I had trouble getting back into Gwen Cooper's
Homer's Odyssey—it's the book I put down to read
The Help—but mostly I'm glad I did.
Homer's Odyssey—a Christmas present (Of course Christmas 2009)—is the story of Gwen Cooper's adopted-at-three-weeks-old, blind cat. A rather sappy theme of learning to persevere and live through the example of a blind cat runs throughout the book. But it does have other redeeming features:
1) Humor. The author already has two older cats when she adopts Homer. A description of Homer stalking one of the cats while standing right in front of her made me laugh out loud.
2) Tension. Gwen moved to New York and into a studio apartment a few blocks from the World Trade Towers. Nine-eleven happened and she was, of course, denied admittance to her neighborhood. I told myself I wasn't going to worry about three cats trapped in an apartment with a balcony and floor-to-ceiling window that could have shattered anytime during the horrendous day. But I did. And was relieved when the author got to them in time.
3) Amusing incidents: the tale of a rejected suitor who asks, "Does … does this mean I can't see Homer anymore?" (page 154)
4) Beautiful passages: "There are early-fall days in New York so staggeringly beautiful, so laden with the promise of fall beauty yet to come, that to experience them is, you tell yourself, worth all the money and hassle, all the striving and frenzy, that it takes simply to live in Manhattan." (page 184) I remember days like that.
All in all,
Homer's Odyssey is pleasant—and a much easier read than the original.
