I'll be the first to admit that Yann Martel's newest novel Son of Nobody (#1,371) won't be everyone's cup of tea. It was very much mine, though. If you've been doing any serious prepping to watch Chris Nolan's Odyssey this summer, you may have read one of the many translations of Homer's epic. The usual setup is a scholarly intro followed by divided pages, the top containing the translation and the bottom section the footnotes. (I do love a good footnote!) Martel has imitated this setup in his own novel.
Harlow Donne is a Canadian scholar who has won a year's postgraduate study at Oxford under an eminent Classics professor because of his facility with ancient Greek language studies. The problem is that the grant is so spartan he cannot afford to bring his wife or little daughter Helen with him, so he decides to go on his own. At Oxford he comes across pottery shards and then papyri shreds which seem to have a common thread - they mention Psoas, son of nobody, being present at the siege of Troy. Bit by bit Harlow puts together an entirely new perspective on the Trojan War, that of an everyday foot soldier. Harlow is so excited by this he goes to visit the actual sites on his own. His academic advisor, the famous scholar is apoplectic, insisting that Harlow is making it all up, ignoring the work assigned to him and threatening to ruin him professionally.
This whole story plays out in the footnotes of Son of Nobody. But equally fascinating are the scholarly footnotes Martel includes as though his fictional version of The Iliad really existed. The details on the daily lives and times of common soldiers fighting in the Trojan War are not what we usually read about; The Iliad's point of view is that of gods and kings, not everyday people who rarely merit even a passing mention. Psoas' story is given pride of place here, as told by one of his friends.
Do either of these men turn out to be the heroes of their own stories? If you have both patience and curiosity, spend the time to find out!
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