Review by Choice Review
Woodruff (Univ. of Texas at Austin) presents both a brilliant reading of the problems of justice and a recasting of the conflict between Ajax and Odysseus at Troy. As classicists will recall, Ajax was the best soldier in the Greek army, and Odysseus the best strategist. After Achilles's death, it was determined that his armor was to be given to the best of the Greeks as a prize. When the decision went against him, Ajax found that he was dishonored; in the best of Greek traditions, the outcome was bad for everyone. Woodruff reinterprets this account to expert use, seeing in it the tensions between justice, fairness, leadership, and morality. He draws on literary examples from the ancient Greeks, through Shakespeare, to Melville, and to business and war--including discussions of the recent Iraq War and financial derivatives. The prose is smooth and understandable, the examples are clear and cogent, and the analysis is lucid and bound to strike a chord with every reader. Excellent afterword by C. Cale McDowell. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Lower-level undergraduates and above; general readers. R. E. Kraft York College of Pennsylvania
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
