. The recognition leaves Mendelsohn free to see through his father’s hardness—his ‘exacting standards for everything’—to the vulnerable fighter within: a scrappy, strategizing Odysseus from the Bronx. What solace or despair resides in the unexpected relevance of this ancient poem, its encounters with Otherness thrown into high relief by the xenophobia of our time? Three millennia later, we have yet to habitually turn to the bedraggled stranger and take note of his tears. . . . Poignant.” —Rebecca Newberger Goldstein, The Atlantic
“Tender . . . complex and moving: a book that has much to say about fathers and sons. On one level, An Odyssey elegantly retells the story of Mendelsohn’s Odyssey course, complete with all the gags, competition, and good cheer of an intergenerational bromance. [But] it dives deeper, excavating a portrait of Mendelsohn’s special student, his father: his lonely childhood, his early brilliance, his forfeiture of Latin for a life of numbers. Why a man so warm could be so cold. As Mendelsohn unpeels the layers of his father’s life and education, he dramatizes the beauty—and tedium—of the classroom. The reality of instruction is messy; Mendelsohn happily shows us how difficult the transference of passion can be. In this way, the students become supporting characters to the book’s hero, Mendelsohn’s father, who lurks in the corner like a hero in disguise. There is but one ending to the book; within a year, Jay would die, and so Mendelsohn’s journey—indeed like Homer’s—would be undertaken after the fact, when something remained to be learned. It is a remarkable feat of narration that such a forbiddingly erudite writer can show us how necessary this education is, how provisional, how frightening, how comforting.” —John Freeman, The Boston Globe
“By turns family memoir, brilliant literary criticism, and a narrative of education. Most of all, An Odyssey is a love story. Mendelsohn makes his way through the text of the Odyssey, but also tells a larger, personal story—of his family. Both odysseys focus on quests, recognitions, homecomings. The book asks: How can you really know anyone else? A truth everywhere acknowledged in Mendelsohn’s odyssey is that everyone has a story, just as every hero has a flaw, and that everyone needs stories to get through life. Mendelsohn is the professor every college kid dreams about: learned, sympathetic, encouraging and challenging in equal measure. Like Homer, Mendelsohn makes us grateful for journeys, and the companions—especially our families—who accompany us along our individual and collective paths. . . . In An Odyssey, he reels us in with a storyteller’s strongest gifts: passion, clarity, and timing.” —Willard Spiegelman, Wall Street Journal
“Fascinating. . . intensely moving. There are many moments to cherish in this tangled and passionate investigation. Mendelsohn’s exploration is [both] a personal family memoir and a critical report on Homer’s epic, and the two facets illuminate each other. Mendelsohn is an imaginative teacher, and the discussion of the Odyssey sparkles. The Mediterranean cruise that father and son take pays off in surprising ways; we get a haunting glimpse of the fear that the end of your journey means finis, the hope residual in permanent postponement. Best of all are the various small recognitions that combine to build the late-blossoming intimacy between father and son. This is an honest, and loving, account of the improbable odyssey that gave them this one last deeply satisfying adventure together.” —Peter Green, The New York Review of Books
“Heartfelt, touching . . . a dazzlingly rich story of identity and recognition from an exacting critic and award-winning memoirist. . .When his father enrolled in Mendelsohn’s undergraduate seminar, Mendelsohn didn’t know his father would only have a year to live. The course, and the cruise retracing Odyssey’s voyage to Ithaca a few months later, set in motion an emotional journey neither man could have anticipated. With each new foray in his oeuvre, Mendelsohn discovers deeper truths about those we think we know, including ourselves. Mendelsohn’s intelligence glitters on the page.” —Rajat Singh, Los Angeles Review of Books
“Mendelsohn is a force. His sentences are freighted with knowledge, observation, and feeling. Both the classroom experience—where Mendelsohn’s father Jay serves as a counterpoint to Mendelsohn’s sharp reading of the story—and the boat excursion they take offer opportunities: his father slowly sheds his carapace and gives himself over to the adventure, revealing a side that we—and his son—may not have seen before. Mendelsohn is an encouraging teacher with enthusiasm and wonderful energy. But perhaps most significantly, readers come to understand him as a man with long-borne emotions, for his relationship with his father has not been the easiest. [This] father-son journey with Homer as guide [is] no buddy story, but a hard-fought, hard-won, late-life conciliation.” —Peter Lewis, Christian Science Monitor
“Fascinating . . . Mendelsohn expertly examines the Odyssey with depth and classical acumen, extracting meaning from even its most subtle moments. He explores [its] historical importance with the comfortable clarity of someone who has spent decades immersed in Greek literature. He details his own relationship with the ancient poem, and he culls from the narrative many insights into his own familial bonds, specifically with his father. But the most entertaining part may be the classroom scenes. By the end of the semester, Mendelsohn’s father had become part of the class and his presence leads to a revealing and dramatic moment. An Odyssey is a journey worth taking.” —Jonathan Russell Clark, San Francisco Chronicle
“Moving . . . a surprising piece of art—a masterful memoir of reading, teaching and learning; a book as full of twists and turns as its subject, often beautiful too. The Homeric questions about fidelity, heroism and survival are elevated from Mendelsohn’s seminar by the relationship between the two men. This is a story of reconciling a scientist and an artist; Jay, the man of calculus, comes to influence both his son and his fellow pupils. As well as a contribution to the art of memoir, An Odyssey is a vivid defence of the close rereading of a classical text, the tiny questions from which bigger pictures become clear.” —Peter Stothard, The Financial Times
★ “Enlightening—engaging, gripping and deeply moving . . . Mendelsohn explores the enduring relevance of Homer’s Odyssey through a memoir tracing the complex relationship between father and son.” —Library Journal (starred review)
“Beguiling. . . in this memoir, Mendelsohn recounts a freshman class on the Odyssey he taught at Bard College with his father, an 81-year-old computer scientist, sitting in. … Mendelsohn gradually unwraps layers of timeless meaning in the ancient Greek poem; Homeric heroes offer resonant psychological parallels to a modern family. Mendelsohn weaves trenchant literary analysis and family history into a luminous whole. A gem.” —Publishers Weekly
★ “Sharply intelligent. . . A frequent contributor to the New Yorker and the New York Times Book Review, Mendelsohn is also a classics scholar. His father, a retired mathematician, had been interested in the classics during his school days and decided to continue his education by studying with his son . . . Ultimately, this book [is] about what they learn about each other—and what they can never know about each other. The author uses a close reading of the epic to illuminate the mysteries of the human condition; he skillfully, subtly interweaves textual analysis [with] the lessons of life outside it . . . A well-told story that underscores the power of storytelling.”—Kirkus, starred review
“There are a handful of books that have captured the pleasure and romance of [the classics]. Donna Tartt’s The Secret History was one. This is another. What happens in this book isn’t really its point; it’s more about the telling than the tale. And the telling is breathtaking. Homer has a phrase for those who can speak bewitchingly: they have ‘wingèd words’. Mendelsohn has wingèd words.” —Catherine Nixey, The Times (UK)
“Radiant . . . a candid, majestic book on the art of teaching, and the push-pull relationship between professor and student, especially if the student is one’s father. At the book’s center is [Mendelsohn’s father] Jay, whose presence in the classroom bewilders and charms the other students and his son . . . Mendelsohn artfully allows Jay to define himself through bluster and unexpected moments of tenderness. With skill and passion [Mendelsohn] underscores how and why Homer still resonates today. Intimate connections between Greek myths and our own lives reveal the author at his singular best. With this graceful and searching memoir, we all drink from the cup of knowledge proffered by one of our leading philosopher-writers.” —Hamilton Cain, Star Tribune
