A mind boggling jaunt through The Odyssey

Zachary Mason's The Lost Books of the Odyssey is a crazy fun time reimaging the story of The Odyssey in different ways. The stories tackle what exactly home means, is home being happy with a boring life or out adventuring? Death and storytelling is another theme Mason tackles throughout the various retellings. There are too many different retellings in this novel to devote time talking about each one, so I am just going to talk about the ones that really stuck with me. This blog is going to be very selfish so get ready to hear me rave about my favorites. Spoilers for the stories I talk about. 'The Stranger' is a doppelgänger story. Odysseus is in his tent one night when a Trojan walks in and begins asking very personal questions to him. Odysseus is confused because the questions are things only he would know. The Trojan eventually tells Odysseus that he is Odysseus and that he woke up one day in the Trojan's body. The original Odysseus feels a little bad but ultimately decides that Trojan Odysseus is lucky to be free of the duties of war and tells him such. The Trojan Odysseus is given some gold and is told to leave. Years later when original Odysseus returns home, he walks in to see himself spending time happily with his family. The Trojan Odysseus tells him he is lucky to be free. Gah, it's so trippy and cool!! 'Penelope's Elegy' is a short and somewhat creepy tale. Odysseus returns home to find Penelope and everyone acting a little weird. Penelope won't let him touch her, and the servants seem afraid of her. Turns out Penelope had died while waiting for him to come home, and the only thing that remained to welcome him back was her ghost. Not very long, but still great nonetheless. Those two are great, but 'Death and the King' might be the best of the bunch for me. In this story is makes Helen and Paris fit the 'Death and the Maiden' motif, which I love more than anything. Side note 'Death and the Maiden' is a theme in the arts using pairing death with a lover, typically female but hey it's 2021 so it can be a male too. Paris is Death and Troy feels like the underworld, so when Odysseus and Co. arrive to wage war it's like they're waging war with Death itself. So when Odysseus wins, it's like he's beating Death itself, and considering how many people died in the war it very much seems like he did. Though to be honest the thing that stuck with me most was the Helen and Paris relationship in this one, can't quite tell if Helen loves Paris or just got kidnapped and is resigned to her fate. Then again the Hades and Persephone story can be told in a myriad different ways so the ambiguity could be purposeful on Mason's part. The whole book is worth reading because of all the different retellings a story that most have heard many times through the years. Plus there's a bunch more stories I haven't spoiled for you!