HOMER FOR REAL: A READING OF THE ILIAD

If you've never read the Iliad, it's possible that this little book could be a way for you to get a start on it. If you remember just hating the Iliad because it was taught by the most boring instructor that the imagination of all of the gods could ever have produced-well, this book can offer a second shot at the poem that's likely to work out better this time. And if, like so many others, you're just intimidated by the "great classics," Homer for Real is for you. The writer Eric Larsen was like that. Bored to tears by his first classics prof, he could barely stand the Iliad. Later, as a professor himself, he had to teach it-and did so for 40 years. Afterward, he decided to write a book about what it was that made him come to love the poem. He brings the epic alive by citing passages, then analyzing what's really going on and why. We not only learn about the culture of Homer's time, but also understand the action through present day analogies. That's the purpose and aim of Homer for Real, first of a series called Great Literature for Regular People: A Course of Readings Drawn from a Life in the Classroom. It's user-friendly but it doesn't simplify. Chances are good that it's a book for you.