An Odyssey with My Father
About This Novel
The legendary epic of ancient Greek heroic father and son overlaps with the ordinary life of contemporary father and son. The 81-year-old mathematician father of contemporary American classicist Daniel Mendelsohn went to attend his son's "Odyssey" study class for undergraduates and read carefully the 12,110-line epic poem about "Wandering and Returning Home." Afterwards, the father and son went on an "Odyssey"-themed cruise together. In the "Odyssey" of text and space, he was able to re-understand his father again and again. "The Odyssey" is the story of a hero who has been wandering for many years and returns home after going through all kinds of hardships; it is also the story of a child who grows up and gradually understands his father in the process of searching for him. "The Odyssey with My Father" juxtaposes the legendary epic of the ancient Greek heroic father and son in "The Odyssey" with the ordinary lives of contemporary fathers and sons. In the overlap of text and reality, the two pairs of father and son reflect each other. In the crisscrossing time and space, the story of father, son and epic slowly unfolds.
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