“Lucid textual analysis [of Homer’s the Odyssey], and a profound meditation on the inherent unknowability of the men who raise us. More than that, An Odyssey is a moving portrait of the father Mendelsohn comes to know in the last years of his father’s life—[a] quest that is the beating heart of the book. I came away with a renewed and deepened sense of the rewards found in a close reading of the Odyssey. The poem is about life itself: marriage, fidelity, homecoming, fatherhood, sonship, duty, honor, love, and in true Greek style, preparation for death. To encounter the poem, and to read it deeply, is to encounter ourselves.” —Thomas Jacobs, America Magazine
“Spellbinding . . . multi-layered, inclusive. . . With bardic capacity, Mendelsohn tells a story that is heroic in scope yet distinctly humble in manner. Mendelsohn's keen, penetrating observations plumb the micro-emotions of the several stories interwoven here. Slowly, painstakingly and with abiding, warm humor, Mendelsohn pursues reconciliation with his prickly father, who becomes a cantankerous student in Mendelsohn’s seminar at Bard College. The book’s magic is in moving from topic to topic, setting to setting, insight to insight, ancient to modern over what is sometimes no more than a paragraph break, and with no creaking of the narrative machinery. A meditation on filial love as candid, tender and in its own way ruthless as its counterparts in the Bible, Shakespeare and Homer . . . written with style as remarkable and flexible as the Odyssey, with sentences Proustian in complexity yet lucid and balanced . . . both dense and fleet, and wholly captivating.” —Tim Pfaff, The Bay Area Reporter
“It’s hard to pierce a legend, even when it’s just generation-old family lore . . . As author-professor, Mendelsohn doesn’t lecture; his storytelling leaves room for other teachers — including his current students, his former professors and relatives who decode multi-layered family myths. All of these relationships yield an emotional bounty, nourished by memories, loyalty, love or some combination of the three. Equal parts lit-crit class, language lesson and memoir, An Odyssey create[s] its own unique and compelling sub-genre. Each element of Mendelsohn’s story is buffed to perfection . . . Brilliant.” —Alison Buckholtz, Florida Times-Union
“A memorable mixture of literature and life. . . One of the students in Mendelsohn's spring undergraduate seminar on Homer's Odyssey was quite different from the others: Mendelsohn's own father. Classroom discussions of Odysseus’ long, wandering journey home to Ithaca led father and son to undertake a real-life Mediterranean cruise retracing the Greek warrior’s travels. Mendelsohn begins to see his father in a new light even while the older man challenges the basic tenets of Homer’s epic. . . [It is] a journey of understanding they undertake together. Interesting and instructive.” —Bridget Thoreson, Booklist
“Brimming with longing and heartbreak . . . A noted memoirist and venerable contributor to a myriad of respected periodicals, Daniel Mendelsohn doesn’t hold back. In this memoir, he turns his attention to two men who have influenced a large portion of his life: Homer, and his own father. An Odyssey carefully unpacks details from Homer’s epic poem, with the author taking the stance of a vigilant observer. Witnessing his father’s guileless rediscovery of the ancient text, Mendelsohn’s life’s work as a classicist is turned on its head. The revelations and thoughts of the central characters of Homer’s Odyssey serve as portals to deeper understanding of contemporary relationships. Studying (and essentially mirroring) Homer’s legendary work allowed both the Mendelsohn father and son to find new dimensions for their love of one another. While the events of An Odyssey conclude with Jay passing away, the vibrant stamp he left behind on his son is evidenced by the profundity of the memoir’s pages. It’s an epic reconciliation, albeit a quiet one, focused on all that he’d been given by his father, celebrating their mutual love and respect.” —Michael Raver, The Huffington Post
“Family memoirs are often chronicles of estrangement and rapprochement, typically seeking to wring meaning from the haze of grief or regret. In this quest, Mendelsohn transcends the demands of the genre with his customary blend of linguistic elegance and narrative panache. He dares readers to engage with the complexities of [Homer’s] epic poem and apply its lessons to their own lives. As the memoir unspools, Mendelsohn’s narrative grip tightens, and the son’s search for his father becomes poignant and powerful.” —Julia M. Klein, The Forward
“Compelling . . . a memorable journey through worlds both ancient and contemporary. As I read Mendelsohn’s wonderfully precise textual analysis of Homer, I couldn’t help but think how similar his interpretative method is to the ways in which Biblical scholars parse the Torah for deeper understanding. With each reading, there is also more to glean. So, too, does Mendelsohn gain more insight into his father, and thus himself, at every step along the way. An Odyssey is a multi-layered tale; a lesson in learning through the journey of life.” —Diane Cole, Jewish Week
“Deeply personal. . . Mendelsohn traces his emotional, intellectual and physical journeys with his father, which he weaves with Homer’s epic poem about Odysseus’ long journey home from battle.” —Robert Nagler Miller, J Weekly
“Enjoyable. . . An Odyssey describes a son’s touching mission to understand his father. In a thoroughly Odyssean conceit, Mendelsohn questions what it takes to recognise the qualities of one’s kin. The appeal of the book lies in the lacunae between Mendelsohn’s understanding of his father and ours. Teaching his father initially seems to teach Mendelsohn only how little they have in common, [but] if any subject can dissolve their differences, it is Classics. Everyone who embarks on an Odyssean quest must fail in his own way. The author doesn’t fail to achieve Odysseus’s heroism. Can a son ever know his father at all? It is to Mendelsohn’s credit that he poses the question before it is too late.” —Daisy Dunn, The New Statesman
“A rich and richly textured book . . . a tour de force. Combining an in-depth literary analysis with a personal narrative is a bold enterprise. An Odyssey could have been, in the hands of a lesser writer, grandiose. It isn’t. It is so well written that every page makes you feel more alert and alive. The brilliance of An Odyssey lies in the insightfulness of the writing, as Mendelsohn immerses himself in the text of Homer’s Odyssey: lives it, breathes it, and presses it for meaning. He is particularly good at physical descriptions; he is also good at demonstrating how difficult it is to understand our parents, the small ways in which we hurt one another, and the tender moments. The ending is heartbreaking. Through Homer, Mendelsohn has created a memorial his father: an extraordinary act of filial love.” —Helen Morales, Times Literary Supplement (UK)
“Mendelsohn is an artful storyteller whose skills are equal to the task of weaving Homer’s poem into his own life. In this insightful, tender book, Mendelsohn gracefully marries literary criticism and memoir to describe an intellectual and personal journey that becomes one of profound discovery for both [father and son]. Most impressive are his transitions from scholarly consideration of ‘The Odyssey’ to intimate stories of his family life, as when the class discussion flows effortlessly into a magical moment, witnessing [his father] Jay as he offers a heartbreakingly beautiful tribute to his wife… [There are] many wise lessons to be gleaned from this lovely book.” —Harvey Freedenberg, BookPage
“Fascinating . . . by turns cerebral, lively and poignant. Mendelsohn has achieved an enviable renown as essayist, literary critic and author of autobiographical explorations undergirded by insights from classic texts. In Homer’s Odyssey, Telemachus, now 20, is searching for the father he has never known; likewise, while teaching a course on the Odyssey, Mendelsohn discovers that the classroom becomes a way to better understand his cantankerous father. In lesser hands, this sort of parallelism would seem gimmicky, but not here. It’s clear that Mendelsohn’s Socratic method of teaching (via dialogue rather than lecture) forces everyone, including himself, to see things with fresh eyes. Every step of the way, An Odyssey charts a remarkable journey made indelible by Mendelsohn’s elegant prose. —Dan Cryer, Newsday
