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Rating: 
- Adelphica
Roberto Calasso is probably unreadable and at a certain attempt even this book (his most popular both in the sense of notoriety and accessibility) is. But Roberto Calasso is not a writer a novelist or a poet, he is mainly a publisher, Adelphi, his publishing house, is one of the best in Italy since Aldo Manuzio (!!!). This book is just the second chapter of a long work in progress comprehending The ruins of Kasch, Ka, K and Il Rosa Tiepolo (just published in italian) and supposed to be a giant trait-d'union between all the titles published by Adelphi. It is meant to sollicit a curious mind, to create new links between different approaches to Literatures, to be the starting point of a wider search for an esotheric reader (in the sense of someone who is compulsively searching books related between each other). Download the Adelphi catalogue and read the titles he publishes you will find out more about his "novels".
In a way Calasso is not very different from the Borges of Other Inquisitions yet his approach is not popular and didascalic it is more elitist: He points out, as Borges did, the Labyrinth of human knowledge but he does not shows you the way out. He just gives some hints and this makes the search a lot more intriguing.
Rating: - Eye-popping
All of Roberto Calsso's book are unreadable. Except this, which issublime. Be clear about what this is not: it's not a traditonal historicalnovel, a mythology textbook, or merely an excersise in style. Tis is anattempt to look at the Greeks, and a culture which was part prehistoric,part modern. In many ways they were just like us. In many others they werestone-age. This is about the birth of western conciousness and what itmeans to be a thinking human today. It gives the Greeks a rightful placein our sommon western heritage and is still a wonderfully entertaining,brilliantly structured read. Fabulous.
Rating: - intangible, beguiling and rewarding
Truly an excellent book - conveying in it's veiled scholarship the intangible essence of myth. It is not the 'Golden Bough' of myth (nor is it Clancy or Harry Potter) as the reviewer above has it - as Calasso goes to great lengths not to espouse any particular mythographic theory (especially not a ritualistic one). His aim is not to put forward any one mythographic reading, such as the Jungian or Levi-Straussian perspective etc., but simply to reiterate the myths and tacitly show their essence in their telling and in their structure. it is in their retelling that the nature of the mythic becomes slowly apparent to the reader, not due to the battering of any scholarly argument. often as Calasso shows there is no true cannon for myths, but there are a variety of versions. As the author shows through his links and explanations, these variations are all on a theme - all have at heart some psychologically archetypal content - the stories may change, but the archetypal symbols forever remain the same. highly recommended for anyone who grew up on Grave's awfully pragmatic historical approach to the myths and wishes to learn something of their real, mysterious nature. If mythography interests you then I also recommend anything by Jung (a particularly good introduction is 'Man and his Symbols') or anything by C. Kerenyi (particularly 'Dionysos' or 'The Myth of the Divine Child and the Mysteries of Eleusis - essays on a science of mythology' - co-written with Jung).
Rating:
- Interesting, but who is it aimed at?
This is clearly the work of a highly intelligent & original scholar. But - it is also VERY obscure. If you want a primer in Greek mythology, look elsewhere! Calasso comes up with some striking insights & connections but rarely backs them up with anything as vulgar as an argument. I also find the marketing of this book rather dubious. The publishers has lined up approving quotes from various top intellectuals (Gore Vidal, AS Byatt etc) but in case you might think it's too highbow they also call it an "international bestseller". What, like Harry Potter or John Grisham, you mean?
Rating: - The Bible and The Golden Bough of Greek Mythology all in one
Calasso has a depth and range of knowledge of every variant of Greek myth which is matched only by his remarkable storytelling capabilities. At once informative about every aspect of a wide range of Greek myths, his style is also fluid and subtle, surprising and unacademic, reading with the ease of a novel. Borne through the variations on the pattern of the myths of the ancient culture, Calasso's powerful use of a simple device utterly engages and refreshes the stories and gives them (oh, cliche! - but it is true) contemporary relevance and a liveliness whilst at the same time revealing their origin. His central tool is simple: he briefly, decisively, tells and re-tells every myth in each form in which it has occurred - and then draws all strings together with a simplicity and wonder that indicates true genius, blurring the distinction between storytelling, traditional myth and structure. Both fascinating and new on the one hand and displaying a homage to the stories unlike anyone since Graves on the other, Calasso's stunningly insightful book captures the essence not only of each myth but of the whole mythology and its function, and bears you irresistably through a beautiful world made new again through these echoes, echoes which reflect nothing so much as ourselves. And if that isn't mythic, I don't know what is. The best book ever written on Greek mythology.
