The Voyage of the Proteus, by Thomas M. Disch

Thomas M. Disch wrote a number of odd books during his career, but the oddest are found in the years just before his suicide in July 2008 at the age of 68. The Voyage of the Proteus: An Eyewitness Account of the End of the World, published in 2007, is among these late writings. A novella, published as a small book, it recounts the adventures of an American poet "Tom" who dreams he is on board the ship the Proteus, where he encounters Cassandra, Agamemnon, Socrates, and others of the post-Trojan War era. A wry humor is at play, with occasional touches of satire, directed towards the modern world and then-president George W. Bush. None of it works very well in combination. The satire, for one, is mostly too diffuse to be humorous, but there are occasional scenes (e.g. the attacks by the harpies) that hold the reader's interest.There is a sequel novella, The Proteus Sails Again, published posthumously, in which his former comrades visit Disch in his New York apartment.