“Rich. . . surprising, seamless. Mendelsohn is perhaps the most accessible contemporary ambassador of the classics; An Odyssey makes his most convincing case to date for their vital necessity. The book argues that Homer’s classic may be, more than anything else, a family saga. In An Odyssey Mendelsohn places himself in the Telemachus role to ponder his relationship to his own father, who, like many fathers seems to have at some point drifted away. This book is as much tribute to the magic that can occur in the classroom as an unlikely tale of a father and son’s spiritual reunion. It is an adventure in criticism and in familial reckoning, telling the story of how Daniel and his father get to know each other in the last year of his father’s life. Mendelsohn takes us through the Odyssey alongside his class, meanwhile drawing comparisons between his and his father’s journeys, and those of Odysseus and Telemachus. Mendelsohn has honed a method of mixing memoir and criticism to reflect on the problems of contemporary life through the lens of the Greek classics. What’s remarkable is the extent to which the Odyssey truly does help him—and us—understand our lives.” —Craig Morgan Teicher, Bookforum
“A brilliant new memoir . . . richer and deeper than Mendelsohn’s previous work. At its core, it is a funny, loving portrait of a difficult but loving parent: Mendelsohn’s father, Jay, who is, like [the Homeric hero] Odysseus and perhaps all of us, polytropos: “many-sided” or “much-turning.” Mendelsohn sets an account of the Homeric Odyssey alongside a nuanced portrait of his own complicated familial and quasi-familial relationships, including a vivid picture of Mendelsohn’s anger, anxieties and embarrassments about his father. The book shows us how his desire to become a classicist was shaped in part by the desire to please his father, and how he shares some of his father’s need to be always right. Most powerfully, Mendelsohn contrasts his account of Homer with his father’s more critical response . . . the meeting of the two perspectives leads to a far richer reading of the poem. The fault-lines mapped in the disagreements of father and son correspond to some of the most fascinating interpretative questions of The Odyssey itself. Mendelsohn is a perceptive literary critic and a self-consciously elegant writer. An Odyssey is a stellar contribution to the genre of memoirs about reading—literary analysis and the personal stories are woven together in a way that feels both artful and natural. A thoughtful book from which non-classicists will learn a great deal about Homer.” —Emily Wilson, The Guardian (UK)
“A marvellously entertaining and wise chronicle of [Mendelsohn’s and his father’s] odyssey, first in the classroom and then on a tour of the seas around Greece. Mendelsohn senior reveals himself to be a clever questioner and someone capable of motivating a class of reluctant youngsters. Revelations about the sorrows of war, the pangs of love, the craft of matrimony and the laws of travel are had. ‘A good book leaves you wanting more,’ Mendelsohn’s father observes after finishing his son’s seminar. This is powerfully true of this moving new odyssey as well.” —Alberto Manguel, Literary Review (UK)
“A gentle, at times almost nostalgic, work: Mendelsohn’s lithe prose flits seamlessly across intervals and registers, switching from erudite exposition one minute to emotion-filled reminiscence the next. An accomplished, brave book that testifies to what is perhaps the Odyssey’s most abiding message: that intelligence has little value if it isn’t allied to love.” —William Skidelsky, The Observer (UK)
“In An Odyssey, the act of reading Homer tests a father-son relationship. Besides creating page-turning narrative tension, Mendelsohn’s father Jay’s skepticism raises a question: What good are classics to a modern life? Jewel-like moments and meditations arise.” —Giancarlo Buonomo, The New Republic
“Extraordinary . . .Mendelsohn is the closest thing American classicists have to a hometown celebrity; his nonpareil prose has been recognized in wide literary circles. An Odyssey will speak to souls already well-watered by Homer and to those who have yet to drink from his well. An Odyssey is about the challenge we face in attempting to assemble our own prehistories. It is, in other words, the challenge of figuring out your parents. A deeply personal, profoundly moving meditation.” —Johanna Hanink, Eidolon
“Wise and deeply humane—a many-layered memoir; a remarkably warm and intimate book, one that brings an ancient wonder into modern life and creates heroes on a less than epic scale. Mendelsohn explains how his relationship with his father was historically spiky, characterised by patches of silence and distance. Under the teacher-pupil bond, however, it flourishes. Even as Mendelsohn lights up hidden meanings in the Odyssey and universal resonances for the reader, he is not only conveying his knowledge about the epic, but about the little things, too, those details that make a person who they are. In every way, this book is an education.” —Victoria Segal, The Sunday Times (London)
“Brave . . . A memoir that itself is a deeply Odyssean work, not just structurally, but thematically: as Mendelsohn takes us through Homer’s epic, he reveals how its themes – the passing of time, identity and recognition, the bonds between fathers and sons, husbands and wives – resonate across his and his father’s lives. The book thus enacts a truth that has long been central to Mendelsohn’s writing and teaching, which is that the great works of antiquity remain relevant today. This is a gentle, at times almost nostalgic, work; Mendelsohn’s lithe prose flits seamlessly across intervals and registers, switching from erudite exposition one minute to emotion-filled reminiscence the next. This accomplished book testifies to what is perhaps the Odyssey’s most abiding message: that intelligence has little value if it isn’t allied to love.” —William Skidelsky, The Guardian (UK)
“Brilliant . . . not just a memoir but a celebration of Homer’s great poem. Throughout we learn not only of the nuances and stories of the Odyssey, but the actual structure as well, illustrated by the author placing his own story in the parameters of the Greek epic. Mendelsohn proves to be a wonderful teacher; he confidently leads you through the ancient text. He also tells an intimate story about a father and son who don’t become close until late in life. If Homer’s The Odyssey is about any one thing it’s about stories, imagined or real, heroic or tragic. This memoir is also the story of another father and son and the stories they reacted and told each other.” —James Conrad, Chronogram
“A poignant and funny memoir as well as a stirring work of literary criticism.” —Vulture Best Books of 2017 (so far)
“A beautiful personal narrative and literary interpretation . . . an elegiac work in which the Odyssey comes back to life. The ancient story’s leaving and coming back to shared memories is also a strength of a son’s tribute to his father. By turns Mendelsohn becomes closer to his father as the two men take a journey of late-life friendship.” —Michael D. Langan, The Buffalo News
“Part odyssey, part memoir, part lit-crit and part classroom drama, swirling back through time. Mendelsohn has [long] been the plangent voice connecting the ancients with us. But the connectivity never hit home as hard until her undertook An Odyssey, [which is] is essentially a seminar of reading a human being. That human being is his father, and so his erudition is ennobled, and electrified, with true very human love. An Odyssey is a vindication of Mendelsohn’s theory that every man is a great text and the nobility of close reading. When the text is great and the man is your father, close-reading gives life back to the lines and the space between them.” —Joshua David Stein, Fatherly
“Beguiling. . . The ancient tension [between fathers and sons] that Athena, the goddess of wisdom and war, points out in the Odyssey is still simmering when father Jay takes his corner seat in son Daniel's Odyssey class. Mendelsohn's book keeps four stories aloft at once: a summary of The Odyssey; his account of the class he teaches; the story of his relationship with his father; and an account of his own and his father's life. The refreshing thing about An Odyssey is that it’s a repudiation of the cultism of the classics. Reading The Odyssey, the great book, with your failing old man, and keeping each other company in the parallel epic known as life [is] a memory that will last longer than anything on your cellphone.” —Ian Brown, The Globe and Mail (Canada)
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About the Author
DANIEL MENDELSOHN is a frequent contributor to The New Yorker and The New York Review of Books. His books include the international best seller The Lost: A Search for Six of Six Million, winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award and many other honors; a memoir, The Elusive Embrace, a New York TimesNotable Book and a Los Angeles Times Best Book of the Year; a translation, with commentary, of the complete poems of C. P. Cavafy; and two collections of essays, How Beautiful It Is and How Easily It Can Be Broken and Waiting for the Barbarians. He teaches literature at Bard College.
