Meditative, repetitive, restless
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With everything imploding around her—love life, work, family, global pandemic—Coffey glimpses a North Star in Emily Wilson’s translation of Homer’s Odyssey, and plans a short trip island hopping across the the Mediterranean to reset her life. Little does she know that the pandemic will force her to extend her trip, constantly pulled between the twin calls of the exotic landscapes before her and the need to support her terminally father back home in England with the rest of Coffey’s family.

Meditative at points, repetitive at others, there is a restlessness in the author that translates into a magpie of a memoir that catches sight of something profound but never quite reaches it. Perhaps that’s what kept me reading, to see if Coffey ever resolves the conscious impetus for the journey; as well as the unconscious escape that also drives the author’s flitting from island to island, never ever stepping on Greek soil. Coffey does not literally follow in Odysseus’s footsteps (psst, it’s all a story) but instead records a cast of inviting locals and expat oddballs that will keep you entertained, along with luscious descriptions of the islands themselves and the mercurial seas around them.

Enchanted Islands : Travels Through Myth & Magic, Love & Loss. This is a travel memoir and personal account of the authors adventures travelling around the key locations for The Odyssey. It intertwines personal challenges with her travelling, including grief, depression and relationship issues. The description of the places and scenery is magical, but I didn't always feel the connection with The Odyssey. I loved all the swimming and outdoors adventures and it will have you yearning for sunnier climates. Overall a good, interesting read.

I loved this memoir and found it really compelling and well-written. The author has a really deft way with language - she writes very poetically, with the most beautiful and innovative ways of describing the nature around her, the sea, her sensations when swimming. Her descriptions of loneliness, grief and depression are so evocative and powerful - she somehow brings them to life very simply, without being overdone or hyperbolic. Her feelings are tangible, and the characters she describes are three dimensional and full of personality. She is lyrical and poetic without it dragging down the text and becoming bogged down in description and frilliness - it is light and moves along at pace.

I have read a lot of similar memoirs (similar in that they depict someone in the city becoming disillusioned with their life, going on a journey, finding joy in swimming and a more rural life). The fact this author found new and unique ways to bring to life things I have seen described a million times by other authors - sunsets, waves, flora - is testament to her skill.

There are several key strands in the book - 1) the journey and descriptions of places 2) reflections on her relationship with her father 3) her state of mind and 4) the myth of the Odyssey and its interpretations. The latter provides a really unique framework for her journey and I enjoyed her unique and chatty (but well researched and thoughtful) reflections on the myth and others’ analyses of it. Overall she strikes a good balance between all of these strands, never getting too bogged down in any one, and binding them together thoughtfully.

My one reflection is that the ex boyfriend at the start sounded insufferable and wasn’t even really needed for the plot. I’m sure he was a catalyst for her sadness at the start (though I can’t think why - he sounded an absolute bellend, and had zero redeeming features) and covid isolation/her father’s illness would have been enough of a catalyst for the journey. He didn’t really add anything to the story. Narratively he seemed unnecessary and everytime the text harked back to him, it was the one time I found myself losing sympathy with the author and eyerolling.

A great read though, and one I would definitely recommend to others (and I already have!). And she actually made me want to read the Odyssey (at least Emily Wilson’s version of it!).