Choosing between Homer’s original (read by Claire Danes) and a reimagining of the timeless tale by Stephen Fry himself as part of his Greek Myths series, wasn’t easy. I wanted to prep for Christopher Nolan’s upcoming film adaptation, and since I’d read Homer’s epic poem back in university, I decided to give Fry a try (no shade on Claire Danes). Fry’s version is not Homer’s text, but a reimagining or retelling of the original myth of Odysseus, the Ithacan king and general from the Greek side of the Trojan war. Odyssey tells the tale of his adventures after the war, lost at sea for years after angering the god Poseidon who sent storm after storm to throw his ships off course and strand his crew on island after island. Meanwhile, his devoted wife and son contend with boorish, evil suitors who abuse her and her household while waiting for her to choose one of them to take Odysseus’s place as husband and king.

Surprisingly, though it’s been decades since I read Homer’s Odyssey, most of this retelling felt very familiar to me. Once I started reading, it didn’t seem necessary to jog my own memory as it all came swimming back, but it was so enjoyable that I wanted to keep reading. I appreciated how Fry’s version didn’t transform the characters substantively. Many mythological retellings seem to pick up a minor aspect of the original story or character and reinterpret the entire tale through a skewed lens. Fry seems to be intentionally true to his original sources, but he still tells the story in a fresh and casual way. It feels true to the spirit of the original oral tradition that Fry makes the reader feel like he’s just telling us the stories, in his own words, around the dinner table. He’s presenting us these heroes, villains, gods and monsters as he is seeing them in his own mind. With his unmistakeably pleasant speaking voice, the audiobook narration feels completely Fry. In fact, he adds a kind of colloquial flavour that makes these millennia-old Greek characters feel more like contemporary characters on British TV. Fry also narrates a version of the Harry Potter audiobooks, and it almost feels like this retelling fits better as part of that series instead.

While this kind of spin makes for a lot of fun and colourful storytelling, it also made me miss some of the grandeur and poetry of Homer’s original. I found myself nostalgic for the “wine-dark sea” and “rosy-fingered dawn”, two famous epithets from Homer’s original that even Fry himself discusses in the epilogue of this book. If someone is only reading this book, without reading any version of the original, I think they’re going to miss out on something. This retelling definitely makes it easier to understand the plot and story of the myth. Fry even takes it one step further due to his intimate familiarity with this story and these characters. By the way he describes them, embodies them, and represents them, he does a great job of aiding his readers to understand and relate to these characters also. He kind of turns these mythic figures and events into situations and folks that you might meet on any given day, or at certain points in our modern lives. So even while I missed the epic poetry, I feel like I’m so much closer to Fry’s version of these characters than I ever was with Homer’s.

If you’re new to the Odyssey story and you want to read the narrative in a way that you can easily embrace, full of engaging and relatable personalities (not to mention fun asides and footnotes), then this is a great way to enjoy it — and you don’t need to worry about clawing your way through archaic and ornate language. If you enjoy it a lot, I would still suggest finding your way to the original at some point down the road. Familiarity with the narrative will really help — and there are great narrators, such as Claire Danes, waiting for you! If you’re like me, having read the original and just trying to refresh your memory, this version will do the trick and provide some fun along the way. It’s not a substitute, but it might give you a new appreciation for the original, and maybe even help to solidify the story in your mind in a whole new way. Now let’s see how Christopher Nolan, Matt Damon and the rest of them will compare.

4 stars 

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