{"product_id":"odyssey-book-daniel-mendelsohn-9780345806215","title":"An Odyssey","description":"\u003cb\u003eA \u003c\/b\u003eNew York Times\/PBS NewsHour Book Club Pick\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e From award-winning memoirist and critic, and bestselling author of \u003ci\u003eThe Lost:\u003c\/i\u003e a deeply moving tale of a father and son's transformative journey in reading--and reliving--Homer's epic masterpiece.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e When eighty-one-year-old Jay Mendelsohn decides to enroll in the undergraduate \u003ci\u003eOdyssey\u003c\/i\u003e 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 \u003ci\u003eOdyssey\u003c\/i\u003e 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, \u003ci\u003eAn Odyssey\u003c\/i\u003e is a renowned author-scholar's most triumphant entwining yet of personal narrative and literary exploration.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003eNamed a Best Book of 2017 by NPR, \u003ci\u003eLibrary Journal, The Christian Science Monitor, \u003c\/i\u003eand \u003ci\u003eNewsday\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e A \u003ci\u003eKirkus\u003c\/i\u003e Best Memoir of 2017\u003cbr\u003e Shortlisted for the 2017 Baillie Gifford Prize\u003c\/b\u003e","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":49723740258577,"sku":"CIN0345806212VG","price":7.08,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50037934522641,"sku":"CIN0345806212G","price":13.78,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ WELL_READ \/ SBYB","offer_id":50350431404305,"sku":"CIN0345806212A","price":13.08,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50780744876305,"sku":"GOR009946449","price":19.49,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51636127662353,"sku":"NIN9780345806215","price":18.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0345806212.jpg?v=1786615175","url":"https:\/\/www.worldofbooks.com\/products\/odyssey-book-daniel-mendelsohn-9780345806215","provider":"World of Books ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}