When NPR contributor Scott Huler made one more attempt to get
through James Joyce's "Ulysses," he had no idea it would launch an
obsession with the book's inspiration: the ancient Greek epic The
Odyssey and the lonely homebound journey of its Everyman hero,
Odysseus.
"No-Man's Lands" is Huler's funny and touching exploration of the
life lessons embedded within "The Odyssey," a legendary tale of
wandering and longing that could be read as a veritable guidebook
for middle-aged men everywhere. At age forty-four, with his first
child on the way, Huler felt an instant bond with Odysseus, who
fought for some twenty years against formidable difficulties to
return home to his beloved wife and son. In reading "The Odyssey,"
Huler saw the chance to experience a great vicarious adventure as
well as the opportunity to assess the man he had become and embrace
the imminent arrival of both middle age and parenthood.
But Huler realized that it wasn't enough to simply read the words
on the page--he needed to live Odysseus's odyssey, to visit the
exotic destinations that make Homer's story so timeless. And so an
ambitious pilgrimage was born . . . traveling the entire length of
Odysseus's two-decade journey. In six months.
Huler doggedly retraced Odysseus's every step, from the ancient
ruins of Troy to his ultimate destination in Ithaca. On the way, he
discovers the Cyclops's Sicilian cave, visits the land of the dead
in Italy, ponders the lotus from a Tunisian resort, and paddles a
rented kayak between Scylla and Charybdis and lives to tell the
tale. He writes of how and why the lessons of "The Odyssey"--the
perils of ambition, the emptiness of glory, the value of love and
family--continue to resonate so deeply with readers thousands of
years later. And as he finally closes in on Odysseus's final
destination, he learns to fully appreciate what Homer has been
saying all along: the greatest adventures of all are the ones that
bring us home to those we love.
Part travelogue, part memoir, and part critical reading of the
greatest adventure epic ever written, "No-Man's Lands" is an
extraordinary description of two journeys--one ancient, one
contemporary--and reveals what The Odyssey can teach us about being
better bosses, better teachers, better parents, and better people.
"From the Hardcover edition."
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