Turn Left at the Trojan Horse A WouldBe Hero American Odyssey (Audible Audio Edition) Brad Herzog Seth Michael Donsky Audible Studios Books
Download As PDF : Turn Left at the Trojan Horse A WouldBe Hero American Odyssey (Audible Audio Edition) Brad Herzog Seth Michael Donsky Audible Studios Books
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.
Turn Left at the Trojan Horse A WouldBe Hero American Odyssey (Audible Audio Edition) Brad Herzog Seth Michael Donsky Audible Studios Books
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.
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Turn Left at the Trojan Horse A WouldBe Hero American Odyssey (Audible Audio Edition) Brad Herzog Seth Michael Donsky Audible Studios Books Reviews
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!
This was a fascinating travel log of one man's journey around the US. I loved the details of his writing and learned so much about the geography of the some interesting towns I hope someday to visit.
A travelogue...no, but so much fun to read.
The whole time I was reading this book, I felt like something was missing. I teach a class in Freshman Comp and I teach Joseph Campbell's Hero Journey story, so I thought this book might be suitable for using in that class (I currently use Big Fish by Daniel Wallace, which I love but my students don't.) So I had high hopes for this story. I also like travel writing, and a journey across America seemed like a lot of fun.
But it somehow fell flat for me, like champagne without the sparkle. I think what did it was the "would-be hero" aspect of the story. There is something forced and artificial about setting out on a journey with the deliberate intention of "finding yourself" (especially in your 40s.) Reading from the Odyssey while stopping at places all along the way that reference the Odyssey, and engaging in self-analysis of the "am I a hero?" variety seemed self-conscious and forced to me.
Some of the locales and the people he met along the way were interesting in their own way. But each time, the authorial voice seemed to intrude--what can I learn here? Is this a metaphor? What does this say about my quest?
A hero does not set out on his journey with the deliberate intention to have a hero journey. He or she has another purpose, and self-understanding is a side effect. When self-understanding and the desire to find the heroic in oneself comes into the foreground, the journey becomes mawkish. That's what happened here, in my estimation. The journey to the underworld, in which the hero seems to face certain death, cannot be accomplished by self-consciously visiting a town that has been on fire underground since the 1960s. Ignoring warnings that the place is dangerous is not enough to bring one face to face with the destruction of the ego (especially since it's not so dangerous that people don't still live there.)
Next time, I suggest Brad take his wife and two sons with him on his trip and stop trying so hard to have insights.
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.
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.
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