Omeros by Derek Walcott

From the Publisher

A poem in five books, of circular narrative design, titled with the Greek name for Homer, which simultaneously charts two currents of history: the visible history charted in events -- the tribal losses of the American Indian, the tragedy of African enslavement -- and the interior, unwritten epic fashioned from the suffering of the individual in exile.

Chicago Tribune - G.E. Murray

Unlike many Caribbean writers of his generation, Walcott resisted for a long time the lure of emigration, preferring to help establish a strong Caribbean literary culture from within as both poet and dramatist. As such he is described as "a 20th century man with an Elizabethan sense of language.

Publishers Weekly

This magnificent modern epic by poet-playwright Walcott (The Arkansas Testament) follows the wanderings of a present-day Odysseus and the inconsolable sufferings of those who are displaced and traveling with trepidation toward their homes. Written in seven circling books and magically fluid tercets, the poem illuminates the classical past and its motifs through an extraordinary cast of contemporary characters from the island of Santa Lucia: humble fishermen Achilles, Philoctete and Hector; a feverishly beautiful house servant, Helen, who incites her own Trojan War; a local seer, Seven Seas; and the narrator himself, who wanders to the States, to Europe and back again although he knows, ``the nearer home, the deeper our fears increase, / that no house might come to meet us on our own shore.'' Singularly ambitious, and as moving as the works of its namesake, Omeros (Greek for ``Homer'') remains accessible despite its complexity and divergent strains, which include the privations of Native Americans, African natives and exiled English colonials.

Library Journal

If you can buy only one Walcott title, get this Carribean epic.

Library Journal

If you can buy only one Walcott title, get this Carribean epic.

G.E. Murray

Unlike many Caribbean writers of his generation, Walcott resisted for a long time the lure of emigration, preferring to help establish a strong Caribbean literary culture from within as both poet and dramatist. As such he is described as "a 20th century man with an Elizabethan sense of language. -- Chicago Tribune

Mary Lefkowitz

The narrative of Omeros is exciting and memorable....Mr. Walcott's epic is a significant and timely reminder that the past is not the property of those who first created it; it always matters to all of us. -- The New York Time Books of the Century, Oct. 7, 1990

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