Sometimes the best stories are the oldest stories. Such is the case with Zachary Mason's new collection The Lost Books of the Odyssey, a re-imagined version of Homer's original. Mason, a computer scientist and first time novelist, has hit the mark with this group of stories that take Odysseus from the shores of Ithaka to Ilium, and back again. Rather than wed his new tales too closely to the plot lines of Homer, Mason instead wanders wider as Odysseus makes his way to war and home again.
Mason's best bits come in selections like The Iliad of Odysseus, where the hero, instead of the fully formed epic manifestation of Homer's twin books, animated by equal parts hubris and heroism, shrinks from conflict. Instead of taking up his damaged men to make for Ithaka, this suspect character begins by wondering "whether all men are cowards like me." In quick succession, this Odysseus sneaks through the carnage of the battlefield, stealing away into the night in shame and anonymity. Not the quintessential character of high school classrooms, this new Odysseus is rather a more human configuration.
In Mason's rendering, the story also radiates in widely different arcs. There is no clearly defined point of reference. The collection rather shows Odysseus, whether running toward a challenge or withering in the face of adversity, as a still evolving character, quite a feat for a creation more than 3,000 years old.
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