- AdelphicaRoberto Calasso is probably unreadable and at a certain attempt even this book (his most popular both in the sense of notoriety and accessibility) is. But Roberto Calasso is not a writer a novelist or a poet, he is mainly a publisher, Adelphi, his publishing house, is one of the best in Italy since Aldo Manuzio (!!!). This book is just the second chapter of a long work in progress comprehending The ruins of Kasch, Ka, K and Il Rosa Tiepolo (just published in italian) and supposed to be a giant trait-d'union between all the titles published by Adelphi. It is meant to sollicit a curious mind, to create new links between different approaches to Literatures, to be the starting point of a wider search for an esotheric reader (in the sense of someone who is compulsively searching books related between each other). Download the Adelphi catalogue and read the titles he publishes you will find out more about his "novels".
In a way Calasso is not very different from the Borges of Other Inquisitions yet his approach is not popular and didascalic it is more elitist: He points out, as Borges did, the Labyrinth of human knowledge but he does not shows you the way out. He just gives some hints and this makes the search a lot more intriguing.
Rating:
- Eye-poppingAll of Roberto Calsso's book are unreadable. Except this, which issublime. Be clear about what this is not: it's not a traditonal historicalnovel, a mythology textbook, or merely an excersise in style. Tis is anattempt to look at the Greeks, and a culture which was part prehistoric,part modern. In many ways they were just like us. In many others they werestone-age. This is about the birth of western conciousness and what itmeans to be a thinking human today. It gives the Greeks a rightful placein our sommon western heritage and is still a wonderfully entertaining,brilliantly structured read. Fabulous.
Rating:
- intangible, beguiling and rewardingTruly an excellent book - conveying in it's veiled scholarship the intangible essence of myth. It is not the 'Golden Bough' of myth (nor is it Clancy or Harry Potter) as the reviewer above has it - as Calasso goes to great lengths not to espouse any particular mythographic theory (especially not a ritualistic one). His aim is not to put forward any one mythographic reading, such as the Jungian or Levi-Straussian perspective etc., but simply to reiterate the myths and tacitly show their essence in their telling and in their structure. it is in their retelling that the nature of the mythic becomes slowly apparent to the reader, not due to the battering of any scholarly argument. often as Calasso shows there is no true cannon for myths, but there are a variety of versions. As the author shows through his links and explanations, these variations are all on a theme - all have at heart some psychologically archetypal content - the stories may change, but the archetypal symbols forever remain the same. highly recommended for anyone who grew up on Grave's awfully pragmatic historical approach to the myths and wishes to learn something of their real, mysterious nature. If mythography interests you then I also recommend anything by Jung (a particularly good introduction is 'Man and his Symbols') or anything by C. Kerenyi (particularly 'Dionysos' or 'The Myth of the Divine Child and the Mysteries of Eleusis - essays on a science of mythology' - co-written with Jung).
Rating:
- Interesting, but who is it aimed at?This is clearly the work of a highly intelligent & original scholar. But - it is also VERY obscure. If you want a primer in Greek mythology, look elsewhere! Calasso comes up with some striking insights & connections but rarely backs them up with anything as vulgar as an argument. I also find the marketing of this book rather dubious. The publishers has lined up approving quotes from various top intellectuals (Gore Vidal, AS Byatt etc) but in case you might think it's too highbow they also call it an "international bestseller". What, like Harry Potter or John Grisham, you mean?
Rating:
- The Bible and The Golden Bough of Greek Mythology all in oneCalasso has a depth and range of knowledge of every variant of Greek myth which is matched only by his remarkable storytelling capabilities. At once informative about every aspect of a wide range of Greek myths, his style is also fluid and subtle, surprising and unacademic, reading with the ease of a novel. Borne through the variations on the pattern of the myths of the ancient culture, Calasso's powerful use of a simple device utterly engages and refreshes the stories and gives them (oh, cliche! - but it is true) contemporary relevance and a liveliness whilst at the same time revealing their origin. His central tool is simple: he briefly, decisively, tells and re-tells every myth in each form in which it has occurred - and then draws all strings together with a simplicity and wonder that indicates true genius, blurring the distinction between storytelling, traditional myth and structure. Both fascinating and new on the one hand and displaying a homage to the stories unlike anyone since Graves on the other, Calasso's stunningly insightful book captures the essence not only of each myth but of the whole mythology and its function, and bears you irresistably through a beautiful world made new again through these echoes, echoes which reflect nothing so much as ourselves. And if that isn't mythic, I don't know what is. The best book ever written on Greek mythology.