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lisa_setepenre 's review for:
Chasing Odysseus
by S.D. Gentill
I was reminded of this book today and found a review I'd written but never posted back in 2011 in my Google Docs so I figured - may as well post it.
Chasing Odysseus takes place in the aftermath of the Trojan War. The Herdsman, who are a gentle, cattle herding people whose main purpose in life is to feed the Trojans, are blamed for letting the Greeks into Troy. Naturally, this upsets them so they decide that the only man who can possibly know the truth and restore justice is Odysseus. So they end up following Odysseus around and through their eyes, we see the "real" story of the Odyssey.
I'd give kudos to Gentill for doing one of those "the villain is the real hero" stories that I adore, except it's really more of a "the hero is the real villain" stories that I find smug and annoying. It's like the author is going "everyone is wrong but I, and I alone have the truth and that beloved, iconic character? They're EVIL."
It seems the book was written by making a list of all major events in The Odyssey, and then designating them as ‘mostly wrong’ or ‘half right’. The real stories go along the lines of "those nasty Greeks got what they were deserved", "delusional Odysseus is delusional" and "those poor, innocent women having to put up with Odysseus". Case in point: Circe, who holds Odysseus ransom for years? Is actually sick of him within a week and he's the one that's fallen in obsessively love with her.
The main characters are pretty basic, broadly defined characters. You have three brothers - the wisecracking one, the handsome one, and the serious one - and you have their one sister. The sister's characterisation is a quiet, frightened girl who occasionally does great and brave things. Her name is Hero, and as her brothers constantly say, she is aptly named.
Why not just name all the characters by their role in the story? Who needs names when we can just call Odysseus Antagonist and the brothers Funny, Hot, Serious? I mean, that’s basically all the characterisation we get.
Anyway, Hero’s heroic moments remind me more of Lisa Simpson in "I am the lizard queen!" mode than anything else. It comes out of nowhere and it largely consists of her throwing up her hands and shouting.
It gets tiring fairly quickly. I guess it's fun if you hate Odysseus and this feeds your hate but I'd like to see more than just "haha you thought you knew the story - WRONG!" all the time.
Chasing Odysseus takes place in the aftermath of the Trojan War. The Herdsman, who are a gentle, cattle herding people whose main purpose in life is to feed the Trojans, are blamed for letting the Greeks into Troy. Naturally, this upsets them so they decide that the only man who can possibly know the truth and restore justice is Odysseus. So they end up following Odysseus around and through their eyes, we see the "real" story of the Odyssey.
I'd give kudos to Gentill for doing one of those "the villain is the real hero" stories that I adore, except it's really more of a "the hero is the real villain" stories that I find smug and annoying. It's like the author is going "everyone is wrong but I, and I alone have the truth and that beloved, iconic character? They're EVIL."
It seems the book was written by making a list of all major events in The Odyssey, and then designating them as ‘mostly wrong’ or ‘half right’. The real stories go along the lines of "those nasty Greeks got what they were deserved", "delusional Odysseus is delusional" and "those poor, innocent women having to put up with Odysseus". Case in point: Circe, who holds Odysseus ransom for years? Is actually sick of him within a week and he's the one that's fallen in obsessively love with her.
The main characters are pretty basic, broadly defined characters. You have three brothers - the wisecracking one, the handsome one, and the serious one - and you have their one sister. The sister's characterisation is a quiet, frightened girl who occasionally does great and brave things. Her name is Hero, and as her brothers constantly say, she is aptly named.
Why not just name all the characters by their role in the story? Who needs names when we can just call Odysseus Antagonist and the brothers Funny, Hot, Serious? I mean, that’s basically all the characterisation we get.
Anyway, Hero’s heroic moments remind me more of Lisa Simpson in "I am the lizard queen!" mode than anything else. It comes out of nowhere and it largely consists of her throwing up her hands and shouting.
It gets tiring fairly quickly. I guess it's fun if you hate Odysseus and this feeds your hate but I'd like to see more than just "haha you thought you knew the story - WRONG!" all the time.