A blending of the Borges literary legacy with Zoran Zivkovic’s mode of “mosaic novel” writing, The Lost Books of the Odyssey refracts the story of The Odyssey and the person of Odysseus down a long corridor of funhouse mirrors--44 chapters of jazzy improvisation. And, at least on a first reading, Zachary Mason seems to never hit the wrong note; at once evoking with considerable skill the Time of Myth and a limbo-like atmosphere where post-modern narrative play is the most natural thing in the world.
Somehow, through the multiple short narratives, Mason also entirely avoids the triteness and tedium common to so many authors who’ve decided to “screw with the classics.” So, here is one of those conceptual novels that could have gone wrong in countless ways, and a considerable part of the enjoyment comes with watching Mason sustain his daring high-wire act. This is an ideal bedside book, as every story/chapter is only a few pages long and is also likely, late at night, to put you in a dreamy altered-state, frame of mind.And Mike adds:
Reading this short work reignited my love for myth and legend. Mason's must-read debut collects a series of "what-if" and "what-could-have-been" scenarios inspired by Homer's classic. Each chapter is a wildly imagined fable, twisting the familiar into something new and amazing.So come on in and check it out. Three Third Place booksellers can't be wrong (oh, and those New York Times people probably know what they're doing too).
We really do have to nicest, most interesting, well-rounded co-workers here at Third Place Books. Greg, who shelves the history section, is our go-to-guy for all things Everyman's Library. Greg is an Everyman aficionado, and has almost 300 titles in his collection! Crazy! He also keeps a current listing of the Everyman titles on his website, and his little corner of the world wide web gets quite a lot of traffic. Greg says that you would be pretty hard pressed to find another more, concise, complete listing of the Everyman titles out there. Even the Everyman homepage lacks a complete listing. For shame!"Anyone who handles old books will have come across these small and sometimes beautiful labels pasted discreetly (more or less) into the endpapers. Booksellers, binders, printers, publishers, importers, and distributors of books used to advertise in this way their part in bringing the book to market. Most of the earliest examples shown here belong to binders (e.g., the Marcus Ward ticket, ca.1841); these were a continuation of binders' earlier practice of sewing into the binding a small ticket with their signature.
"This collection began with labels found in our own books, but now it is mainly a virtual collection -- each entry is digitally scanned from books found in the excellent research library to which we repair in our spare time. We must admit to having gone from "coming across" the labels in our book-browsing to actually searching for them. Contributors from around the world have added a wonderful diversity to the collection."
