An Iliad: A Story of War [Import] [Hardcover]

Alessandro Baricco (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover
• Publisher: Canongate Books (2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1841959014
• ISBN-13: 978-1841959016
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.9 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a truly bold reimagining: approach with an open mind, August 3, 2006

By 

Jane, reading groupie (Houston, TX) - See all my reviews

This review is from: An Iliad (Hardcover)

I am as close to a Homer purist as you will find: BA and MA in classics. Of course this book is no substitute for Homer's original: that narrative defined all western standards for storytelling. But I must give Baricco the highest marks for crystalizing and presenting (quite powerfully) the elements of the Iliad that are still relevant to human circumstances. We no longer believe that a pantheon of gods intimately involve themselves in the lives of a few heroic figures. It is therefore the job of the modern interpreter to find the purely human motivations that haven't changed over the millennia. This Baricco has done superbly. The characters do not all sound alike, as the other reviewer claims: that's just wrong. As one who has studied Homer line by line in the original, I have as much reason in theory to be bored or unimpressed by this project. But I am not. It made me think about the original in a new way, and that's no small feat.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Entertaining and educational if read with Italian version, December 21, 2008

By 

Ivan Strand (Victoria BC) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: An Iliad (Vintage International) (Kindle Edition)

Entertaining on its own it makes a wonderful text to practice your Italian if you read it along with the Italian version much of which is available on Google books, look for:

Omero, Iliade, on Google Books

[...]

I am an intermediate student of Italian. I find the translation from Italian to English to be quite literal and the Italian is straightforward so I recommend the two as a parallel reader. The fact that the original Homeric story is well known and well told helps.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars a stong 4 stars from a baricco fan, October 22, 2007

By 

Shawn Campbell (Parker, CO USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: An Iliad (Vintage International) (Paperback)

I read this as a fan of Alessandro Baricco (ocean sea is a personal favorite). When I began reading I was surprised at the rhythm of the text, because it seemed quite different than the long flowing poetic sentences of Ocean Sea and Silk. Once I settled into his concise style, I appreciated the gruesome battles more than expected. In the end, I was introduced to a style and context of fiction literature that I was previously unfamiliar with. I would recommend the book to anyone interested in Greek Epics or warfare.