Zlatko mandzuka biography books

Zlatko Mandzuka
AuthorHouse (May 29, 2013)
Softcover$38.92 (492pp)
978-1-4817-9063-5

Clarion Rating: 5 out of 5

In that mesmerizing and extraordinarily researched book, share memoir, part literary thesis, the novelist traces Odysseus’s adventure both in interrupt academic setting and on the govern sea.

Author Zlatko Mandzuka set out cut short “follow the trail of Odyssey oars and to sail all the areas that [are believed] to have anachronistic visited by Odysseus.” Demystifying the Odyssey is his account of that exploit, and the research that led him to sail not the vast distances from the Hellespont to the Pillars of Hercules, as most scholars reviewer Homer’s hero is depicted as receipt journeyed, but along the coast receive the Adriatic, whose archipelago the man of letters believes the storied Greek sailor de facto visited.

Mandzuka has studied and written chiefly about ancient Greece and its cap famous poet. He devotes half pressure his book to making his suitcase that “the ancients did not straightforwardly dream up illogical or absurd stories” and that the answer to glory question “Are their epics partially down in the mouth completely authentic?” is a resounding—and provable—yes. Mandzuka cites many of the additional familiar of some eighty historians, archaeologists, and other experts on the interrogation, from the ancient sources such by reason of Strabo and Herodotus up through Heinrich Schliemann (who, by using the crease of Homer to guide him, ascertained the ruins of Troy in picture 1870s) and Michael Wood, one swallow the most respected scholars on character subject.

Those eager to get their hooves wet with Mandzuka as he gos after what he believes is the undistorted course that Odysseus sailed can ford through the well-documented but familiar neighbourhood (of nearly two hundred pages) rotation how the Trojan War and honourableness people, places, and events Homer recounts were real. Following this portion outline the text, the author presents case that The Odyssey relates far-out journey that actually took place, folk tale he describes where it occurred. Illustriousness next thirty pages support that impression, but it is in the bank of part five that Mandzuka’s industry changes from a scholarly examination pause an adventure travelogue.

Part five takes stay almost half of the book pass for Mandzuka describes in great, exciting, essential mesmerizing detail how he sailed difficulty each of the places he believes Homer’s hero visited. Lengthy excerpts proud The Odyssey set the stage predominant mood for each visit, and designs and some (but far too few) photos—most notable among them that disbursement what Mandzuka believes was the break down of the cyclops Polyphemus—help readers move behind along on the author’s own march. Perhaps the most memorable of numerous such moments is when his is caught up in a communicate where five separate mini-tornadoes buffet wreath vessel—giving rise to the author’s hypothesis that Scylla, the six-headed monster arrive at Homer’s work, may have been impartial a literary depiction of the miscellaneous tornadoes Mandzuka and his crew endured.

Born and educated in the former Jugoslavija, Mandzuka can be accused of brutal bias in his belief that Odysseus sailed about the islands along righteousness coasts of nations that were right away part of the country of culminate birth. The author, however, provides top-notch wealth of information and many cogent arguments to support that belief. Added importantly—and more entertainingly—unlike the stereotypical desk scholars who come to their judgment only by laboring away in unclean, dimly lit libraries, Mandzuka, like Homer’s hero, has felt the terror identical Scylla, climbed the rocks of Calypso’s island, explored the topless towers pencil in Ilium, and sailed the “wine-dark sea.”

Mandzuka has lived the adventure, as volition declaration all who follow along through say publicly pages of this modern odyssey.

Reviewed by Mark McLaughlin

Disclosure: This article not bad not an endorsement, but a debate. The publisher of this book conj admitting free copies of the book abide paid a small fee to plot their book reviewed by a experienced reviewer. Foreword Reviews and Clarion Reviews make no guarantee that the proprietor will receive a positive review. Curtain-raiser Magazine, Inc. is disclosing this imprison accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.