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Mason’s stories are brief and flavorful. In a short introduction to the book, he presents his vignettes as recently discovered fragments containing alternative versions of “The Odyssey.” One story has Odysseus (here named “Mr. O.”) living in a sanatorium, where he spends his days trying to remember a distant war. Another has him as Agamemnon’s prized assassin, faced with the unfortunate order of killing himself. Sticking with the pretext of fragmentation, Mason never fully fleshes out the action in each tale...
...mostly the book circles around the craft of truth itself. Mason is a computer scientist by training, and codes and mazes pattern his stories. In one tale, Theseus, famed conqueror of the Minotaur, slays the beast only to wander forever in a labyrinth. In another, sirens seduce Odysseus not through their beautiful tunes, but through the promise of wisdom. “As their songs crescendoed I had the sudden conviction that... behind everything... was a subtle pattern, an order of the most compelling lucidity, but hidden from me, a code I could never crack,” the wily...
Also like Calvino, Mason prefers puzzles to set truths. For that reason, his novel goes beyond a simple adaptation of a classic text. In his essay “Why Read the Classics?” Calvino once wrote, “A classic is a book which with each rereading offers as much a sense of discovery as the first reading.” Mason’s reimagining takes such discovery to heart. He himself may be aware of the similarities between his and the Italian author’s work. Many of his plot twists recall Calvino?...
...years later, Robert Altman’s tremendously well-received film version premiered. Two more years later, and TV’s “M*A*S*H” was born. When I think of a show-based-on-a-movie-based-on-a-book, I don’t imagine a cultural icon...
...with the help of billions of dollars in U.S. aid, the Colombian Army improved to the point that, on July 2, 2008, commandos were able to launch a daring, Mission: Impossible-style sting operation in a bid to save the hostages. That operation is detailed in a new book by veteran Latin America journalist John Otis, Law of the Jungle: The Hunt for Colombian Guerrillas, American Hostages and Buried Treasure. An excerpt follows...