ODYSSEY: A MODERN SEQUEL (Touchstone Books) [Paperback]

Nikos Kazantzakis (Author), Kimon Friar (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Language Notes

Text: English, Greek (translation)

Product Details

• Paperback: 824 pages
• Publisher: Touchstone (September 16, 1985)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0671202472
• ISBN-13: 978-0671202477
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.3 x 1.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #472,782 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

39 of 40 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Kazantzakis's "Odyssey": Literature or Baklava?, September 30, 1997

By 

Padma Thornlyre - See all my reviews

This review is from: ODYSSEY: A MODERN SEQUEL (Touchstone Books) (Paperback)

This epic poem, much longer than Homer's original, was, for me, a very long read. Not because it's difficult, per se, but because Kazantzakis's language drips with honey--like baklava. I cannot read more than ten pages at a time because the writing (even in translation) is so incredibly rich...Kazantzakis describes the crescent moon as an ivory comb drawn through night's black hair. The reader needs time, again and again, to put the poem aside, to absorb and revel in what one has just read (and after four readings, the above remains as true as it did during the first reading). The "Odyssey" is sensual, passionate, hallucinatory and immensely/intensely spiritual, Kazantzakis's Odysseus so compelling that one is not startled when Death himself, while stalking Odysseus, falls asleep and dreams of being alive...dreams of being Odysseus. "The Last Temptation of Christ" and "Zorba the Greek" notwithstanding, "The Odyssey: A Modern Sequel" is not only Kazantzakis's best work, it rivals the best of Joyce, Hemingway, Pynchon, and Cary; only Durrell's "Alexandria Quartet" is as rich in language and as lovingly written, but Durrell's masterpiece is fiction, of course, not poetry. Only Homer himself has composed a work so valid and so vivid--not only for his own time, but for all time to come.

43 of 48 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A place to stand and breathe when all else fails..., September 26, 1998

By 

Rhodes Hileman (Seattle) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: ODYSSEY: A MODERN SEQUEL (Touchstone Books) (Paperback)

I have two copies of this book, both well worn. I began reading it over twentyfive years ago. As others have noted, the text is so rich that one or two pages is enough, and twenty is too much to digest. I find I tend to pick it up when I am discouraged. It is always a sweet wind to stand in, inducing a sense of space, of freedom in the cosmos, that lifts me to a higher perspective. And yes the translation is stunning. It is hard to remember that it was not written in English first. I have not finished the book - I just finished book 16, of 24, recently - and I don't know what I will do for solace, and reminders of my true free nature, when I have finished it. I suppose I could read it again. I have seen nothing else like it, and have never met anyone else who is reading it. So my experience of solitude is extreme when I read it. I should note also that it seems to have a particularly male point of view. There is also a feminist in me that would like to see that perspective broadened. Yet it offers so much that is true, I have to forgive this.

32 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars No hope No despair, December 5, 2000

A Kid's Review

This review is from: ODYSSEY: A MODERN SEQUEL (Touchstone Books) (Paperback)

A long, long time ago, I read this book and it changed the way I read literature. Kazantzakis' book goes beyond writing - it is a vivid exploration of the flame that consumes man. To go back to reading the frivolous so-called literature of today almost seems pointless. I am just thankful that Kazantzakis left us with such a rich body of work to read. The libraries were full of his books twenty years ago, but today I rarely find them on any shelf. To those of us who were lucky enough to discover him early, we know that he is the best kept secret of the twentieth century.