--- product_id: 73549770 title: "An Odyssey: A Father, A Son, and an Epic" price: "€ 47.99" currency: EUR in_stock: true reviews_count: 13 url: https://www.desertcart.pt/products/73549770-an-odyssey-a-father-a-son-and-an-epic store_origin: PT region: Portugal --- # An Odyssey: A Father, A Son, and an Epic **Price:** € 47.99 **Availability:** ✅ In Stock ## Quick Answers - **What is this?** An Odyssey: A Father, A Son, and an Epic - **How much does it cost?** € 47.99 with free shipping - **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship - **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.pt](https://www.desertcart.pt/products/73549770-an-odyssey-a-father-a-son-and-an-epic) ## Best For - Customers looking for quality international products ## Why This Product - Free international shipping included - Worldwide delivery with tracking - 15-day hassle-free returns ## Description A New York Times/PBS NewsHour Book Club Pick From award-winning memoirist and critic, and bestselling author of The Lost: a deeply moving tale of a father and son's transformative journey in reading--and reliving--Homer's epic masterpiece. When eighty-one-year-old Jay Mendelsohn decides to enroll in the undergraduate Odyssey seminar his son teaches at Bard College, the two find themselves on an adventure as profoundly emotional as it is intellectual. For Jay, a retired research scientist who sees the world through a mathematician's unforgiving eyes, this return to the classroom is his "one last chance" to learn the great literature he'd neglected in his youth--and, even more, a final opportunity to more fully understand his son, a writer and classicist. But through the sometimes uncomfortable months that the two men explore Homer's great work together--first in the classroom, where Jay persistently challenges his son's interpretations, and then during a surprise-filled Mediterranean journey retracing Odysseus's famous voyages--it becomes clear that Daniel has much to learn, too: Jay's responses to both the text and the travels gradually uncover long-buried secrets that allow the son to understand his difficult father at last. As this intricately woven memoir builds to its wrenching climax, Mendelsohn's narrative comes to echo the Odyssey itself, with its timeless themes of deception and recognition, marriage and children, the pleasures of travel and the meaning of home. Rich with literary and emotional insight, An Odyssey is a renowned author-scholar's most triumphant entwining yet of personal narrative and literary exploration. Named a Best Book of 2017 by NPR, Library Journal, The Christian Science Monitor, and Newsday A Kirkus Best Memoir of 2017 Shortlisted for the 2017 Baillie Gifford Prize Review: Part literary criticism, part biography, and part memoir - Part literary criticism, part biography, and part memoir, this book weaves together a touching and wonderful story. On the surface, it is a story of a father attending his son’s seminar on the Odyssey. Making use of the very ring structure that Mendelsohn is lecturing his students about, he presents his interpretation of the Odyssey and how to study it, explores his relationship with his father, and tells the story of his father’s life. This mirroring of the structure of Odyssey is tightly done: it is not forced. Mendelsohn doesn’t call attention to what he’s doing, but he’s not burying it either. As college professor, I enjoyed the retelling of the classroom settings and the interactions of the students. As a lover of the classics, I appreciated the insight into the Odyssey. As a father and a son, I found the story deeply touching. My relationship with my father is not at all like his—but the deeper idea of coming to see your father as person and seeing him (or trying to at least) for real is true for all fathers and sons (and as Mendelsohn shows us, is part of the theme of the Odyssey). Mendelson is courageously honest about the portrayal of himself. Although at times he comes off as a rather stereotypical haughty professor of classics, he doesn’t shy away from highlighting his own failures to connect to his father; the ways in which he missed opportunities to see his father. In this way, the book can be sad. And yet, for all these failures, there is a connection made; their relationship is transformed, and I think, father and son do come to know each other better. Review: Ingeniously Weaves Memoir and Literary Commentary into A Modern Odyssey - As other reviewers have noted, Daniel Mendelssohn skillfully interweaves a compelling father and son narrative along with erudite commentary on the text of the Odyssey in this book. The prose is superb, the characters engaging and the narrative makes the reader interested enough to continue reading. What other reviewers seem to have missed is that the book itself literally is An Odyssey. That is, after describing the literary techniques and themes in Homer's Odyssey Mendelssohn employs the same techniques in relating his story. Look for examples such as ring circles in Mendelssohn's narrative, characters who both hide and reveal their personality and parallels such as Odysseus traveling to the underworld and then the real life characters in turn traveling to Hades symbolically. What this means is that Mendelssohn has not only weaved a story about fathers and sons into a book on the Odyssey but has actually written an Odyssey of his own in this same interweaving. The degree of care and meticulousness this craft demanded must have been immense. In short, this is not just a literary commentary, nor is it just a memoir. It is a full fledged work of art in