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Title: Turn Left at the Trojan Horse
Subtitle: A Would-Be Hero's American Odyssey
Author: Brad Herzog
Narrator: Seth Michael Donsky
Format: Unabridged
Length: 22 hrs and 18 mins
Language: English
Release date: 07-19-13
Publisher: Audible Studios
Ratings: 5 of 5 out of 1 votes
Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Personal Memoirs
Publisher's Summary:
Turn Left at the Trojan Horse has been described as On the Road meets Eat, Pray, Love because it goes well beyond a road trip. More than just a funny and profound narrative of Brad Herzog's cross-country trek toward a college reunion in Ithaca (New York) and more than another reimagining of Odysseus's ancient journey (he visits places like Troy, OR... Iliad, MT... Apollo, PA...), it is a memoir exploring the parameters of a heroic existence - by chronicling the lives of people in America's oft-ignored spaces, by examining the universal truths embedded in ancient myths, and by undertaking a fair bit of self-evaluation. It is the memoir of an Everyman searching for the hero within.
Members Reviews:
A Fun and Insightful Ride
I heard of this book quite by accident, reading the first chapter in a US Airways in-flight magazine and becoming intrigued by the book's premise and promise. I was also moved to know more about the author, whose first chapter offers a self-effacing summary of his time in the hot seat of Who Wants to be a Millionaire.
Certainly the travelogue has been done before, but Herzog's book teases out an entirely new angle, hopscotching from one "mythical" town to the next enroute to a reunion at Cornell, roughly approximating a Homeric journey to discover the hero within. Herzog's knowledge of Greek mythology surfaces comfortably within the book, perfectly complementing the present-day locales and characters he encounters in towns like Athena, Troy and Pandora. Never mind that Herzog calls Pacific Grove--Steinbeck country--his home. This is not "Travels with Charley," but rather a work of humor and history and self-reflection that never preaches. He sticks to the road he's on and finds heroes who glory in the smallest tasks "leaves a greater understanding of the heroic ideal." For all its accessibility, Herzog's narrative offers up genuine poetic depth and rhythm. For example, he describes the Ohio landscape in this way: "long shadows creeping down silos and cherry red barns, which looked almost regal amid the approaching sunset, as if drawing life from the dying light." Later, he documents the dichotomy of a tractor pull and posits it as a metaphor for his own life--craving energy but longing for traction.
In the end, Herzog arrives "home" in every sense, neatly summarizing his tale with the ideal and the proof that in this country, heroes exist both in an around us.
Too many references to The Odyssey
In this book Herzog again travels through small towns in the US. While writing about his trip he also gives us a lot of background on Homer's The Odyssey. He gives up too much background on The Odyssey, in my opinion. If I wanted to read that book, I would have gotten that book. For me, his Small World was a much more enjoyable read.
A Must Read for every RVer and fun for the Armchair Road Tripper too.
Get all three travel memoirs ~~ TURN LEFT AT THE TROJAN HORSE, SMALL WORLD, and STATES OF MIND ~~ such a novel idea. Wish there had been more!
Couldnt Put this book down!!
What a great book. It took 2 days to finish and I found it to be the perfect antidote to the "middle aged hemlock" that we all share. It takes a unique author to go from Who Wants to be a Millionaire, to Amish Country, to the Oracle at Delphi.
