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Give it a chance and Brad Herzog's existential crisis will be your deeply fulfilling summer entertainment.

"Turn Left at the Trojan Horse: A Would-Be Hero's American Odyssey" is a story about Herzog's month-long cross-country journey from Seattle to Ithaca, N.Y., in search of inner peace.

A celebrated author by his mid-20s, Herzog says he found himself one day with "kids and a minivan and an unfathomable mortgage and the notion that my achievements were not meeting my expectations."

With his 15-year college reunion coming up, his wife Amy told him to hit the open road to find himself. We should all thank our lucky stars he obliged.

For inspiration and insight, Herzog brought along a Ralph Waldo Emerson essay collection and the writings of mythologist Joseph Campbell. Like any adventurer, Herzog also brought along his modern-day faithful horse — a Winnebago Aspect.

"My goal: Visit with other lives," he writes. "Explore other places. Find coherence in the diversity I am sure to encounter. Accumulate the knowledge of journeys past and present as I rumble toward an understanding of the heroic ideal."

And he does visit with other lives. There's the quietly heroic school teacher in Troy, Wash., the military explosive ordinance disposer in Sparta, Wis., and, best of all, a pot-smoking, meandering ex-con and self-described "last free man" affectionately named Hobo Dan. With some folks, he seems to have prearranged meetings, while others, including Hobo Dan, just happen across his path.

In his search to determine how he and others define a hero, Herzog chose to stop mostly in towns with some sort of connection to Greek mythology, in particular to Homer's epic poems "Iliad" and "Odyssey." There are stops in Troy, Wash., Athena, Ore., and Pandora, Ohio, to name a few. What emerges from seemingly endless connections between Herzog's real-life journey and Greek mythology is the notion that our society is deeply taken with heroes and heroic deeds. Herzog uses sleight of hand to show us that, whether or not we realize it, we are obsessed with placing ourselves and our way of life above others.

Herzog is no exception.

"Like Odysseus, I cannot bear the thought of an eternity apart from my family. But I also fear a sort of cultural and historical oblivion. I wish to be remembered," he writes.

The author wove a great deal of Greek mythology and history into his book, and readers are bound to flip the last page thinking they have eaten a mound of brain candy. What they've really enjoyed was a pile of intellectual spinach. That's right, Brad Herzog makes learning fun.

And he puts his ego on the line with such brutal honesty that you'll wonder if he whispered this entire story to you over a bottle or two of wine at his house.

His descriptions of his own life are artful and hilarious.

"I seem to have aches where I didn't know I had muscles, rogue hairs where I didn't realize I had follicles and frustration where I wasn't aware I had ambition," he writes.

Who among us at 30 or older can't relate to such sentiments?

Herzog managed to pull off chronicling an introspective journey without sounding whiny or tortured or self-absorbed. OK, maybe a little self-absorbed. Still, the book has such wide appeal that it hardly matters. Anyone can relate to the questions Herzog asks about his own life: where he comes from, whether he has achieved enough, whether he will be remembered.

Ultimately, the outcome is subtle yet profound, appropriately mirroring the process of real-life revelation.

"Turn Left at the Trojan Horse: A Would-Be Hero's American Odyssey" is available for purchase at major booksellers.

If you go

Author Brad Herzog will read from and sign copies of his book "Turn Left at the Trojan Horse: A Would-Be American Odyssey" at 7 p.m. Thursday at Barnes & Noble in Bethesda, 4801 Bethesda Ave. Call 301-986-1761.