My book for June is The Odyssey by Emily Wilson. With Christopher Nolan's film version of the Odyssey coming out in July, I wanted to read the book before we saw the movie.
Published in 2017, Emily Wilson's translation of The Odyssey made history as the first complete English version of the epic poem published by a woman. Wilson chose to match Homer's original line count exactly and translated the text into regular iambic pentameter, resulting in a pacing that feels incredibly modern, swift, and natural to read.
I put together two related posts. First, a one sentence summary of the each of the chapters (called books) is here. Second, a bulleted outline tracing Odysseus' travels is here.
I enjoyed the book immensely. I hadn't read it in high school or college. The structure of the story is very different than I expected. I was generally familar with the struggles that Odysseus faced after he left Troy, but that is really only a part of the story. I also read Circe by Madeline Miller; Odysseus appears in that book. [Note to self], I should read Emily Wilson's translation of the Illiad.
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