The Classical World

Fiction. The hero of Thomas Fuller’s new book walks around while asking one big question after another–what is truth, what is beauty, what is justice–on his journey through the classical world. Along the way he comes into contact with people–a cave guide in the ancient city of Matera, a taxi cab driver in Naples, the imperious owner of a grand hotel in Rome, among others–so modern they’re ancient and so ancient they’re modern. When he ditches his male sidekick for a female muse, the trip takes on an entirely different dimension, as our hero edges closer and closer and closer to asking the oldest philosophical question in the world: what is the best way to live one’s life, knowing there’s no right answer. Tender, funny, profane, outrageous, THE CLASSICAL WORLD is a quixotic excursion for which there’s no tour guide other than the self.

If Heraclitus had a great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great grandson he’d no doubt think like Thomas Fuller.–Anonymous