Customer Reviews

Theo's Odyssey

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

As a teenager I was reluctant to read a book about the world religions. However, the colorful way in which the religions were presented, made the book more attractive and sparked an interest in religion that I otherwise wouldn't have discovered. I think that it was a good way to introduce religion as a subject to an uneducated person and served as a vehicle for further study.

This was one of the most fantastic books I have every read! It is far more better than 'Sophie's World', because there are practically no transitions between the plot itself and the religious facts and details! If you are curious to know something about our world's religions and you have always been bored with 'dry' religious encyclopedias, then I advise you to enjoy this oevre fantastique!

I was very disappointed at what I had hoped would be an insightful and entertaining spiritual journey. Instead, this attempt to categorize and explain the tenets and history of the world's religion fails utterly. Full of oversimplifications, factual errors and unintelligible translations, I felt misled by the numerous comparisons to the far superior Sophie's World on the book jacket.

This is a frustrating book. On the one hand, the idea of using a story about a fourteen year-old boy with a mysterious illness travelling around the world in search of both a cure and insight into mankind's different approaches to godhood is a fine one. On the other hand, the delivery is so poor that it's very frustrating to read. First off is the translation. The book was written in French and the translators, who are either not native English speakers or are tone-deaf, produce an English unknown to at least the U.S. side of the Atlantic. The story itself (obviously only the vehicle for the author's instruction about religious basics) is not well constructed. The plot gets thin quickly, the characters are cardboard and, in English at least, all speak in more or less the same voice. Theo himself is sometimes made to act like a sexually aware young adult, sometimes like a (very) small child. Maybe French 14 year-olds are different, but I wonder...Through all this is a message that man's approaches to God have many similarities and some differences, few of which matter. On the author's level of generality, this is true and a good and useful thing to read. I don't think she quite "gets" some of the nuances of the different creeds, including the various approaches to Buddhism or the varieties of Protestantism. She is useful on the early divisions in Islam and the senses in which religions are often responses to one another, e.g., Buddhism to Hinduism, but it's hard to read past the arch dialogue and sometimes foolish plotting (a -- sizeable -- adult woman who is a social drinker gets drunk on two glasses of white wine!). Huston Smith is still a better introduction to varieties of belief (in many fewer pages!!) and the story that knits them together has yet to be written.

I shudder every time I read someone comparing this ineptly written piece to the captivating "Sophie's World". Yes, the concept is similar, but that is the alpha and omega of this muddle about the world's religions. Clement's characters are completely inconsistent (sometimes you can't tell if supposedly 14-year-old Theo should be wearing a diaper or a condom), unbelievable and unlikeable. Her thumbnail sketches of Judaism and Catholicism are filled with errors, so it made me distrust any of her takes on other faiths as well. Her finale of bringing all the different religions' mouthpieces together at the end is more like a community theatre curtain call than a believable ending. Two stars for her laudable goal with this book, and zero for her childish and condescending writing.

I was first interested by the idea: a young, sick boy goes around the world to discover religions. Please don't read this book with the idea that it is an essay on the history of religions. I think it is first and foremost a novel about religions, with a lot of subjectivity. Bring your critical sense if you wish through Theo's Odyssey, but please don't forget that religion is for millions a source of inspiration and a personnal way to fulfill one's life, and that is an act of faith. I understood that by reading this book and I was amazed by the richnesss and the imagination of this kid, who is discovering the depth of human spirituality, and his own experience of a miracle. I need to mention that the author seems to be anxious to finish the book, and it is palpable by reading the two or three last chapters. It is not quite as enchanting as Sophie 's world, but I still ponder about it...Please pardon my english: it is not my first language.

This book is an excellent journey through the major religions of the world. Much in the same flavor of "Sophie's World" this book tells the story of a 14-year old boy -Theo, and how he searches the world looking for a cure for his unknown illness. The book has some really good ways of comparing religions, for example, that monotheist religions are bloodier than polytheist religions. You will find that just as fundamentalism is (or has been) present in all religions, there are some more liberal and progressive views in most religions. You will also realise how religions have shaped the people's idiosyncrasy in different parts of the world, and how newer religions are always characterize by syncretism (a mixture or superposition of diferent points of view into a coherent hybrid cosmovision). The only thing missing is a chapter on atheism. I think (and hope) this book would encourage high school educators to teach a course on the History of Religions.

I don't know which book I like the most, Sophie's World or Theo's Odyssey. But I do know they belong beside each other. I found Sophie's writing a little bit clever and funnier; but Theo's writting is lightier and easier to read, and you just want to keep reading it. One thing for sure, if you liked Sophie's World, you are going to enjoy Theo's Odyssey. Perhaps a third novel where Theo finds Sophie (or Hilde) and they as young adults decide to search the world for love and their various interpretations of it would make the perfect trilogy: Authors take note!!!!!

Theo's Odyssey was a wonderful book. The critics who feel the tenents of each religion were not exactly as they have researched/read/been taught should go on to something more scholarly that would best utilize their, obviously, stellar intellect. For the rest of us, who enjoy a good read while learning about people passionate about their chosen religions, it was most informative in a imaginatively-written manner. To me, it showed how all of us believe so differently but so much the same upon closer inspection. Certainly tolerance of each other's beliefs was what I came away with after reading this book. To each their own, but I would recommend this book. I read this book twice -- something I've never done before.

It started out nicely, but it was all downhill from about the second chapter on. The only saving grace is the knowledge this book imparts- the plot is a mess and the characterization is quite shallow. I wanted the information, but it was very difficult to read it deeply, because Theo bugged the crap out of me. Teenagers don't act like that. This book almost doesn't deserve to be compared to Sophie's World.

Very entertaining as Theo travels the world learning about other cultures' religions. We learn right along with him. If some other tenets puzzle you, you can't believe what else is out there until you go with Theo on his Odyssey!
I Highly recommend this entertaining and exciting learning adventure.