{"product_id":"drunken-spelunkers-guide-to-plato-9780895876515","title":"Drunken Spelunker's Guide to Plato","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Drunken Spelunkers Guide to Plato is based on Platos Allegory of the Cave from The Republic. In this novel  the Cave is a dank basement bar in the small Southern town of Waterville  overflowing with cheap beer  good blues  and local oddballs. Theres Vera  the tough but tender owner; Pancho  the philosophical piano tuner; Billy Joe  the former rising star back home after a stop in Memphis; and Commie Tom  the exceedingly generous proprietor of the Hammer and Sickle Bookstore. The newest bartender is whip-smart tomboy Josie  who hopped a bus from the Appalachian backwoods on a quest to discover who she is and where she belongs. What she finds is the Cave and the love of a charming regular named Danny. Armed with lessons from mythology and Platos philosophy  Josie navigates the ups and downs of first love and begins to understand that something much greater is waiting for her just outside the Cave. With Josie as our brave guide  we are submerged in a rarely explored subculture. Her journey into the Cave and back out is filled with trials and tragedy  but Josie is helped along by her newfound community of large-hearted hard drinkers. The Drunken Spelunkers Guide to Plato is a love letter to the families we build for ourselves and the unexpected ways life can answer the question  \"What if?\" KATHY GIUFFRE is a professor and sociologist specializing in social networks  cultural sociology  and Polynesian society. Giuffre was invited to present a TED Talk about her research in 2013. She is the author of a memoir  An Afternoon in Summer: My Year in the South Seas (Awa Press  2010)  as well as two academic books covering her areas of expertise. Giuffre received her Ph.D. and M.A. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a B.A. from Harvard University. Currently  she and her family live in Colorado Springs  Colorado  where she is the A.E. and Ethel Irene Carlton Professor of Social Sciences at Colorado College. \". . . A novel of love and life that is humorous and delicate. The regulars at the Cavern Tavern in the small southern town of Waterville  located somewhere in the Appalachian Piedmont  partake of all the quirkiness expected of literary denizens of dive bars in the South . . . Passages drawn from Platos allegory of the cave and Edith Hamiltons Mythology weave through the story  elevating Josies struggles to the level of the universal. This is warm  sweet  and inviting  like pie fresh from the oven.\"  Publishers Weekly \"A young woman living in a college town in the early 1990s learns about life  love  and ancient Greek philosophy in this episodic  often comic tale. With its evenhanded narrator  this low-key novel succinctly evokes the supportive dynamics of the community at its heart.\"  Kirkus Reviews Winner: SIBA Summer 2015 Okra Pick Best Book Winner: Seven Sisters Book Award  Fiction Long List: Pat Conroy Award for Southern Fiction  Prince of Tides Award in Literary Fiction Long List: Crooks Corner Book Prize Finalist: Foreword INDIEFAB Book of the Year  Literary Fiction\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"My Store","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":67924888715317,"sku":"ByrdShop_0895876515","price":66.25,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0627\/8139\/0901\/files\/9780895876515.jpg?v=1794143388","url":"https:\/\/atxbooks.com\/products\/drunken-spelunkers-guide-to-plato-9780895876515","provider":"ATX Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}