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A review by xebec
The Anger of Achilles: Homer's Iliad by Robert Graves, Homer
5.0
I can't really put into words how much I like this book and why; I have tried and failed many times already; I am going to c&p a bit I wrote elsewhere just so I HAVE IT HERE for the record. maybe I will find better words later.
I think the way you react to this book has a lot to do with what you think the book is about -- war? glory? heroism? for me it was all these things, but more than these a story of love and grief, a fatalistic story about the impotence of humankind. and yet it is also a story that is strangely hopeful -- one that celebrates the human condition.
at its heart, the iliad is really a story about human tragedy, told about a man who disdains his own humanity, who through sheer force of will escalates himself to the semi-divine, and who is brought low by the greatest personal tragedy he could possibly endure... all so he can learn to recognize in himself: mere humanity. (not mortality, not grace, not humility or mercy or kindness: just humanity, that pathetic and noble condition he shares in common with everyone who has ever lived and who ever will live.)
the sheer scale of that story, of the emotional power in that, is just overwhelming to me; it overwhelms me every time I think about it. I don't think I have ever read a story with this kind of emotional power behind it; if you have, please tell me so I can go and have another semi-religious experience, I would love that.
this is just. it is just the best book ever. please give it a try; I hope you get out of it what I did, because I got something really marvelous out of it.
I think the way you react to this book has a lot to do with what you think the book is about -- war? glory? heroism? for me it was all these things, but more than these a story of love and grief, a fatalistic story about the impotence of humankind. and yet it is also a story that is strangely hopeful -- one that celebrates the human condition.
at its heart, the iliad is really a story about human tragedy, told about a man who disdains his own humanity, who through sheer force of will escalates himself to the semi-divine, and who is brought low by the greatest personal tragedy he could possibly endure... all so he can learn to recognize in himself: mere humanity. (not mortality, not grace, not humility or mercy or kindness: just humanity, that pathetic and noble condition he shares in common with everyone who has ever lived and who ever will live.)
the sheer scale of that story, of the emotional power in that, is just overwhelming to me; it overwhelms me every time I think about it. I don't think I have ever read a story with this kind of emotional power behind it; if you have, please tell me so I can go and have another semi-religious experience, I would love that.
this is just. it is just the best book ever. please give it a try; I hope you get out of it what I did, because I got something really marvelous out of it.