{"product_id":"an-oar-for-odysseus","title":"An Oar for Odysseus","description":"In An Oar for Odysseus,Robert Cooperman mines the Homeric epics for more gold. Finally back home in Ithaca from the Trojan War, his country and his family in shambles, Odysseus embarks upon another voyage. Only this time, his son, Telemachus, and his wife, Penelope, the Jocasta to her son’s would-be Oedipus, are behind Odysseus’ exile. Where he finally ends up and the odyssey he undertakes are the ingots of Cooperman’s vivid imagination. As Penelope muses in her final poem in An Oar for Odysseus, “his fate is a constant quest.”\n\n—Charles Rammelkamp, author, The Tao According to Calvin Coolidge\n\nIn An Oar for Odysseus, Robert Cooperman’s blazing, 21st Century poetic rendering of the Greek myth post-nostros, the poems carry the reader along with propulsive force — from Telemachus exiling his PTSD-laden father, to Odysseus’ final coda in Hades. Throughout the narrative, we encounter first-person accounts from characters such as his wife, Penelope (who calls her husband “a foaming stranger with Odysseus’ aged face”) to Axia and Miletes, individuals who not only become his surrogate family but also represent his unanticipated opportunity for redemption. Through it all, with the reader swept along for the ride, Cooperman’s Odysseus is a desperate man on a new and final journey — one of reclamation — becoming a sympathetic figure for the ages. As he lay dying, he can finally admit that “better a small \/ life well-lived” than the alternative. Adventure-packed, but grounded in human, tender feelings, An Oar for Odysseusis a beautiful book.\n\n—Jon Ballard, author, Possible Lives and Where It Hurts\u003cbr\u003eASIN: B0G8GK6QJN\u003cbr\u003eVSKU: BVV.B0G8GK6QJN.A\u003cbr\u003eCondition: Acceptable\u003cbr\u003eAuthor\/Artist:Cooperman, Robert\u003cbr\u003eBinding: Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eNote:\u003c\/b\u003e Any images shown are stock photographs and product may differ from what is shown.  \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eCondition Notes\u003c\/b\u003e: The item is very worn but is perfectly usable. Signs of wear can include aesthetic issues such as scratches, dents, worn and creased covers, folded page corners and minor liquid stains. All pages and the cover are intact, but the dust cover may be missing. Pages may include moderate to heavy amount of notes and highlighting, but the text is not obscured or unreadable. Page edges may have foxing  age related spots and browning . May NOT include discs, access code or other supplemental materials.  \u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Blue Vase Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43358090952765,"sku":"BVV.B0G8GK6QJN.A","price":18.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"url":"https:\/\/www.bluevasebooks.com\/products\/an-oar-for-odysseus","provider":"Blue Vase Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}