The Odyssey of Sergeant Jack Brennan
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- $14.99
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
A bold and original graphic novelization of The Odyssey that is both a powerful story for our time—capturing its timeless lessons for returning veterans of Afghanistan and Iraq—as well as a vivid new way into Homer's classic for modern readers.
Jack Brennan is a Marine Corps sergeant whose infantry squad has been cleared to return home from a grueling deployment to Afghanistan. A few years prior, Sergeant Brennan lost one of his closest friends—a young combat veteran—to suicide and has vowed to do everything in his power to keep his Marines from a similar fate. On their last night in-country, Brennan shares his version of The Odyssey to help prepare his squad for the transition back to the home front. By retelling Homer's epic about Odysseus' difficult journey home after the Trojan War, and weaving in the stories of contemporary Marines, The Odyssey of Sergeant Jack Brennan powerfully conveys the profound challenges today's veterans face upon returning from combat even as it tells "the oldest war story of all time."
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
This graphic novel uses an ancient story of conflict, displacement, and longing for home to draw attention to the plight of the modern soldier. On the eve of returning home after a grueling tour in Afghanistan, Sgt. Jack Brennan gathers his troops together for one final chat. But instead of a simple farewell, Brennan tells his soldiers the story of Homer's Odyssey, connecting their experiences to the ancient epic. For instance, post-conflict drug addiction is related to Odysseus's men's reluctance to leave the land of the lotus eaters, and erratic, stimulus-seeking behavior by soldiers suffering from PTSD is compared Elpinor's death by misadventure on the island of Circe. Doerries is the founder of Theater of War, a project that uses ancient texts as therapy for real-life veterans, and he carries out the same mission here. The five-person team of illustrators does an excellent job of differentiating between the two worlds in the story, but a number of panels are cleverly drawn to momentarily make the distinction less clear.
