“And finally, as we learn that his own understanding of the epic is not complete, neither of course is his understanding of his father.​”

​While I am not a fan of memoir, per se, Mendelsohn’s Homeric ode to his relationship with his father sold me almost completely.

Mendelsohn runs a freshman college seminar in Homer’s Odyssey, and his “difficult” father decides to audit the course. Afterwards, they even take a theme cruise together. Throughout, he reads and re-reads his father’s obstinacies, but his interpretation is always missing something. If this sounds like a parallel to book interpretation, you’ve got the primary conceitIn literature, allowing a metaphor or unexpected comparison ... More of the book.

And it works. Along the way, readers learn a great deal about Homer’s work (and even for one who taught it for many years, there were several discoveries for me!). [It helps to have read Homer, but Mendelsohn offers enough exposition to make this pre-requisite not essential.]

And finally, as we learn that his own understanding of the epic is not complete, neither of course is his understanding of his (more complicated than he thought) father. It’s a wonderful self-discovery paralleled to the literary questions of heroism, masculinity, isolation, and love.