Ithaca: The Novel

by Z.K. Goat

"Ah, Ithaca! How well I remember the curves and angles of its streets, the times I rode on busses to listen to young people converse.... Z. K. Goat celebrates this small city and a famous traveler, giving us a day of courageous speculation, realism infused with magic." - Anonymous Ithacan Ghost
"In her 'temporary dwelling' the ghost of Penelope revises old poems and writes new ones, chronicling her history that so many others call mythology. Z. K. Goat makes me want to return and retreat to a room in Collegetown with pots of basil set on the fire escape outside." - Anonymous Ithacan Ghost
"In Z. K. Goat's debut novella I can almost feel in the Novelist the power of the lake that inspired Ezra Cornell to found a university overlooking it. How often I myself slowly walked Seneca Street as I ruminated about language." - Anonymous Ithacan Ghost
"The owl is an excellent touch!" - Anonymous Ithacan Ghost
AUTHOR'S Z. K. Goat has been writing and publishing for more than half a century. They have climbed to the temple of Athena on Skyros and to the palace of Odysseus and Penelope on Ithaki. Now they live by a long lake in central New York State.

114 pages, Paperback

Published September 20, 2021

Reviews

[Mike Colahan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ithaca: The Novel" takes place in Ithaca, New York, an art-centric college town on the Finger Lakes. It is the last day of a back-on-earth vacation for Odysseus and Penelope that the former managed to trick Hades into granting. The third character is a resident of Ithaca, a novelist seeking inspiration for her next project and doing everything she can to avoid actually working on it. The book reads like a dream: funny, breezy, a little directionless (not a flaw), mixing poetry, mythology, the pursuit of art, a LOT of food, and -- as you would expect from a book with Athena -- wisdom. The slim volume is a perfect gift for eclectic tastes.