Thursday, March 19, 2015

The Odyssey by Homer

This is my second book in the Back to the Classics Challenge for this year. It is one I have been wanting to read for quite some time and I'm so glad I finally read it. The Greeks are really good story tellers and as a whole kept my attention well. Not only was the book a story, stories were told in great detail with in the story. I'm not sure most people today would agree with this enchantment as we are all about how fast we can get through a story with as much action as possible, but I really enjoyed the complexity with which the story was told. There were a few times I got lost in the details, especially when words were used differently than I was familiar with, or I did not know the word at all, but it was still a good read.

I was also challenged by this book in the way they worshiped their gods. It was really interesting to see their worship and how much they gave to and relied on their gods. I plan to go more in depth on these observations in another post.

Showing the realness of humanity was also enjoyable. Though the level of revenge taken I felt was a bit much, it was a very real look at how people think about things and deal with life. I like how the Greeks are very real, if even to the extreme.

The least enjoyable element of the book was the ending. It was very abrupt, especially after what had taken place in the chapter before and in a sense way too simple, after all the complexity in the rest of the book. I'm not sure how I would change it, but it was too neat and fairy talish for my taste.

I would give this book 4 stars. I look forward to reading it with my kids in the future.

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