Bluebird (2026) h/b 294pp £14.99 (ISBN 978103590549)
A. is a both an Oxford classicist and a clinical psychologist. The premiss of her book is to use the model of Odysseus’ adventures on his return home from Troy, but drifting into Telemachos’ and Penelope’s stories too, as a toolkit for navigating the obstacles of modern everyday lives. It includes a lengthy introduction, comprising brief sections entitled: The journey is the thing, How this book can help you, Synopsis of The Odyssey, Why The Odyssey Still Matters, The Dark Corners of The Odyssey, The Women of the Odyssey: More than Footnotes, My Odyssey and Your Odyssey. It also has an Epilogue, Notes and Acknowledgements. In the introduction, A. explains how she first encountered the story of Odysseus as an 11-year old, watching Tony Robinson tell the story on the BBC; she has been captivated by it ever since.
The chapters are all divided into myriad brief subsections. The first chapter, How to Begin, tackles rising to challenges, citing a variety of sources, including John Lennon, as it deals with mentors, acceptance, flexibility and one’s inner voice. Nestor and Menelaus are chosen as examples of mentors because of their advice to Telemachus when he visits them. Penelope is described as ‘exercising her internal locus of control; she believes her actions can influence events’. She ‘subverts the system’ by unravelling her weaving every night after the suitors have gone to bed. All the chapters follow this same complex pattern, with many sections and sub-sections and maxims.
This is not a book to be read straight through and set aside. It is intended as a handbook, full of advice and to be kept close by, ready to be dipped into at any moment, as needed. The author is clearly passionate about Homer’s Odyssey, but her use of it as a sole source of ways for coping with the pressures of modern-day life seems incredibly contrived. No prior knowledge of the classics or of the Odyssey is assumed, but some such knowledge might make the book more appealing to a reader.
Marion Gibbs