This brilliant new treatment of the oldest epic in the world is a literary event. Esteemed translator and best-selling author Stephen Mitchell breathes life into a 3,700-year-old classic, delivering a lithe and muscular rendering that shows how startlingly alive Gilgamesh is, how filled with intelligence and beauty. It is the story of literature's first hero, and his journey of self-discovery. Along the way, Gilgamesh discovers that friendship can bring peace to a whole city, that a preemptive attack on a monster may have dire consequences, and that wisdom can be found only when the quest for it is abandoned. There have been competent scholarly translations of Gilgamesh--now there is a version that is a superlative literary text in its own right. In his introduction, Mitchell reveals the universal truths that Gilgamesh has for today's polarized world, and shows that it is more potent and fascinating than ever.
When I first started in on this book, I thought I was listening to a porno, and after I finished I really appreciated what I had learned about past culture(s). As the oldest story known, it is a far fetch from today, and I realize there was little I knew about civilization other than the textbook crap taught in school. Mitchell was also very thorough and informative in his analysis, except that maybe he was slightly over analytical in a book that was originally hammered in on clay tablets.
Gilgamish
Written by Tom Dargan from Pelham Manor, NY
on May 2nd, 2006
Book Rating: 5/5
This old story--I believe the translator said it may be the oldest story known--has the freshness and human authenticity of Job and Beowulf and the Odyssey when they are produced in non-futzy translation, and the tang of weirdness of another culture--Gilgamish's attitude toward sex, for example, seems pretty straightforward and healthy. But his attitude toward young men and women--o my gawd. This story is part of your inheritance as a human, and once you hear it you own it forever.