Product details
Hardcover: 320 pages
Publisher: Knopf; First Edition edition (September 12, 2017)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0385350597
ISBN-13: 978-0385350594
Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 1.1 x 9.5 inches
Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars 132 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,282 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
#5 in Ancient & Classical Literary Criticism (Books)
#7 in Parent & Adult Child Relationships (Books)
#15 in Parenting Boys
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Biography
Daniel Mendelsohn, an award-winning author, critic, and translator, is a frequent contributor to The New Yorker and the New York Review of Books. Born on Long Island, he began a career in journalism in New York City in the early 1990s while completing his Ph.D. in Classics at Princeton. Since then, his articles, essays, reviews and translations have appeared frequently in numerous national publications, including The New York Times, Esquire, Newsweek, The Paris Review, and Travel + Leisure. He has been the weekly book critic for New York magazine, for which he won the National Book Critics Circle Award for Excellence in Criticism, and has been a columnist for Harper's and The New York Times Book Review. He is presently a regular contributor to BBC Culture.
Mendelsohn's books include a memoir, "The Elusive Embrace" (1999), a New York Times Notable Book of the Year and a Los Angeles Times Best Book of the Year; the international bestseller "The Lost: A Search for Six of Six Million" (2006), which won the National Book Critics Circle Award, the National Jewish Book Award, the Salon Book Award, and many other honors in the US and abroad, including the Prix Médicis in France; two collection of his essays and criticism, "How Beautiful It Is and How Easily It Can Be Broken" (2008), a Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year, and "Waiting for the Barbarians: Essays from the Classics to Pop Culture" (2012), which was shortlisted for the National Book Critics Circle Prize in Criticism and the PEN Art of the Essay Award; and a two-volume translation, with Introduction and Commentary, of the Complete Poems of the Alexandrian Greek poet Constantine Cavafy (2009), also a Publisher Weekly Best Book of the Year, and was shortlisted for the Criticos Prize (U.K.).
In September 2017, his new memoir, "An Odyssey: A Father, a Son, and an Epic," was published by Alfred A. Knopf in the U.S. and by William Collins in the U.K., where it has been long-listed for the Baillie Gifford Prize for Nonfiction.
Daniel Mendelsohn was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2012; he is also a member of the American Philosophical Society. Other honors include a Guggenheim Fellowship and the George Jean Nathan Prize for Dramatic Criticism. He teaches literature at Bard College and lives in the Hudson Valley of New York.
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132 customer reviews
4.6 out of 5 stars
4.6 out of 5 stars
October 2, 2017
Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase
As other reviewers have noted, Daniel Mendelssohn skillfully interweaves a compelling father and son narrative along with erudite commentary on the text of the Odyssey in this book. The prose is superb, the characters engaging and the narrative makes the reader interested enough to continue reading.
What other reviewers seem to have missed is that the book itself literally is An Odyssey. That is, after describing the literary techniques and themes in Homer's Odyssey Mendelssohn employs the same techniques in relating his story. Look for examples such as ring circles in Mendelssohn's narrative, characters who both hide and reveal their personality and parallels such as Odysseus traveling to the underworld and then the real life characters in turn traveling to Hades symbolically.
What this means is that Mendelssohn has not only weaved a story about fathers and sons into a book on the Odyssey but has actually written an Odyssey of his own in this same interweaving. The degree of care and meticulousness this craft demanded must have been immense.
In short, this is not just a literary commentary, nor is it just a memoir. It is a full fledged work of art in which the author ingeniously casts both of these genres into a Homeric literary form.
What other reviewers seem to have missed is that the book itself literally is An Odyssey. That is, after describing the literary techniques and themes in Homer's Odyssey Mendelssohn employs the same techniques in relating his story. Look for examples such as ring circles in Mendelssohn's narrative, characters who both hide and reveal their personality and parallels such as Odysseus traveling to the underworld and then the real life characters in turn traveling to Hades symbolically.
What this means is that Mendelssohn has not only weaved a story about fathers and sons into a book on the Odyssey but has actually written an Odyssey of his own in this same interweaving. The degree of care and meticulousness this craft demanded must have been immense.
In short, this is not just a literary commentary, nor is it just a memoir. It is a full fledged work of art in which the author ingeniously casts both of these genres into a Homeric literary form.
November 27, 2017
Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase
Spectacular on every level. I loved The Lost, and eagerly anticipated diving into An Odyssey. Having read the Epic a number of times, I was familiar with the characters/story. This book brought it to life. I listened to it via Audible. Bronson Pinchot was absolutely brilliant, especially in the father's voice. Anyone who had a dad of that generation will find the portrayal of the father poignant yet spot on, definitely not a caricature. I thought my dear , clever, deceased dad who hailed from Bay RIdge Brooklyn, and won his not-the best-high school's Math award, was in the room.
Though the paralleling seemed at times a bit forced, I loved the effort as the tale unfolded. The author's discovery phase towards the end of the book was truly revelatory. Not a lot of adjectives, just the facts, ma'am. A gorgeous rendering of a father/son relationship. At the end of the day, is it a sin to strive for parental approbation? Not if it results in a paean this wonderful. Thank you, yet again, Mr Mendellsohn. Your father was very proud of you. Of that I am certain.
Though the paralleling seemed at times a bit forced, I loved the effort as the tale unfolded. The author's discovery phase towards the end of the book was truly revelatory. Not a lot of adjectives, just the facts, ma'am. A gorgeous rendering of a father/son relationship. At the end of the day, is it a sin to strive for parental approbation? Not if it results in a paean this wonderful. Thank you, yet again, Mr Mendellsohn. Your father was very proud of you. Of that I am certain.
November 19, 2017
Format: Audible AudiobookVerified Purchase
I read this book in an absurdly short period of time. The subject matter was engrossing, funny and heartbreaking. I felt like I knew Jay, as well as the other students in the class. Everyone pops off the page. The way Mendelson writes is elegant, but this is not a pretentious memoir. Although he and his father are both brilliant, they are also practical men—and gritty in the best way possible. I adored the passion with which Jay pursued his Odyssean education. It's an excellent reminder to all of us that sometimes life lessons don't come packaged neatly. Getting to the heart of a matter may take time, but it is always worth it. I also enjoyed the way the author used a circular kind of structure to weave his own tale. Very mathematical. Jay would be very proud, I think!
