Friday essay: I’ve been reading The Odyssey my whole life. Nolan’s film version is exhilarating – but not perfect

Matt Damon as Odysseus in Christopher Nolan's film adaptation of The Odyssey. Universal Studios I first read The Odyssey during the summer holidays when I was 15 years old. Parked under the shade of the mulberry tree in our Brisbane backyard, I would read, grab a few mulberries, then read some more, my fingers sometimes staining the pages dark purple. It was a secondhand Penguin Classics edition, translated by E.V. Rieu, its yellowing paper and creased spine, to my teenage eyes, somehow as…