An Unexamined Life is a novel based upon Socrates' dictum that "an unexamined life is not worth living." It traces the life of Neal Landrum, a hugely successful New York businessman who has risen from a very peculiar lower-class childhood in a small West Texas town, through a successful collegiate athletic career, to marriage to the daughter of a rich self-made Texas oilman, and, finally, to a key position in a very prosperous conglomerate. It is not until he is diagnosed with a fatal disease that he begins a physical, intellectual, and emotional journey through his life which allows him to see himself clearly for the first time.

As he revisits those with whom he has lost touch--his brother, his first lover, even his current wife--he realizes just how flawed his relationships, and ultimately, his view of himself, has been.