An Odyssey: A Father, a Son, and an Epic
Award-winning author and critic Daniel Mendelsohn joins us to speak about his recent book An Odyssey: A Father, a Son, and an Epic. Homer’s masterpiece led him and his father, a retired research scientist, on a hilarious and poignant adventure when they decide to recreate Odysseus’ journey by following the hero’s path through the ancient Mediterranean world via cruise ship. The 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. Mendelsohn will discuss his memoir and the complexity of human relationships, the challenges of interpretations, and the human desire for endless discovery.
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Daniel Mendelsohn is a frequent contributor to The New Yorker and The New York Review of Books. His books include the international best seller The Lost: A Search for Six of Six Million, winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award and many other honors; a memoir, The Elusive Embrace, a New York Times Notable Book and a Los Angeles Times Best Book of the Year; a translation, with commentary, of the complete poems of C. P. Cavafy; and two collections of essays, How Beautiful It Is and How Easily It Can Be Broken and Waiting for the Barbarians. He teaches literature at Bard College.
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