A
novel (
1970) by
John Gardner.
Agathon is an
Athenian philosopher living (if you call it living, the way he does it) in
Sparta 'round about the time of the
Peloponnesian War, give or take a few years.
Agathon is a
social commentator and a drunk, an educated man
on the skids, a former advisor to the
Spartan
dictator Lykourgos, an ongoing thorn in
Lykourgos' side, and an advocate of rebellion by the
helots,
Sparta's
serfs.
Agathon is a repulsive old man, but a funny one. He's
the Greek philosopher for the rest of us(tm). He has an
estranged wife and some kids back in
Athens, and he turns out to have a grim history of
mental illness, at times violent. Sometimes he thinks he's inspired by
the gods; that might even be true, but then again his brain might just be turning backflips for the hell of it, like
a cat on a leash.
The Wreckage of Agathon a mediation on
power,
government,
civil disobedience and
civic responsibility, madness, and
guilt. The account of the
Athenian ruler
Solon is priceless. It's a good read. Really.
Gardner was at his best with this kind of material. None of his
contemporary novels ever grabbed me very much: He deals in
grotesques and monsters, but he was too heavy-handed to put such things in
upstate New York college towns and rural
Vermont without turning them into silly
caricatures.
IMHO, of course.