Human Mental Archeology

Retelling might be a misleading term, especially in the midst of the vogue for digestibly repackaged ancient myth. This is neither a handy guide to half-remembered stories from distant RE lessons nor a set of tales retold with modern mores in mind. Yes, there is narrative here, and much of what is most enjoyable in The Book of All Books consists in it, but narrative is not the point. What is really going on is a sustained work of human mental archaeology that has over the course of Calasso’s life subsumed sources of every origin and era – from ancient Greece, India, Africa and Mesopotamia.