THE LOST BOOKS OF THE ODYSSEY

Though Simon Vance doesn't play a lute, he is a bard, or maybe the Classics professor everyone wishes to have had, as he spins these revisionist tales of Odysseus and his travels. Each of the many short chapters is an alternative version of Homer's original, and in each Vance becomes the familiar characters. In one chapter, Odysseus confronts the older impostor that Penelope has married; in another, Penelope speaks to him from the underworld. The haggard voices of those shades on the other side of the River Styx are offset by those of their living counterparts—crafty, sarcastic, audacious—all with convincing inflection. Eventually, Mason's big revelation of the meaning of these seemingly contradictory stories leads listeners out of the labyrinth. B.V.M. © AudioFile 2010, Portland, Maine [Published: JUNE 2010]