Wall Street Journal Review of Daniel Mendelsohn’s Three Rings, a Tale of Exile, Narrative and Fate: Getting Lost (and Found) with Odysseus

“Mr. Mendelsohn’s eighth full-length work is itself a book that springs from other books, including his own. It is a brief but bountiful mashup of criticism, literary biography, craft essay and personal history. As always, the author’s voice blends authority with considerable warmth and charm, luring readers into his complex intellectual enthusiasms. Mr. Mendelsohn has honed a prose style that is nuanced yet clear, without a hint of pedantry, and one is always glad to learn what he has to teach. Grandeur and intimacy are the poles between which all ambitious writers suspend their work. There is a sense in both the “Odyssey” and in “Mimesis” that their authors are capable of reaching through time to speak companionably to every reader. Mr. Mendelsohn’s books are distinguished by this kind of approachability as well. ... Three Rings, a short but profoundly moving work, clings with tenacity to a belief in the regenerative power of literature.”

Post Date: 10-13-2020