“No Man’s Lands: One Man’s Odyssey Through the Odyssey” ($24.95, Crown Publishers) does the impossible: It almost makes a person want to reread Homer’s — let’s face it — rather tedious and often difficult ancient Greek epic. That is, if one really ever read it at all, for as author and National Public Radio contributor Scott Huler confesses early in his narrative, he tried to read it in ninth grade but failed, then saw a movie version of it and later “deeply believed” he had read it. One day, on the radio, he swore he would never read Homer’s “Ulysses,” which led to his reading it, which led to his reading “The Odyssey,” which led to his trip of a lifetime, at age 44, with his first child on the way, which of course leads to later epiphanies. Through this six-month journey (Homer took two decades), we are treated to Huler’s easygoing writing style, terrific sense of humor and better descriptions of foreign sites than can be found in some guidebooks. For instance, I’ve been to the Chiesa di Santa Maria della Concezione (Church of the Immaculate Conception) in Rome, where the Capuchin monks allow you into the basement crypts to view thousands of bones arranged in the most bizarre and beautifully artistic ways, and Huler perfectly conveys one’s incredulity, as well as the hauntingly compelling drama of the whole scene. The rest of the book is part history lesson, part travelogue and one big piece of prose dedicated to obsession.
Kyle Wagner
