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Rating: 
Summary: A Perfect 10
Review: The title suggests this is another polemic in the "canon wars." But it isn't, at least not directly. Sinaiko defends the canon not by running down selections by feminist or multicultural theorists but by showing why the great books-by Homer, Plato, Tolstoy, etc.-are great books. He does not do this through argument. Alone, such arguments often fall on deaf ears because they are simply not convincing. Instead, by stepping readers through the process of detail-oriented, deep reading Sinaiko shows why, for example, after 2500 years Homer still has something to say to modern readers. The best thing about Sinaiko's method is that he does what so many college professors fail to do today: demonstrate the tangible reward of taking time with great books. Sometime, as with Tolstoy's War and Peace, he does this by showing the relation between a novel's plot and its structure. Other times, as with Homer's Iliad, Sinaiko concentrates on small details (like Homer's similes) contained in the writing of the lines themselves. Sinaiko communicates simply and effectively. His tone is never pedantic or authoritarian. Instead, he writes as if these were lectures, which they were. The effect one gets in reading is as though one was in class with a master teacher. At once, it is humbling because we see the demonstrable skill of a master. But it is also uplifting. We are inspired to read these books and to imitate the attention he gives to them.
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