Pro: Myths
presented like you were being told a crazy story in a bar.
Con: Only if you
can’t handle crude humor
The Bottom Line: It’s
absolutely hilarious. We had three copies in the store; they sold in about a
week.
This book was brought to my attention by one of my
co-workers. He deserves a medal for doing so, I might add. Though the book features Zeus’s name, it
actually includes myths of all belief systems. Greek, Christian, Native American,
Hindu – basically anything that the author, Cory O’Brien, decided would make
for a hilarious story. And the truth is that most mythological stories are
pretty ridiculous to begin with. When you hear them in their normal state, as
just a regular story, you don’t really think much of it. It’s a myth story, no
big deal. Never mind that the Norse god Loki had sex with a horse and gave
birth (yes, Loki gave birth) to the eight-legged horse Slepnir.
But then you take time enough to step back and look at a lot
of these myths and you can start to reflect on just how freaking weird they are and how they have no
reason for existing – they don’t explain why the sun rises or what makes it
rain. Never mind that Athena just jumped out of Zeus’s head one day – in full
armor no less (and there’s an even weirder version of that story, by the way).
But I digress. The hilarity in this book lies in the way
it’s written. It’s almost jotted down in prose poetry style, which is actually
amusingly fitting considering the style of so many old myths, so it may have
been intentional. Either way, O’Brien writes them in a way that you might hear
these stories in a bar – very casually, very crudely, with a bit of
elaboration, but the base of the myth is still very correct. He uses all caps
in a few places for some really brash emphasis, and it works very well. After
reading a few stories and laughing until I was on the brink of tears, I finally
had to put it down and not read any more of it because A.) I was at work and
B.) customers were starting to look at me funny.
You don’t have to know the myths beforehand in order to
enjoy this – I read a Norse one I wasn’t familiar with and it was still
absolutely hilarious. Knowing some myths, however, almost makes them funnier
because O’Brien makes sure to point out the ridiculous bits like how God cursed
the serpent to crawl on its belly forever for it’s part in the whole
Adam-Eve-fruit fiasco – never mind the fact that serpents crawl like that anyway.
There is swearing and crude remarks (although many of the
old myths were pretty crude – lotsa sex, mind you), so brace yourself. But if
you don’t mind that and want a good laugh, I highly recommend at least taking a
look at this. Read a story or two and see if you aren’t thinking of buying it.
.
.
.
Mind you – if you do, you will never think of Sandro
Botticelli’s The Birth of Venus the
same way again.
Notes from the playlist: "Skyfall" by Adele
