The Odyssey – Homer

Rating: 4/5

Lost References:

Desmond goes on a sea voyage and gets lost for years. When he finally gets back, he marries Penelope, which is the name of the wife Odysseus finally comes home to after his years lost at sea. This book is also in the Lost game Via Domus (which is particularly fitting, since the name translates to “The Way Home”).

Thoughts:

It’s more entertaining than the Iliad, for those of you who read that one and were bored by Homer (even I thought it dragged). For starters, there’s more of a storyline. It’s not just a big, long battle. It’s a string of adventures that take cleverness as well as strength. Though still present and meddling, the gods aren’t as involved as they are in the Iliad, either. I should also mention that the whole style is so different that some scholars speculate that Homer didn’t write it, and I tend to agree with them. (If you’re interested, read up on Robert Graves’s theories.) The one thing I don’t like about the Odyssey book is how Odysseus keeps forgetting about Penelope. Still, it works out in the end.

Above: Left, screencap of Desmond and Penny’s reuinion and right, detail of Odysseus Returns to His Wife Penelope by Isaac Taylor.

Our Mutual Friend – Charles Dickens

Rating: 5/5

Lost References:

Desmond plans to read this book before he dies. Penny leaves a letter for him in the back. Later, the two of them own a boat of the same name. It works since a major life event for Desmond is Charlie’s drowning, and in the book, the main character’s major life event is his own supposed drowning.

Thoughts:

Dickens is, in short, a genius. He has an amazing way of weaving a huge cast of fascinating characters and several subplots into one coherent story. Nowhere is this more apparent than in Our Mutual Friend. Not as well known of some of his books, it’s the best of them I’ve read so far. The history of a miser’s death and the dispersing of his fortune is not only a savvy dissection of human character, but it also makes a surprisingly fun story.

Side note… Desmond wants to read this book just before he dies. If his death is imminent, what makes him think he can get all the way through it? It’s pretty thick.