"I cannot rightly say how I entered it. I was so full of sleep, at that point where I abandoned the true way."

Author Thomas Franks is having a Dante moment:

In my late 50s, at a time of life when most people are supposed to be drifting into a cautious conservatism, I am surprised to find myself moving steadily leftward.

I know how he feels. I've been having the same experience for a decade now.