Racing Odysseus: A College President Becomes a Freshman Again begins with the author, Roger H. Martin, in a Johns Hopkins’ treatment room dying of cancer. He opts for an experimental treatment and suddenly his cancer is in remission. Martin decides to take a sabbatical from his college president job and spend a year as a freshman at St. John’s college. St. John’s is a “Great Books” school that focuses on classics to teach the curriculum. Plenty of Homer and Plato. I wish the book focused on this aspect of Martin’s freshman year. Martin takes a “vow of silence” in the seminars which seems to defeat the purpose of his quest. Martin spends more time on his passion of joining the rowing team than pondering the great literature he’s reading. So Racing Odysseus is a mixed bag. The gold standard for this kind of book is David Denby’s brillant Great Books. Racing Odysseus doesn’t come close. GRADE: B-
As soon as I started the review I flashed on the Denby book, surely the gold standard here.
I know, don’t call you Shirley!
You’re right about the Denby book, Jeff. While the RACING ODYSSEUS had its moments, it lacked the depth and passion of Denby’s GREAT BOOKS.
Although I don’t always like Denby as viewed as a movie critic in the NEW YORKER, this was a terrific book. One that made the reader go back to reread books. I don’t know why someone else covered the same ground so soon after it.
You’re right about GREAT BOOKS by David Denby being terrific, Patti. I know I reread some of the books he discussed after I finished the book.
This ties in nicely with the article pointed to this morning on Bill Crider’s blog (http://www.abebooks.com/books/difficult-hardest-reads-obscure-staff/remaining-unread.shtml?cm_mmc=nl-_-nl-_-r00-ar1001E-_-01cta ) about reading books which I’ve called “ought to read” books in The Perp. The article mentiones these books as only one reason books on our shelves don’t get read… all right on. I doubt I’ll ever read another word of Plato, Kant, Rand, Joyce and a great many other authors which I once read some of, probably back in college.
An example up your alley, George, is Trollope. I enjoyed BARCHESTER TOWERS in that English Lit course in college, but doubt I’l ever go back for more of his works.
Deb, Jeff, and I beg to differ on Trollope, Rick. The author is a master of the long-form novel. Trollope can keep characters moving and the plot thickening for 800 pages. This seems to be a lost art for most contemporary writers.