February 24, 2018
Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase
The author of this book is operating on several levels. First, it is a primer on the Odyssey that unravels the heartfelt reason why Odysseus and Penelope yearn to be reunited. Secondly, it is a look at the world and training of a classicist. Then it is a dual father son story. One story is between the author and his father who enrolls in his son's Odyssey seminar at Bard College. In the middle of this semester the pair sails around the Mediterranean Sea visiting sites in the Odyssey. And this journey of theirs is the collision of the baby boomer generation and the warrior World War Two generation entwined in both love and competition. And this leads to the other father son story, the relationship between the trickster warrior Odysseus and his post Trojan War warrior generation son. A professor of mine once asked if Shakespeare was our greatest writer what have we been doing for the last five hundred years to which I say nowadays if Homer was our greatest writer what have we been doing for the last 2,800 years. The answer is waiting for this touching book from Professor Mendelsohn.
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An Odyssey: A Father, a Son, and an Epic
by
4.28 · Rating details · 2,125 ratings · 455 reviews
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 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 the great literature he'd neglected in his youth--and, even more, a final opportunity to more fully understand his son, a writer and classicist. But through the sometimes uncomfortable months that 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's famous voyages--it becomes clear that Daniel has much to learn, too: 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 triumphant entwining yet of personal narrative and literary exploration. (less)
When eighty-one-year-old Jay Mendelsohn decides to enroll in the undergraduate Odyssey seminar his son 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 the great literature he'd neglected in his youth--and, even more, a final opportunity to more fully understand his son, a writer and classicist. But through the sometimes uncomfortable months that 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's famous voyages--it becomes clear that Daniel has much to learn, too: 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 triumphant entwining yet of personal narrative and literary exploration. (less)
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I can't imagine that classics professor, Daniel Mendelsohn, imagined having his father join his class on Homer's Odyssey would have had quite the impact it did, on him, his students, or on those of us reading this memoir/lit crit.
Tackling and untangling the themes of the classic poem, especially the threads of father/son relations, within this unusual class set up allowed for an unconventional yet entirely apropos and moving exploration of his own family dynamic. Critical evaluations of books of The Odyssey link to the author's recollections and musings about childhood, marriage, education, and death- all themselves important aspects of the poem's narrative. Everything is intensely intertwined, reflecting and building the connections between ancient and modern worlds. Even the very structure of the book harks back to the Homeric means of storytelling, the interweaving of past, present, and future to present a multilayered, episodic, and purposeful text that has life lessons at its heart.
At the end, there's significant self-reflection. Like both Odysseus and Telemachus in the poem, it is clear Daniel Mendelsohn learnt something through sharing this experience with his father and in writing this book about it. I certainly did- not only about the poem itself and the ways of reading it, but about the layered miscommunication that can persist within families. There may be a few small sections that only a classics student could love, the in-depth discussions of specific Greek etymology for example, but they are far outweighed by the larger, more universal issues addressed by Mendelsohn- that of personal identity and the ways (and extent to which) we can know another person, which underly both The Odyssey and his own potential to understand his father. It is incredibly well done- I defy anyone to leave it without an evaluative mindset towards their own familial relationships or a desire to immediately read or reread The Odyssey. Above all, Mendelsohn's passion for the text shines through this book and by the close, it is clear that it can still have a role to play in understanding human behaviour. For those new to it, and rereaders alike, I highly recommend the fresh and vibrant Emily Wilson translation.
ARC via Netgalley (less)
Tackling and untangling the themes of the classic poem, especially the threads of father/son relations, within this unusual class set up allowed for an unconventional yet entirely apropos and moving exploration of his own family dynamic. Critical evaluations of books of The Odyssey link to the author's recollections and musings about childhood, marriage, education, and death- all themselves important aspects of the poem's narrative. Everything is intensely intertwined, reflecting and building the connections between ancient and modern worlds. Even the very structure of the book harks back to the Homeric means of storytelling, the interweaving of past, present, and future to present a multilayered, episodic, and purposeful text that has life lessons at its heart.
At the end, there's significant self-reflection. Like both Odysseus and Telemachus in the poem, it is clear Daniel Mendelsohn learnt something through sharing this experience with his father and in writing this book about it. I certainly did- not only about the poem itself and the ways of reading it, but about the layered miscommunication that can persist within families. There may be a few small sections that only a classics student could love, the in-depth discussions of specific Greek etymology for example, but they are far outweighed by the larger, more universal issues addressed by Mendelsohn- that of personal identity and the ways (and extent to which) we can know another person, which underly both The Odyssey and his own potential to understand his father. It is incredibly well done- I defy anyone to leave it without an evaluative mindset towards their own familial relationships or a desire to immediately read or reread The Odyssey. Above all, Mendelsohn's passion for the text shines through this book and by the close, it is clear that it can still have a role to play in understanding human behaviour. For those new to it, and rereaders alike, I highly recommend the fresh and vibrant Emily Wilson translation.
ARC via Netgalley (less)
Dec 31, 2017Tamara Agha-Jaffar rated it it was amazing
An Odyssey: A Father, a Son, and an Epic by Daniel Mendelsohn is a combination of literary criticism of Homer’s Odyssey, a family memoir, and a travelogue. This is a unique and fascinating combination that Mendelsohn skillfully weaves together by transitioning seamlessly from one genre to another.
The literary criticism occurs when Daniel Mendelsohn, a Classics professor, conducts a seminar on Homer’s Odyssey. He analyzes the text with his students, providing insights and interpretations that illuminate the text in rewarding ways. The family memoir occurs when Mendelsohn’s octogenarian father sits in on his seminar and contributes to the discussion and analysis. As a result of his father’s reactions to the Odyssey, Mendelsohn interrogates his own relationship with his father, one that had been fraught with tension, misunderstandings, and lack of communication during his formative years. The travelogue occurs when father and son go on a literary cruise that re-traces Odysseus’ return from Troy.
Mendelsohn describes the structure of Homer’s Odyssey as a “ring composition” in which “elaborate circlings in space and time are mirrored” and where
…the narrator will start to tell a story only to pause and loop back to some earlier moment that helps to explain an aspect of the story he’s telling—a bit of personal or family history, say—and afterward might even loop back to some earlier moment, thereafter gradually winding his way back to the present, the moment in the narrative that he left in order to provide all this background.
Mendelsohn replicates this same ring structure in his work, looping backward and forward in time; weaving interpretations, highlighting details, and drawing connections within the poem; translating words from the Greek, providing their definitions, connotations, and context; and applying all of the above to significant events from his life that shed light on his relationship with his father. One of the most intriguing aspects of his discussion of the poem is the manner in which he interrogates Odysseus’ relationship with his son and his father, applying both to father/son relationships in general and to his relationship with his father in specific. This is as much an odyssey of Mendelsohn’s personal discovery of his father’s personality and behaviors as it is anything else.
What emerges from this work is a sensitive portrayal of Mendelsohn’s father, a fascinating critique of Homer’s Odyssey with profound insights on the poem, and a travelogue describing the locations father and son visit as they pursue their own transformative odyssey.
