THE MORAL NAVIGATOR

In a three-volume set, Klees boils down an estimable collection of legend, lore and literature in an attempt to make classic writings relevant to today.

In composing his new anthology, Klees retells (often in truncated form) some 110 well-known stories. Each twice-told tale is accompanied by a succinct moral that delivers to the reader in quick strokes what the author believes to be the tale’s ethical content. In the process, he brings together a wide-ranging and fascinating variety of stories that draw upon the mythology of many nations and cultures, from Native American lore (“The Legend of Hiawatha”) to biblical myth (the story of Job) to more modern prose (Twain’s Tom Sawyer). Most frequently, Klees simply paraphrases extant material–a sometimes dubious technique given that he pulls from some of the most enduring literature in history. However, his summaries are largely successful, thanks in no small part to a levelheaded narrative style. The author never tries to outdo his lofty predecessors, and is more likely to cleave closely–and sometimes with obsessive care–to their prose than skip out in flights of fancy. Many readers might agree with the collection’s implied thesis–that much literature and legend carries real moral weight. However, there is something oddly reductive about the project. To suggest that the some of the greatest stories ever told can be distilled to a pithy ethical statement seems simplistic and perhaps naïve. Take, as only one example, Klees’s “moral” for Leo Tolstoy’s beautifully nuanced short story “How Much Land Does a Man Need?”: “Greed is not a desirable trait. Blatant greed can be death of you.” Does the author really need to trot out the greatest Russian author of all time to deride avarice? And does such a précis do justice to what Joyce considered the best story ever written? It seems unlikely.

Relevant but reductive.