cover image The Drunken Spelunker’s Guide to Plato

The Drunken Spelunker’s Guide to Plato

Kathy Giuffre. John F. Blair, $26.95 (240p) ISBN 978-0-89587-651-5

Giuffre (An Afternoon in Summer) presents 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. The residents of the Cave and its related institutions—Tia Tortilla’s, just down the alley, and Commie Tom’s Hammer and Sickle Bookstore, across the street—welcome newcomer Josie into their community when she arrives in town. Josie has left home and is looking for direction in her life. After taking up a position as bartender in the Cave, Josie learns that “there is enormous comfort to be had in friends who see the worst of you and do not turn away.” Passages drawn from Plato’s allegory of the cave and Edith Hamilton’s Mythology weave through the story, elevating Josie’s struggles to the level of the universal. This is warm, sweet, and inviting, like pie fresh from the oven. (Sept.)