A fascinating and compelling work. Highly recommended for anyone with a pulse. (less)
The literary criticism occurs when Daniel Mendelsohn, a Classics professor, conducts a seminar on Homer’s Odyssey. He analyzes the text with his students, providing insights and interpretations that illuminate the text in rewarding ways. The family memoir occurs when Mendelsohn’s octogenarian father sits in on his seminar and contributes to the discussion and analysis. As a result of his father’s reactions to the Odyssey, Mendelsohn interrogates his own relationship with his father, one that had been fraught with tension, misunderstandings, and lack of communication during his formative years. The travelogue occurs when father and son go on a literary cruise that re-traces Odysseus’ return from Troy.
Mendelsohn describes the structure of Homer’s Odyssey as a “ring composition” in which “elaborate circlings in space and time are mirrored” and where
…the narrator will start to tell a story only to pause and loop back to some earlier moment that helps to explain an aspect of the story he’s telling—a bit of personal or family history, say—and afterward might even loop back to some earlier moment, thereafter gradually winding his way back to the present, the moment in the narrative that he left in order to provide all this background.
Mendelsohn replicates this same ring structure in his work, looping backward and forward in time; weaving interpretations, highlighting details, and drawing connections within the poem; translating words from the Greek, providing their definitions, connotations, and context; and applying all of the above to significant events from his life that shed light on his relationship with his father. One of the most intriguing aspects of his discussion of the poem is the manner in which he interrogates Odysseus’ relationship with his son and his father, applying both to father/son relationships in general and to his relationship with his father in specific. This is as much an odyssey of Mendelsohn’s personal discovery of his father’s personality and behaviors as it is anything else.
What emerges from this work is a sensitive portrayal of Mendelsohn’s father, a fascinating critique of Homer’s Odyssey with profound insights on the poem, and a travelogue describing the locations father and son visit as they pursue their own transformative odyssey.
A fascinating and compelling work. Highly recommended for anyone with a pulse. (less)
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 “Classics 125: The Odyssey of Homer” seminar as a launching point for exploring family relationships, particularly the bonds between fathers and sons, with all their mysteries and complexities, both in his own life and in the classic epic they study together over the course of a semester.
Early in his book Mendelsohn brings up the topic of “ring composition,” a literary device where an author uses flashbacks and flashforwards but always circles back to “present” events in the tale, and this device, introduced in reference to The Odyssey, allows him to examine with deepening understanding the life and motivations of the father he loves but has long regarded as cold and tough. Mendelsohn and his father follow up the spring course with a summer “literary cruise” around the sites made famous by Homer's epic, and that experience too offers him new perspectives on his father.
Like I said, this made me want to reread the Odyssey, and that's saying something, as I've always agreed with Mendelsohn's dad in finding Odysseus is a hard guy to admire. He fails to bring his men home, he cheats on his wife, he's a braggart, etc. Mendelsohn's a skillful teacher, though, and he helped me see details, parallels, and connections in the work that I'd previously missed or not fully appreciated. While I still don't like Odysseus, Mendelsohn showed me that the poem is more concerned with the bonds between family members and profound in its insights in these matters than I'd previously appreciated. (less)
Early in his book Mendelsohn brings up the topic of “ring composition,” a literary device where an author uses flashbacks and flashforwards but always circles back to “present” events in the tale, and this device, introduced in reference to The Odyssey, allows him to examine with deepening understanding the life and motivations of the father he loves but has long regarded as cold and tough. Mendelsohn and his father follow up the spring course with a summer “literary cruise” around the sites made famous by Homer's epic, and that experience too offers him new perspectives on his father.
Like I said, this made me want to reread the Odyssey, and that's saying something, as I've always agreed with Mendelsohn's dad in finding Odysseus is a hard guy to admire. He fails to bring his men home, he cheats on his wife, he's a braggart, etc. Mendelsohn's a skillful teacher, though, and he helped me see details, parallels, and connections in the work that I'd previously missed or not fully appreciated. While I still don't like Odysseus, Mendelsohn showed me that the poem is more concerned with the bonds between family members and profound in its insights in these matters than I'd previously appreciated. (less)
Jan 27, 2018Ken rated it really liked it
Shelves: contemporary, finished-in-2018, world-literature, memoir
Not THE Odyssey, but rather AN Odyssey, wrapped around THE Odyssey because the protagonist, Professor Daniel Mendelsohn, teaches a seminar on THE...(oh, you get the idea) and his 80-something year old father sits in on the class to play irascible golden guy.
It's an odd pairing of lit crit on Homer mixed with memoir on another personal history with yet another tough dad (their numbers are legion). If you're thinking of reading or re-reading The Odyssey, or just recently read it, sitting in on Mendelsohn's Bard College class will only serve to make the experience richer. The book provides lots of insights on the inner workings, allusions, and symbolism in the epic.
At the same time, in back-and-forth fashion before finally blending with Dad in the classroom, we get the story of a father and a son. TWO fathers and sones (Odysseus and Telemachus, plus Jay Mendelsohn and Dan). THREE fathers and sons, if you want to throw in Laertes and Odysseus, etc.
Jay Mendelsohn is Old School (as fathers tend to be) and his son is... not. The gentle friction between the two lends the book its forward momentum. Father Jay cares little for Odysseus the Man, but that's because the Big O gets too much help from Athena and cheats on his wife while taking 10 years to get home from the Trojan War. Not up to standards, this Odysseus fellow. And, Daniel thinks, neither am I.
Or is he? That's what we get here. Overall, high marks, though I can't say I was wild about the blow-by-blow rendering of the classroom. Mendelsohn is Old School in his way, too. He's one of these professors who asks questions with the answer already in mind, for the most part, and when he doesn't get what he wants, he keeps asking in different ways until he does.
Nevertheless, I enjoyed the Classical insights because I'm getting to be Classical Era myself. (less)
It's an odd pairing of lit crit on Homer mixed with memoir on another personal history with yet another tough dad (their numbers are legion). If you're thinking of reading or re-reading The Odyssey, or just recently read it, sitting in on Mendelsohn's Bard College class will only serve to make the experience richer. The book provides lots of insights on the inner workings, allusions, and symbolism in the epic.
At the same time, in back-and-forth fashion before finally blending with Dad in the classroom, we get the story of a father and a son. TWO fathers and sones (Odysseus and Telemachus, plus Jay Mendelsohn and Dan). THREE fathers and sons, if you want to throw in Laertes and Odysseus, etc.
Jay Mendelsohn is Old School (as fathers tend to be) and his son is... not. The gentle friction between the two lends the book its forward momentum. Father Jay cares little for Odysseus the Man, but that's because the Big O gets too much help from Athena and cheats on his wife while taking 10 years to get home from the Trojan War. Not up to standards, this Odysseus fellow. And, Daniel thinks, neither am I.
Or is he? That's what we get here. Overall, high marks, though I can't say I was wild about the blow-by-blow rendering of the classroom. Mendelsohn is Old School in his way, too. He's one of these professors who asks questions with the answer already in mind, for the most part, and when he doesn't get what he wants, he keeps asking in different ways until he does.
Nevertheless, I enjoyed the Classical insights because I'm getting to be Classical Era myself. (less)
An Odyssey: A Father, a Son, and an Epic is an immensely satisfying and deeply moving memoir of a son’s search for his father.
The author, Daniel Mendelsohn, is a Classics Professor at Bard College in New York. In the Spring semester, 2011, Mendelsohn’s 81-year-old father (Jay, a retired research scientist and Mathematics professor) asked to audit his undergraduate semester on the Odyssey. Now, that struck me as a daunting proposition. For sixteen weeks, therefore, from January to May, Jay came to class and participated in discussion with a bunch of undergraduates.
