What I'm Reading

"'I've been reading Roberto Calasso's The Marriage of Cadmus and Harmony. It's the director's cut of Greek mythology, a digital remix of the Iliad and the Odyssey — Homer after an eye operation. It starts out as a commentary on myth and turns into an endless parade of insights into life, death, and goofiness. My favorite line, about why Zeus decided to stage the battle of Troy and have all the heroes killed, is something like, 'In the maximum pointlessness lies the maximum splendor.' I'm also on page 46 of Finnegans Wake. It's been on my bedside table for 14 years — I've been using the Evelyn Wood technique, reading a little every night before sleep. It has a definite influence on one's dreams."
Tom Robbins is the author of Even Cowgirls Get the Blues.