ITHAKA
Adèle Geras
Harcourt Children's Books
Historical Fiction/Fantasy
ISBN-10: 0152061045
ISBN-13: 9780152061043
368 pages

Readers familiar with THE ODYSSEY know that it is the story of Odysseus's long journey home from the Trojan War. Odysseus outwits various monsters, witches, and even the gods to win back his kingdom and rescue his faithful wife from the hands of thieves. THE ODYSSEY contains lots of adventure, excitement and heartache. It can also be a challenging read since even modern translations adhere to its original verse format.

Adèle Geras, whose previous book TROY was a retelling of THE ILIAD, has now taken on THE ODYSSEY. ITHAKA is the story of THE ODYSSEY told by those waiting for Odysseus's return. While it doesn't contain the same adventures as Odysseus's travels, Geras's treatment of the material lends quiet dignity to the events as told by an ordinary teenage girl, and fleshes out the story as it might have been experienced by women. Klymene is handmaiden to Odysseus's patient wife Penelope. While Penelope spends her days weaving and waiting for her husband's return, Klymene experiences the changes that are part of growing up, and does her part to keep Ithaka ready for the return of a king she has never known.

Klymene begins to understand the difficulty of Penelope's task to wait "unchanged and unchanging" when she falls in love with Telemachus, Odysseus's impetuous son. Telemachus only has eyes for Melantho, a beautiful and treacherous girl from a neighboring kingdom who has come to serve in Penelope's household. Klymene's situation is made more difficult by her ability to see the gods, whose appearance around the household usually signals trouble. She is also keeper of the household's many secrets, some of which could mean the difference between life and death for Ithaka's inhabitants.

Geras adds some interesting twists to an already well-known story, detailing aspects that are muted in Homer's original. The sinister arrival of the suitors who plan to marry Penelope and rule Ithaka is expanded upon in the book. Mocking Ithaka's famed hospitality, the suitors defile a once peaceful land with greed, rape and murder, involving Klymene, her family and friends.

Penelope is also allowed some humanity within the confines of her impossible task. Geras questions the inherent sexism of THE ODYSSEY by challenging the double standard of Odysseus's infidelity through the course of his adventures, while his wife Penelope waits faithfully at home. The conflict Penelope faces in actually being attracted to one of the suitors makes her wait more poignant.

Geras gives the ordinary events of adolescence --- unrequited love, outgrown friendships, tense relationships with elders --- a mythic resonance by associating them with a tale as old and beloved as THE ODYSSEY. Critics have long argued about whether life in the ancient world was lived or understood in the same way it is now. We know some things are very different, like the polytheistic system of belief prevalent in the ancient world. Lives were shorter. Yet, by translating the ancient world of THE ODYSSEY into contemporary idiom, Geras brings new life to a work I first experienced only as a dull classroom assignment. There is a reason these stories have survived millenniums and are reinterpreted by successive generations. After reading ITHAKA, I wanted to return to THE ODYSSEY and read it again.

   --- Reviewed by Sarah A. Wood

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