Jay said he was not going to talk in class, but in the very first class, he challenged the view that Odysseus was a hero. Odysseus was not a ‘real’ hero because “he’s a liar and he cheated on his wife.” “He also lost all his men and all twelve ship. What kind of leader loses all his men? You call that a hero?!” Oh, this was fun for me to read, but a nightmare for Mendelsohn. His reaction, however, was priceless: ”Yep, I said, a little defiantly. I felt like I was eleven years old again, and Odysseus was a naughty schoolmate whom I’d decided I was going to stand by even if it meant being punished along with him.”
I remembered little of the Odyssey. What I remembered better was the poem ‘Ulysses’ by Alfred Tennyson, which I loved. It offered a glimpse of Odysseus’ life after he returned home to Ithaca. I trooped along with Jay to class and relished this opportunity to be taught by a Classics scholar, extraordinaire. Book by book, Mendelsohn had his students and me enthralled with Homer’s literary magic. I appreciated his systematic approach to the epic poem beginning with an exposition on the etymology of words - voyage, vacation, travel. The Odyssey, I learned, is a ‘nostos' narrative; ‘nostos’ means Homecoming. It is combined with another Greek word, ‘algos,’ which means pain. Hence, the pain associated with longing for home is ‘nostalgia.’ Mendelsohn also introduced the ring composition, a narrative technique in Greek literature that wove the present and the past together, which mirrored the elaborate circling in space and time in the Odyssey. He drew attention to the long, six-beat, oom-pah-pah meter, also known as the dactylic hexameter in Homer’s twelve thousand one hundred and ten lines. If the reader did not mind some deviation from the memoir, it was all extremely fascinating and rewarding. Mendelssohn provided an absolutely gorgeous analysis of the Odyssey, a phenomenal literary criticism. It was a veritable treat to sit in this seminar!
Like all good teachers do, Mendelsohn asked searching questions that directed attention to the themes in Homer’s poem. Do heroes cry? “What might a heroism of survival look like?” What makes a good marriage? Why did Odysseus choose mortal Penelope and not the goddess Calypso? “How does one recognize someone after one can no longer rely on physical appearance?”“When the exterior, the face and body, have changed beyond recognition, what remains? Is there an inner ‘I’ that survives time?” “What is the difference between who we are and what others know about us?” These questions generated lively discussion in class. It was fascinating watching the young undergraduates sparring with an elderly man who could have been their grandfather, and even more fascinating to observe the mutual respect and admiration that developed between them.
In essence, the Odyssey is a homecoming story of a child going in search of an absent father and starting to learn about him and the world. It is a homecoming story. It is the story of Telemachus’ education. This memoir is the story of Mendelsohn’s education. Like Telemachus, Mendelsohn came to know who his father really was. From childhood until his mid twenties, Mendelsohn only knew his father to be a hard man for whom the value of a pursuit resided in the amount of painful exertion it demanded. Mendelsohn admitted, ‘I felt that if I devoted myself to a career whose training was painful, my father might approve of it.’
I thought it wonderful that at the end of this seminar, Mendelsohn and his father went on a Mediterranean cruise, ‘Retracing the Odyssey.’ On the cruise, Mendelsohn had many opportunities to get acquainted with the softer side of his father. At cocktail hour, Jay sang and charmed the crew on board ship. There were tender moments of revelation that were heartwarming. On one occasion, Mendelsohn reflected, ‘I suddenly realized, this was who he was: a lovely old man filled with charming tales about the thirties and forties, the era to which the music tinkling out of the piano belonged, an era of cleverness and confidence and sass. It was as if he were the Great American Songbook. A spasm of emotion courses through me, something primitive, childish.’This father-son odyssey was particularly poignant as, unbeknownst to them, it was their last educational journey together.
I will close with Mendelsohn’s quote on teaching, which he exemplified in his seminar class:
“It was from Fred that I understood that beauty and pleasure are at the center of teaching. For the best teacher is the one who wants you to find meaning in the things that have given him pleasure, too, so that the appreciation of their beauty will outlive him. In this way - because it arises from an acceptance of the inevitability of death - good teaching is like good parenting.”
I recognize that a book like this is not for everyone. However, if you enjoy the classics, then this may just be your cup of tea. Mendelsohn said of the Odyssey that it is 'scathingly brilliant.' I can confidently say this of his memoir, too. Thank you, Professor Mendelsohn. (less)
The author, Daniel Mendelsohn, is a Classics Professor at Bard College in New York. In the Spring semester, 2011, Mendelsohn’s 81-year-old father (Jay, a retired research scientist and Mathematics professor) asked to audit his undergraduate semester on the Odyssey. Now, that struck me as a daunting proposition. For sixteen weeks, therefore, from January to May, Jay came to class and participated in discussion with a bunch of undergraduates.
Jay said he was not going to talk in class, but in the very first class, he challenged the view that Odysseus was a hero. Odysseus was not a ‘real’ hero because “he’s a liar and he cheated on his wife.” “He also lost all his men and all twelve ship. What kind of leader loses all his men? You call that a hero?!” Oh, this was fun for me to read, but a nightmare for Mendelsohn. His reaction, however, was priceless: ”Yep, I said, a little defiantly. I felt like I was eleven years old again, and Odysseus was a naughty schoolmate whom I’d decided I was going to stand by even if it meant being punished along with him.”
I remembered little of the Odyssey. What I remembered better was the poem ‘Ulysses’ by Alfred Tennyson, which I loved. It offered a glimpse of Odysseus’ life after he returned home to Ithaca. I trooped along with Jay to class and relished this opportunity to be taught by a Classics scholar, extraordinaire. Book by book, Mendelsohn had his students and me enthralled with Homer’s literary magic. I appreciated his systematic approach to the epic poem beginning with an exposition on the etymology of words - voyage, vacation, travel. The Odyssey, I learned, is a ‘nostos' narrative; ‘nostos’ means Homecoming. It is combined with another Greek word, ‘algos,’ which means pain. Hence, the pain associated with longing for home is ‘nostalgia.’ Mendelsohn also introduced the ring composition, a narrative technique in Greek literature that wove the present and the past together, which mirrored the elaborate circling in space and time in the Odyssey. He drew attention to the long, six-beat, oom-pah-pah meter, also known as the dactylic hexameter in Homer’s twelve thousand one hundred and ten lines. If the reader did not mind some deviation from the memoir, it was all extremely fascinating and rewarding. Mendelssohn provided an absolutely gorgeous analysis of the Odyssey, a phenomenal literary criticism. It was a veritable treat to sit in this seminar!
Like all good teachers do, Mendelsohn asked searching questions that directed attention to the themes in Homer’s poem. Do heroes cry? “What might a heroism of survival look like?” What makes a good marriage? Why did Odysseus choose mortal Penelope and not the goddess Calypso? “How does one recognize someone after one can no longer rely on physical appearance?”“When the exterior, the face and body, have changed beyond recognition, what remains? Is there an inner ‘I’ that survives time?” “What is the difference between who we are and what others know about us?” These questions generated lively discussion in class. It was fascinating watching the young undergraduates sparring with an elderly man who could have been their grandfather, and even more fascinating to observe the mutual respect and admiration that developed between them.
