‘Plato for Everyone’ by Aviezer Tucker

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Genres: Nonfiction, Philosophy, Retelling,

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Rating: Recommended with Reservations

Here’s the TL;DR for my review:

• Pros
  • This is an approachable introduction to Socrates’s philosophy, as written by Plato, as transliterated by Aviezer Tucker. Instead of taking place in Ancient Greece, this occurs in modern day USA.
  • Provides a guide to thinking critically about everyday life.
• Mixed
• Cons
  • It’s rather long in the tooth.

Spoiler-tastic Review

I’m keeping this review short because very few people ready my nonfiction reviews.

Do you want to learn more about Plato’s philosophy, but you don’t know anything about ancient history? This novelization is a retelling of Plato’s parables, set in America where Socrates discusses topics like the draft and ‘cool’ and the legality of execution.

Are you well read in philosophy? Chances are you won’t like this. This is meant to be an introduction to the subject for ‘everyone,’ so someone who is familiar with the source material might feel as though they are being talked down to.

Finally, my biggest complaint was that it was a bit long. The character of Socrates was long and rambling. I got the feeling that this was an accurate transliteration of the original parable, but that doesn’t change the fact that it made the text difficult to parse.