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The Odyssey of Sergeant Jack Brennan

Part of Pantheon Graphic Library

Author Bryan Doerries
Ebook
Knopf | Pantheon
On sale Apr 05, 2016 | 160 Pages | 9781101870990
Grades 6-12 + AP/IB
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A bold and original graphic novelization of The Odyssey that is both a powerful story for our time—capturing its timeless lessons for returning veterans of Afghanistan and Iraq—as well as a vivid new way into Homer's classic for modern readers.

Jack Brennan is a Marine Corps sergeant whose infantry squad has been cleared to return home from a grueling deployment to Afghanistan. A few years prior, Sergeant Brennan lost one of his closest friends—a young combat veteran—to suicide and has vowed to do everything in his power to keep his Marines from a similar fate. On their last night in-country, Brennan shares his version of The Odyssey to help prepare his squad for the transition back to the home front. By retelling Homer's epic about Odysseus' difficult journey home after the Trojan War, and weaving in the stories of contemporary Marines, The Odyssey of Sergeant Jack Brennan powerfully conveys the profound challenges today's veterans face upon returning from combat even as it tells "the oldest war story of all time."
© Theater of War Productions
BRYAN DOERRIES is a New York-based writer, director, and translator who currently serves as Artistic Director of Theater of War Productions, a company that presents dramatic readings of seminal plays and texts to frame community conversations about pressing issues of public health and social justice. A self-described evangelist for ancient stories and their relevance to our lives today, Doerries uses age-old approaches to help individuals and communities heal from trauma and loss. He is the author of a memoir, The Theater of War: What Ancient Greek Tragedies Can Teach Us Today; All That You've Seen Here Is God, four plays by Aeschylus and Sophocles; and The Odyssey of Sergeant Jack Brennan, a graphic novelization of Homer's Odyssey, told from the point of view of a US Marine returning home from Afghanistan. Among his awards, he has received an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Kenyon College and was named Public Artist in Residence for the City of New York. View titles by Bryan Doerries
“Marine sergeant Jack Brennan’s platoon is on the way home from a grueling deployment to Afghanistan. It’s not the first time through this cycle for Brennan and a couple others, but this time, “He wants to tell us a story,” as one man gripes, before they go home—several stories, actually, from the greatest saga of a soldier going home, The Odyssey… Like a sergeant himself, writer Doerries makes a platoon of artists fall into a consistent style—a kind of stripped-down Swamp Thing look—in both Homeric and contemporary scenes to keep this exercise in comics-as-therapy compelling.”
—Ray Olson, Booklist

About

A bold and original graphic novelization of The Odyssey that is both a powerful story for our time—capturing its timeless lessons for returning veterans of Afghanistan and Iraq—as well as a vivid new way into Homer's classic for modern readers.

Jack Brennan is a Marine Corps sergeant whose infantry squad has been cleared to return home from a grueling deployment to Afghanistan. A few years prior, Sergeant Brennan lost one of his closest friends—a young combat veteran—to suicide and has vowed to do everything in his power to keep his Marines from a similar fate. On their last night in-country, Brennan shares his version of The Odyssey to help prepare his squad for the transition back to the home front. By retelling Homer's epic about Odysseus' difficult journey home after the Trojan War, and weaving in the stories of contemporary Marines, The Odyssey of Sergeant Jack Brennan powerfully conveys the profound challenges today's veterans face upon returning from combat even as it tells "the oldest war story of all time."

Author

© Theater of War Productions
BRYAN DOERRIES is a New York-based writer, director, and translator who currently serves as Artistic Director of Theater of War Productions, a company that presents dramatic readings of seminal plays and texts to frame community conversations about pressing issues of public health and social justice. A self-described evangelist for ancient stories and their relevance to our lives today, Doerries uses age-old approaches to help individuals and communities heal from trauma and loss. He is the author of a memoir, The Theater of War: What Ancient Greek Tragedies Can Teach Us Today; All That You've Seen Here Is God, four plays by Aeschylus and Sophocles; and The Odyssey of Sergeant Jack Brennan, a graphic novelization of Homer's Odyssey, told from the point of view of a US Marine returning home from Afghanistan. Among his awards, he has received an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Kenyon College and was named Public Artist in Residence for the City of New York. View titles by Bryan Doerries

Praise

“Marine sergeant Jack Brennan’s platoon is on the way home from a grueling deployment to Afghanistan. It’s not the first time through this cycle for Brennan and a couple others, but this time, “He wants to tell us a story,” as one man gripes, before they go home—several stories, actually, from the greatest saga of a soldier going home, The Odyssey… Like a sergeant himself, writer Doerries makes a platoon of artists fall into a consistent style—a kind of stripped-down Swamp Thing look—in both Homeric and contemporary scenes to keep this exercise in comics-as-therapy compelling.”
—Ray Olson, Booklist

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