In essence, the Odyssey is a homecoming story of a child going in search of an absent father and starting to learn about him and the world. It is a homecoming story. It is the story of Telemachus’ education. This memoir is the story of Mendelsohn’s education. Like Telemachus, Mendelsohn came to know who his father really was. From childhood until his mid twenties, Mendelsohn only knew his father to be a hard man for whom the value of a pursuit resided in the amount of painful exertion it demanded. Mendelsohn admitted, ‘I felt that if I devoted myself to a career whose training was painful, my father might approve of it.’
I thought it wonderful that at the end of this seminar, Mendelsohn and his father went on a Mediterranean cruise, ‘Retracing the Odyssey.’ On the cruise, Mendelsohn had many opportunities to get acquainted with the softer side of his father. At cocktail hour, Jay sang and charmed the crew on board ship. There were tender moments of revelation that were heartwarming. On one occasion, Mendelsohn reflected, ‘I suddenly realized, this was who he was: a lovely old man filled with charming tales about the thirties and forties, the era to which the music tinkling out of the piano belonged, an era of cleverness and confidence and sass. It was as if he were the Great American Songbook. A spasm of emotion courses through me, something primitive, childish.’This father-son odyssey was particularly poignant as, unbeknownst to them, it was their last educational journey together.
I will close with Mendelsohn’s quote on teaching, which he exemplified in his seminar class:
“It was from Fred that I understood that beauty and pleasure are at the center of teaching. For the best teacher is the one who wants you to find meaning in the things that have given him pleasure, too, so that the appreciation of their beauty will outlive him. In this way - because it arises from an acceptance of the inevitability of death - good teaching is like good parenting.”
I recognize that a book like this is not for everyone. However, if you enjoy the classics, then this may just be your cup of tea. Mendelsohn said of the Odyssey that it is 'scathingly brilliant.' I can confidently say this of his memoir, too. Thank you, Professor Mendelsohn. (less)
I simply loved this book, and Bronson Pinchot's narration was gentle and perfect. I am a former literature major who woke up to the joys of scholarship while studying the Odyssey in freshman seminar, I am going to Greece for the first time this summer with my late-70s parents, and like Mendelsohn, my relationship with my father has been very close, but not always very easy, so perhaps I was perfectly primed for this book. And indeed, I found the interweaving of memoir and literary exegesis entrancing, and I wanted neither the Odyssey nor Mendelsohn's text to end. But I don't think you have to have a family trip to Greece on the horizon to have that connection to this Odyssey. The book is about the circle and cycle of life, about journeys and endings, and the sense of melancholy, love and loss is strong. And the construction is nearly seamless.
So no, you don't have to be a classics scholar - just have parents, I think -- to connect to this story. The Mendelsohns, Daniel and Jay, will be much in my mind when I finally make it to Greece this summer. And I have been inspired to re-read the Odyssey (in the exciting new translation) as well.(less)
So no, you don't have to be a classics scholar - just have parents, I think -- to connect to this story. The Mendelsohns, Daniel and Jay, will be much in my mind when I finally make it to Greece this summer. And I have been inspired to re-read the Odyssey (in the exciting new translation) as well.(less)
Apr 21, 2019Ritinha rated it it was amazing · review of another edition
A Ilíada e a Odisseia não permanecem como berço lírico do cânone ocidental por mero hype ou dogmatização do seu estatuto. O termo «está lá tudo», à luz de análises saturadas, é bem possível que seja de uma adequação absoluta.
Neste livro sobre livros, Daniel Mendelsohn faz o que melhor sabe - ensinar esses dois clássicos, especialmente a Odisseia, partilhando o deslumbramento - e, enquanto o faz, relata parte da sua biografia familiar com especial ênfase sobre Jay Mendelshon, o seu pai. O qual, j ...more
Neste livro sobre livros, Daniel Mendelsohn faz o que melhor sabe - ensinar esses dois clássicos, especialmente a Odisseia, partilhando o deslumbramento - e, enquanto o faz, relata parte da sua biografia familiar com especial ênfase sobre Jay Mendelshon, o seu pai. O qual, j ...more
Jan 17, 2018Lyn Elliott rated it it was amazing
I read this five months ago as part of my preparation for an exciting group read of Emily Wilson’s new translation of The Odyssey.
As so often happens with books I deeply appreciate, I mean to re-read, take detailed notes and then write a considered review. And then, as also often happens, my reading and my life move on and I don’t get back to the book that gave me so much.
When I finished Mendelssohn, I promised myself and GR that I would write a thoughtful, referenced review, and began the noting process. But now it’s mid-June, and I’ve decided to just write what has stayed with me since the beginning of the year.
I had not previously thought about the relationships between fathers and sons as a main theme in The Odyssey, but once it was pointed out, it is very clearly a plot driver.
Mendelssohn cleverly interwove stories of his relationship with his own father with his ongoing class discussions of Odysseus and Telemachus, and was often very funny in describing their differences both in Daniel’s classes and outside them.
The weekly classroom discussions of the poem could have been clunky, but instead threw up opportunities to explore different interpretations of the text, coming from widely divergent viewpoints. Where there were points of difference over the meaning of individual words or phrases, Mendelssohn gives us his own translations.
The structure is similar to The Odyssey, as the different narratives intertwine, circling each other, shifting time frames.
It’s written in an easily accessible style, a major achievement for a work based in such deep scholarship. (less)
As so often happens with books I deeply appreciate, I mean to re-read, take detailed notes and then write a considered review. And then, as also often happens, my reading and my life move on and I don’t get back to the book that gave me so much.
When I finished Mendelssohn, I promised myself and GR that I would write a thoughtful, referenced review, and began the noting process. But now it’s mid-June, and I’ve decided to just write what has stayed with me since the beginning of the year.
I had not previously thought about the relationships between fathers and sons as a main theme in The Odyssey, but once it was pointed out, it is very clearly a plot driver.
Mendelssohn cleverly interwove stories of his relationship with his own father with his ongoing class discussions of Odysseus and Telemachus, and was often very funny in describing their differences both in Daniel’s classes and outside them.
The weekly classroom discussions of the poem could have been clunky, but instead threw up opportunities to explore different interpretations of the text, coming from widely divergent viewpoints. Where there were points of difference over the meaning of individual words or phrases, Mendelssohn gives us his own translations.
The structure is similar to The Odyssey, as the different narratives intertwine, circling each other, shifting time frames.
It’s written in an easily accessible style, a major achievement for a work based in such deep scholarship. (less)
Dec 14, 2017Rebecca rated it liked it · review of another edition
In the spring term of 2011, 81-year-old Jay Mendelsohn, a retired mathematician, sat in on his son’s Bard College undergraduate seminar on Homer’s Odyssey. They subsequently went on a “Retracing the Odyssey” cruise together. Again and again, epics like the Odyssey lend not just their structure but also their themes to Mendelsohn’s family story. Notions of heroism and masculinity are interrogated throughout. I suspect this will appeal more to classics buffs than to general readers. However, the quest, with its manifold aspects – to understand Homer’s epic in historical context, to rediscover its incidents in situ, and to reclaim a relationship before it’s too late – is affecting. Can one ever really know the whole of one’s parents’ story, Mendelsohn asks, given how much of a head start they’ve had on life? In this family memoir that plays around with classical literary forms and tropes, that’s the question that lingers.
See my full review at Shiny New Books. (less)
See my full review at Shiny New Books. (less)
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