which the author ingeniously casts both of these genres into a Homeric literary form. ## Technical Specifications | Specification | Value | |---------------|-------| | Best Sellers Rank | #39,376 in Books ( See Top 100 in Books ) #16 in Ancient & Classical Literary Criticism (Books) #21 in Parent & Adult Child Relationships (Books) #44 in Parenting Boys | | Customer Reviews | 4.5 out of 5 stars 1,218 Reviews | ## Images ![An Odyssey: A Father, A Son, and an Epic - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81oz-HsXvFL.jpg) ## Customer Reviews ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Part literary criticism, part biography, and part memoir *by S***N on January 7, 2020* Part literary criticism, part biography, and part memoir, this book weaves together a touching and wonderful story. On the surface, it is a story of a father attending his son’s seminar on the Odyssey. Making use of the very ring structure that Mendelsohn is lecturing his students about, he presents his interpretation of the Odyssey and how to study it, explores his relationship with his father, and tells the story of his father’s life. This mirroring of the structure of Odyssey is tightly done: it is not forced. Mendelsohn doesn’t call attention to what he’s doing, but he’s not burying it either. As college professor, I enjoyed the retelling of the classroom settings and the interactions of the students. As a lover of the classics, I appreciated the insight into the Odyssey. As a father and a son, I found the story deeply touching. My relationship with my father is not at all like his—but the deeper idea of coming to see your father as person and seeing him (or trying to at least) for real is true for all fathers and sons (and as Mendelsohn shows us, is part of the theme of the Odyssey). Mendelson is courageously honest about the portrayal of himself. Although at times he comes off as a rather stereotypical haughty professor of classics, he doesn’t shy away from highlighting his own failures to connect to his father; the ways in which he missed opportunities to see his father. In this way, the book can be sad. And yet, for all these failures, there is a connection made; their relationship is transformed, and I think, father and son do come to know each other better. ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Ingeniously Weaves Memoir and Literary Commentary into A Modern Odyssey *by A***S on October 3, 2017* As other reviewers have noted, Daniel Mendelssohn skillfully interweaves a compelling father and son narrative along with erudite commentary on the text of the Odyssey in this book. The prose is superb, the characters engaging and the narrative makes the reader interested enough to continue reading. What other reviewers seem to have missed is that the book itself literally is An Odyssey. That is, after describing the literary techniques and themes in Homer's Odyssey Mendelssohn employs the same techniques in relating his story. Look for examples such as ring circles in Mendelssohn's narrative, characters who both hide and reveal their personality and parallels such as Odysseus traveling to the underworld and then the real life characters in turn traveling to Hades symbolically. What this means is that Mendelssohn has not only weaved a story about fathers and sons into a book on the Odyssey but has actually written an Odyssey of his own in this same interweaving. The degree of care and meticulousness this craft demanded must have been immense. In short, this is not just a literary commentary, nor is it just a memoir. It is a full fledged work of art in which the author ingeniously casts both of these genres into a Homeric literary form. ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ The Limits for a Son in Learning about his Father *by M***A on June 11, 2018* Mendelsohn's An Odyssey is a satisfying venture into how a classic epic poem mirrors some of the issues that every son confronts in learning about his father. I enjoyed the class of students analyzing Homer's work, but I found real meaning in the uncovering of things about the author's father that he had not known before. This is Telemachus earning his education, into being an even more compassionate man regarding decisions his father had made. Some of the analysis of Homer's work drags a bit and I would have enjoyed the book more if the things he learns about his father were meditated over a bit more in terms of consequences for the author. But Mendelsohn writes well, captures the essence of his father in a number of key, repeated phrases, and knows how to craft a tale that engages the reader. I recommend this book to anyone who wonders why his or her Dad did THAT? ## Frequently Bought Together - An Odyssey: A Father, A Son, and an Epic - Three Rings: A Tale of Exile, Narrative, and Fate - The Lost: A Search for Six of Six Million --- ## Why Shop on Desertcart? - 🛒 **Trusted by 1.3+ Million Shoppers** — Serving international shoppers since 2016 - 🌍 **Shop Globally** — Access 737+ million products across 21 categories - 💰 **No Hidden Fees** — All customs, duties, and taxes included in the price - 🔄 **15-Day Free Returns** — Hassle-free returns (30 days for PRO members) - 🔒 **Secure Payments** — Trusted payment options with buyer protection - ⭐ **TrustPilot Rated 4.5/5** — Based on 8,000+ happy customer reviews **Shop now:** [https://www.desertcart.pt/products/73549770-an-odyssey-a-father-a-son-and-an-epic](https://www.desertcart.pt/products/73549770-an-odyssey-a-father-a-son-and-an-epic) --- *Product available on Desertcart Portugal* *Store origin: PT* *Last updated: 2026-10-18*