The Odyssey Book Club: read it before the movie comes out

Book club discussion - read beforehand.

Odysseus finally gets home, and that is where the story gets uncomfortable.

We are reading Books 17-24 of The Odyssey before the movie turns it into trailers, hot takes, and half-remembered arguments. This is the homecoming section: disguises, tests, the bow, the suitors, Penelope, and the question of whether revenge can put a damaged house back in order.

The room I want

Small, curious, and willing to disagree. No classics-seminar voice. No need to prove you understood every god or genealogy. We will talk from the scenes: Argos, Penelope's test, the bow, the massacre, the marriage bed, and the strange peace after the blood.

The question sitting over the room

Is this a happy ending? And if it is, happy for who?

Reading

Please read Books 17-24 beforehand if you can. Any translation is fine. I will be using the Penguin Classics prose edition by E. V. Rieu / D. C. H. Rieu.

Reading link:
https://www.amazon.ca/dp/0141192445?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title

When and where

📅 Sunday, June 21, 2026
🕒 3:00-5:00 PM
📍 Vancouver Central Library
350 West Georgia Street, Vancouver, BC
Level 6 North Room 690

Cap note

Cap 12 + waitlist. Small room on purpose. Better conversation.

Small note

You can still come if you only finish part of the reading. Come with one scene, one question, or one thing that bothered you.