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Mostly perfect. For me, the narrative dragged a bit at the very end, but that may be more of a reflection on my attention span than the book, itself. The writing is wonderful, and so are the characters.

Fantastical, funny, and hyperliterate, Carson’s psychographic memoir is winding to a close, but the ride has been so much fun I’ve delayed finishing it, so as to savor every pun, every footnote, and every etymological meander.

Just finished the brief history of documentaries, of particular interest were the ways different countries approached the form, and the topic of personal involvement in one’s studied milieu.

This book is very very funny. I love the idea of the templars holding onto the holy grail in Ireland, but that’s the least absurd part of it. It comes off as wacky as Bataille’s story of the eye at times.

Amusing so far, and well paced,

The impact of 9/11 on lacey’s dreams is much heavier then I anticipated in a work of fiction

Wow, sex beneath the Matisse. What a perfectly rendered scene!

A wonderful collection of short stories not just set in Belfast, but indeed organically OF Belfast.

Book XXI sees Odysseus win the challenge Penelope has set with the bow and the axes, setting the stage for Book XXII where both Odysseus and Telemachus lay waste to the suitors with bloodthirsty thoroughness. A couple innocents get saved, the rest perish.

Then, the slave girls who slept with the suitors are compelled to clean up the mess before they get hanged by Telemachus for their treachery.

In book XIX, Telemachus and Odysseus have hidden the arms and set the stage for the archery contest Penelope will propose.

At the end of Book XVIII, Odysseus has come to his palace and bested one beggar, Irus. The slave Melantho, mistress of the suitor Eurymachus, and she’s boldened to insult Odysseus.

You can feel the tension mounting.

Whew, what a whirlwind! Odysseus has reunited with Telemachus, and together they scheme to recover Ithaca’s palace, but slowly. There’s an interesting itinerant prophet whom we keep seeing,, but I don’t know what he will end up doing. All I know for sure is a can of whup-ass awaits the suitors, and I can’t wait!

Odysseys cloaks his story in lies to gain his former slave eumaeus’ trust. His efforts mostly work, but the slave refuses to believe Odysseus is ever coming back home

I have skipped many chapters since I last posted an update. Odysseus’s has been to hades, has chatted with tiriesias, and then ventured between Scylla and Charybdis.

On the island of the sun king, his men violated their oath and slew Helios’ cows, an offense they paid for with their lives. That brought him to calypso, and finally the phaecians whom he had told his tale of woe. Athena guides him to Ithaca.

Neglected the page number in my Book XIX notes

Book XIX: this one was a real humdinger, covering the encounter with Poseidon’s son the cyclops Polyphemus. It’s not a spoiler to opine Odysseus really deserves all the misery that’s served up to him, given his hubris and obnoxious taunting of the cyclops.