Getting Ready To Read About “Troy”? Here Are Some Tips So You Don’t Pull an Achilles

Author Wayne Turmel has some tips for average folks who want to read "The Iliad" when they've finished drooling over Brad Pitt and Orlando Bloom

Chicago, IL (PRWEB) May 4, 2004

Brad Pitt is Achilles, and Orlando Bloom is Paris. What’s not to like? At least one author thinks the new movie “Troy” will spark renewed interest in “The Iliad”, “The Odyssey” and other Greek legends. But are modern American audiences ready to tackle the original action adventure story?

"Maybe, but there are some things they should know going in- ”, says Wayne Turmel, author of “A Philistine’s Journal-an Average Guy Tackles the Classics” (2003, New Leaf Books, ISBN # 1-930076-13-4). “Like Achilles dressed as a girl til he was 15 for starters. Does Jennifer Anniston know about this?”

Turmel, a writer from Chicago decided to read the Iliad as part of his research for the book, and was surprised by what he discovered. “The story is such a part of our culture,” he says, “but there were lots of things I didn’t expect. For one thing, it’s so violent it makes ‘Kill Bill’ look like an Olsen Twins movie.”

Besides the body count and cross-dressing action heroes, here are some other things newcomers to the Greeks should be ready for:

•    Find a copy in modern prose, with good footnotes and annotations so you don’t lose your way

•    Don’t try to read it out loud, you can hurt yourself on those names…

•    Zeus could have stopped the war, but was too afraid of his wife, Hera, who was still mad about his affair with Achilles’ mother. And you thought Clinton bombed Kosovo as a distraction over Monica…

•    Trojans is the worst possible name for a condom. “Think about it,” says Turmel, “there was this thing outside the city, soon as it got inside, people came pouring out of it…isn’t that what these things are supposed to prevent?”

The Iliad is only one of the classics that appear in the book. “A Philistine’s Journal-an Average Guy Tackles the classics” tells the story of what happens when an average 40-year old schmo from the suburbs decides to read all the classics he should have read in college and didn’t. The result is a funny, insightful book that has been widely praised:

“A truly funny book by a very funny man”- The Grand Rapids Press

“One of the best non-fiction books of 2003”- Rebecca’s Reads

Since publication of the book, Turmel has become a frequent guest on radio talk shows and an in-demand speaker, including his business-oriented program; “Togas, Tights and Ties- 2500 Years of Business Advice” and his book has been one of the best-reviewed small press releases of the last year.

For more information on Wayne Turmel, the Iliad or “A Philistine’s Journal-an Average Guy Tackles the Classics,” visit http://www.achismarketing.com or contact Wayne Turmel at (630) 347-8369. Full press kit available upon request.

“A Philistine’s Journal- an Average Guy Tackles the Classics” is available at http://www.Amazon.com, http://www.Barnesandnoble.com and http://www.newleafbooks.net.