44 short pastiches that unmake Odysseus. If Odysseus from himself be ta'en away, and when he's not himself does anything at all, who does it, then?

Mason takes one of the foundational, archetypal tales of Western Civ and manages to make it fresh, new and unfamiliar. He deconstructs the story and plays with its essential elements in a way that is entertaining, enlightening and even profoundly funny. Odysseus and his counterparts are variously young men, old men, thieves, liars, maniacs, magicians, prophets and seers. Highly entertaining, concise and fresh.

A number of reviews over on goodreads seem to have two things in common: the reviewer hasn't read the source material, and they didn't particularly enjoy this collection. I applaud someone for stepping out of their comfort zone, but I really don't understand bagging something when the fundamental context isn't understood. Because this really, really doesn't stand stand with knowledge of The Iliad and The Odyssey, and it doesn't pretend it even wants to.

I adored this collection, and I am fantastically thankful that I happened to pick it up a few years ago at the closing-down sale of my favourite bookshop (which has since reopened!). I'm not an author, but I would suggest that anyone who wants to write short fiction - and who has the background - should read this, because it does the short form in glorious, scintillating ways.

The Preface claims that this set of 44 stories translated from variations to the standard Homeric tale found in Oxyrhynchus. I'll admit that for the first couple of stories I actually half-wondered whether this might possibly be true - I'd never heard of such a find, but Oxyrhynchus has been an incredible literary treasure trove; it's not like I work consistently in the field so it's feasible I might have missed hearing about it. I fairly quickly decided that this wasn't the case, but it doesn't matter in the slightest. I feel that Mason has stayed true to the core of the mythology, and what more could you want?

Some of the stories presented here are vignettes, others are more substantial stories. Most of them take aspects of The Odyssey and... shift them. Sometimes subtly, sometimes extravagantly, but almost always with that kernel that means it feels basically plausible to an archaic Greek mythological milieu. There are a few that stray beyond those bounds, but even those are wonderfully well written, so I don't mind. They too help to build up sense of shifting possibilities, what-ifs and could-have-beens. There are a few stories that take aspects from other parts of Greek mythology and tie them, in convoluted but logical ways, to the Troy story; and just one or two that could feasibly be set outside of the 13th century BC, but not with any firm proof that they do so.

A review of all 44 stories would be tiresome and, in some cases, impossible without ruining the sheer pleasure of the reading act. Suffice it to say that Penelope gets some attention, Athene a bit more, and Calypso and Circe a lesser bit. Most of them involve travelling, which is naturally appropriate; some are in Troy and some on Ithaka. Sometimes Odysseus is triumphant, other times a coward, and occasionally seen through others' eyes - like Polyphemus (sorry, bad joke). Once, Paris is Death. Occasionally, the reality of a two-decade absence is hinted at. Tragically, Hektor does not feature in any meaningful way.

This collection is wonderful and glorious and I loved it very much.

An interesting collection of Odyssey reimaginings. Some worked for me, others didn't. When they did work they were beautiful, the others left me cold.

I particularly enjoyed the ones that turn the story on its head, or where we hear from a character whose voice is nonexistent in traditional tellings (ie Polyphemus)

Overall probably worth reading if you have a standing interest in Greek mythology and are familiar with both the Iliad and the Odyssey. I consider myself quite familiar but still felt like some of the stories went over my head.

Three-and-a-half stars. I found it to be clever and well-written; the twists and turns that Odysseus and other characters from the Iliad and Odyssey were interesting digressions on what might be an alternate truth. The style and narrative turns reminded me of [b:Sum: Forty Tales from the Afterlives|4948826|Sum Forty Tales from the Afterlives|David Eagleman|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1320528453s/4948826.jpg|5014561] in some instances (particularly of "Odysseus in Hell"), a collection I enjoyed very much.

What kept me from pushing this to four stars? I'm not sure--I feel like I should've liked it much more than I did. Even though the alternative stories also gave you an opportunity to think back to the original narratives and see them in a new light, it's not like I ever reached for my copies of the Iliad or Odyssey to hunt out new meaning there. I found the footnotes distracting for the most part; half of the fun and challenge of alternative stories like this should be making your own connections back to the source materials, not being told their significance up front (and for many of them, I knew what the footnotes were going to say).

I will say that, as far as turning myths on their heads, The Lost Books of the Odyssey succeeds where many others, including last year's darling [b:The Song of Achilles|13623848|The Song of Achilles|Madeline Miller|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1357177533s/13623848.jpg|16176791], failed miserably for me. Mason manages to tear apart, put together and reinvent Odysseus and the characters surrounding him in ways that manage to stay true to the spirit of the Iliad and Odyssey, but shine a somewhat modern sensibility on the stories. There's no weak characterization here at the expense of telling the familiar stories in a new way.

This was a really fun book recommended to me by a friend. The concept of the book is based on the fact that Odysseus is a character that grew out of an oral tradition and, presumably, there were many and varied stories about him, not just the ones that found their way into the "canonical" Odyssey of Homer. Following this idea, the book presents a couple dozen very short stories somehow related to the character of Odysseus; maybe they are best described as "vignettes." The author's style is quite distinctive; something like Borges or Calvino (I think, I have never read the latter). Quite a few of the stories have some sort of reference to the concept of "eternal return," which seems appropriate for the subject matter. Many of them are told from the points of view of minor characters, such as Polyphemos, or reference anachronistic mythology, such as the Golem. The book gives a great deal of vibrancy to the "Odysseus multiverse"; if you're like me, you might come away wanting to write some of your own!