A state-of-the-art eBook version of “The Idiot and the Odyssey II: Myth, Madness and Magic on the Mediterranean” will be published on Valentine’s Day 2013 and include nearly 200 photographs, interactive maps and a variety of hyperlinks. Readers will be able to hear The Sirens serenading The Idiot on the Amalfi Coast, listen to a rendition of “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door” at the top of Mount Olympus, and visually monitor The Idiot’s adventures and steps in Italy, Greece and Turkey.

The 175,000-word text is currently being read by a number of other authors and reviewers. The following appreciation was written by Lex Hames, a Montana-based writer whose next books are entitled “Kill Club” and “Dark Moon.”

*****

I just finished The Idiot and the Odyssey II: Myth, Madness and Magic on the Mediterranean. It really is superb. You hit a certain stride, a grace note, when you got to Sicily, and you kept that up all the way through Greece and Turkey and to the end. Your description of places seemed to lengthen – in a good way – the quality of your observations deepened and intensified.

And, increasingly, you found language that flowed and moved the story along with precision and ease…… the rhythm of the words became the rhythm of your walk became the rhythm of your mind. The last half of this book had a continual, pleasing sense of movement…..not a rush, no speedy movement of course, you were walking….but a steady movement forward into adventure, discovery, mystery and marvels. Exceedingly good pace in the latter half of the book…..

So great job. Some special highpoints, for me:

Hopping around the Greek Islands was very nice – nice tour of Lesbos and Lemnos…..

Great sensual tour of Thessalonica….I wanted one of those pastries! – the bougatsa crema – your description made my mouth water!

Very funny on getting to Ithaca…..the bus confusion….being picked up by the cops….

I loved your complicated trip to Skhería……what a lovely assortment of people you met on the way, as a hitchhiker! That’s one of the great things about Idiot – the amazing cross-section of humanity you’re continually churning up………

This was very nice – very sage and wise:

I’ve always enjoyed the definition of mitos as a lifeline created by the Fates at birth that we each unravel as we age to avoid being forever lost in the labyrinth of life.

Crete was great – the gods, the people, the wild land and sea. I especially liked your conversation with the bar owner and the call girl at Panorama Taverna. I would have enjoyed hearing those “lurid sex tales.” (Maybe there should be an X-rated version of The Idiot, to include lurid sex tales and more details of sexual adventures. Call it the testosterone version……..less useable for high school audiences, though, I suppose….)

Thanks for quoting me on Mt. Olympus – that was one of my better off-the-cuff quotes – good to be part of the prose!

I remember Mycenae and the Lion Gate, and you brought it back. It was moving to look down from the ramparts and see the Aegean, and to think of Agamemnon standing pensively on the wall, staring down at the blue waters that would carry him to Troy…..it was nice to re-visit it through your description…………

I was absolutely, totally fascinated by the “monkdom” around Mount Athos – this semi-autonomous Eastern Orthodox mini-country – I’d never heard of it. But now I want to go there! The Byzantine Empire is one of my very favorite historical periods (no doubt from having read too many poems by Yeats), one of the times & places I’d definitely go if I had a time machine. So it would be wonderful to drop into this slice out of time, this remnant of old Byzantium. Thanks for making me aware of it. Your descriptions of it are wonderful – I want to go!

Your description of the Gallipoli Battlefield was very good. I liked this:

The eeriness is intensified by an incessant ear-cleaning, brain-bashing, howling wind, coupled with the lack of local tourists due to Ramadan. I again feel like Odysseus visiting dead and lost spirits in the underworld as I meander alone on the peninsula………wonderful and evocative description. It put me (the reader) right there…..

You definitely put me on the battlefield at Troy. Very judicious use of quotes from Homer. I could hear the clash of arms, smell the blood, startle at the cries of the soldiers…..

And nice talk with Zeus on Ida. Who knew he would be so pleasant and wise……..?

What a great book, what a great read, and above all, what a great adventure and accomplishment. Reading this made me even more aware of what an outstanding and amazing thing you’ve achieved. I already knew the details, of course – you’ve traveled thousands of kilometers, you’ve skirted the coastlines of France, Spain, Italy, Greece, Turkey…..but this made me really feel it. So many miles. So many scratched and torn legs, so many dangers (and escapes!), so many long slogs through the rain and the cold. Such an amazing collection of people you’ve met, conversed with, embraced….. It reminded me of the multitude of faces sliding across Siddhartha’s vision in Hesse’s book. You’ve found history, geography, and people all at once, in a vivid, right-there way. A wonderful uniting of the historical past, the living present, and the mythic lineage arching over it all. This took a lot of fortitude, determination, and guts. (And I know it’s not over yet….) What can I say. It’s great. Bravo, cheers and well done. — Lex Hames, 17 November 2012

Author Lex Hames on his Montana spread.

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About Joel

Joel Stratte-McClure has been a global trekker since the 1970s. He lived in France for over 30 years, working as a journalist, before he turned his attention to a unique life-time-project of walking the shores of the Mediterranean. The first 4,401 kilometers are explored in his inspirational and entertaining first book "The Idiot and the Odyssey: Walking the Mediterranean." The next 4,401 kilometers are covered in the gods-filled sequel, "The Idiot and the Odyssey II: Myth, Madness and Magic on the Mediterranean,” published on Valentine's Day 2013. The last 4,401 kilometers will be discussed in the last book of the trilogy currently entitled "The Idiot and the Odyssey III: Alexander the Great Walks the Mediterranean."