Bob Linn

Throughout school, at least since High School, it’s been pounded in my head: CliffsNotes Bad! Read Actual Book! We Can Tell If You Read CliffsNotes! Wooo!!

And it’s perhaps due to that reason that I’ve never actually picked up a CliffsNote book before. Call it fear and trepidation. Call it conditioning.

It was a matter of fate, then, that I came to acquire a copy of Robert J. Milch’s Cliffs Notes on Homer’s The Iliad (an older version of the guide for this epic poem). Since it found its way into my hands, and I have a compulsion to read everything I get, it was only a matter of time before I read it. I was particularly amused by the statement near the front, written in all caps, indicating that you are presumably robbing yourself of something if you read the Cliffs Notes and not the actual book itself. I wonder if this was done at the pressure of the educators.

Nevertheless, I read this book (don’t worry, hard-working teachers, I read The Iliad first!). My final impression was one of being impressed. I found that Milch did an excellent job of summarizing the poem as well as including enough historical information to clarify some concepts. While I doubt I would back up any assertions of interpretation of The Iliad on what was written in the Cliffs Notes, I did get a little more of an insight into one of the older surviving narratives of our culture.

Still, I can’t recommend it, because you might not read the actual book. And the teachers wouldn’t like that, would they?… (altro)