"The Celestial Hunter" by Roberto Calasso is a mind-bending journey into mythology, philosophy, and the human psyche. Calasso's writing is like a rollercoaster of ideas – you might not catch everything, but it's an exhilarating ride. This book will stretch your brain in the best way possible, making you think about the mysteries of existence long after you've put it down. It's not an easy read, but it's a rewarding one for those who love diving deep into the cosmic mysteries of our world.

I'm always fascinated by Roberto Calasso's books as they are a mix of good storytelling, sound knowledge and you cannot help wondering how great his erudition is.
This book is no exception and I was enthralled and involved in this book full of great story, interesting reflections and food for thought.
It was an excellent read and I strongly recommend it.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine.

If you've read Calasso's 'The Marriage of Cadmus and Harmony'then you'll have an inkling of what to expect: once again, Calasso delves into primarily, though not exclusively, Greek storytelling through myth but also through the Mysteries that were cults and kind of adjacent to religion. The theme that only partially holds all this together is that of the porous boundaries between the divine, the human and the animal; and hunting is the process that both defines and yet confuses these categorisations.

Going beyond the expected (such as Actaeon, the archetypal hunter turned prey), this is a dazzling meditation that is dense, hallucinogenic, suggestive - and occasionally bonkers! Calasso's breadth of scholarship is kaleidoscopic as he zooms from Homer, the classical Athenians to Burkhardt and Nietzsche and beyond (and you've got to love someone who has clearly reads the extant fragments of Callimachus!) but don't expect linearity or a composed precision - this is all flight and imagination that touches base on a topic before soaring off again...

Given my own research interests, the most stimulating ideas come from the way Calasso thinks about the hunt and the erotic: although the 'erotic hunt' is well recognised in literature, Calasso's take turns the whole concept on its head and positions the two as akin to incest - fascinating, and worth thinking about more deeply.

So another fascinating, amorphous, unpindownable text - it's exhilarating, erudite and stimulating, but kind of crazy too!