The Crying of Lot 49 vs The Odyssey: Which Should You Read?
Both live on shelves: Greek Epic poetry, Poetry
The Crying of Lot 49
“ONE summer afternoon Mrs Oedipa Maas came home from a Tupperware party whose hostess had put perhaps too much kirsch in the fondue to find that she, Oedipa, had been named executor, or she supposed executrix, of the estate of one Pierce Inverarity, a California real estate mogul who had once lost two million dollars in his spare time but still had assets numerous and tangled enough to make the job”
Oedipa Maas, executor of the will of Pierce Inverarity, journeys through a bizarre underground of secret societies, jazz clubs, beatniks, and her own psyche. Readers accustomed to postmodern literature will revel in…
vs
The Odyssey
A new translation of the epic poem retells the story of Odysseus's ten-year voyage home to Ithaca after the Trojan War.
1 film adaptation
The verdict
- Ratings are close across the board — any is a safe pick by score.
- The Odyssey has the widest readership — 1271001 ratings behind its score.
Scores by source
| The Crying of Lot 49 | The Odyssey | |
|---|---|---|
| Goodreads | — | 3.9 (1271001) |
| Hardcover | 3.8 (359) | 3.9 (1457) |
| Google Books | 4.5 (5) | — |
| Apple Books | 4.0 (151) | — |
Reception
| The Crying of Lot 49 | The Odyssey | |
|---|---|---|
| Ratings | 359 | 1271001 |
| Editions | 55 | 118 |
| Film adaptations | 1 | 1 |
| Want to read | — | 1030492 |
| Written reviews | — | 37755 |
| Wikipedia attention | 13618 | 4219213 |
| Pages | 187 | — |