Book and - The National Herald GR

Transcription

DECEMBER 2, 2006
Books
THE NATIONAL HERALD • a b
www.thenationalherald.com
Sponsored by the Ministry of Tourism • National Greek Tourist Organization
2
THE NATIONAL HERALD, DECEMBER 2, 2006
3
Discover
“Books” with
The National
Herald
elcome to the
second issue of
“Books.”
Thanks to the
talented authors of the
books and the excellent
work of the reviewers, we
have had a wonderful
response to this new
feature. The National
Herald’s “Books” enables
our readers to discover
books written about Greece,
Cyprus or Greek Americans
and the authors who create
them. We hope you will be
enticed to read the many
fine books that are
available.
We receive a variety of
fiction and non-fiction
books, including
translations and poetry,
from authors throughout
the United States and
Canada. We are impressed
with the quality of their
work and would like to
review more of them, but
because of space
limitations, it is not
possible.
In this issue, to further
acquaint you with the wide
variety of books available
on the Greek American
experience we have
included Steve Frangos’
well-researched “Suggested
Readings on the Greek
American Experience.” He
notes that even this lengthy
list covers only a fraction of
the books available and that
nearly 100 books have been
published on this topic since
1980.
If you have published a
book, we invite you to send
it for possible review to The
National Herald, 37-10 30th
Street, Long Island City,
New York 11101.
BOOKS FROM PELLA
W
Elaine Thomopoulos
Managing Editor, Books
MY DETROIT
MY LIFE IN THE FURNACE
Growing Up Greek and American in Motor City
While barely a teenager, Panayotis Tranoulis began back-breaking work in a
brick factory in Greece. His memoir/novel of life amid the furnaces presents a
modern working class reality rarely explored in contemporary Greek literature.
Paperback: 192 pages 5.5x8.5 - $15.00 plus $3.00 shipping
Dan Georgakas, one of the leading historians of Greek America, offers an engaging
and candid community history of the Greek American community in which he was
reared. Charles Moskos has judged this history/memoir to be “essential reading”.
Paperback: 312 pages 5.5 x 8.5 - $17.00 plus $3.00 shipping
THE CHARIOTEER
THE JOURNAL OF THE HELLENIC DIASPORA
The Charioteer provides an annual review of the best in contemporary Greek arts with a special emphasis on literature. Long recognized as offering the best of modern Greek literature in translation
and outstanding literary criticism. Founded in 1960. Paperback:
208 pages 5.5 x 8.5 Annual Subscription - $20.00
The Journal of the Hellenic Diaspora reports and reflects on the
Greek experience in its full global context. In that context, the
JHD has established itself as the leading authority in Greek
American Studies. Founded in 1974.
2 Issues 5.5x 8.5 - Annual Subscription - $20.00
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4
Heart Murmurs from Home
By Robert Krause
Special to The National Herald
SOTERIOS ELLENAS
PAROCHIAL SCHOOL
KIMISIS THEOTOKOU
GREEK ORTHODOX
CHURCH
224-18th Street
Brooklyn, N.Y. 11215
Tel.: (718) 499-5900
www.soteriosellenas.org
Give your child
a most
valuable gift
this Christmas
A gift that lasts
a lifetime
A Greek American
Orthodox
Education
An education
filled with
our language
culture
and ethics
Enroll your child
in a nurturing environment,
enroll in our Nursery,
or Pre-Kindergarten program designed
for 3 and
4 year olds
Come and visit
For best-selling author George P.
Pelecanos, family and heritage are
the essentials. When I spoke with
him in September, he seemed initially tired from a working trip to
Baltimore, but he quickly became
enthusiastic and energized.
Pelecanos’ latest novel, “The
Night Gardener,” is described on
the author’s website as, “The haunting story of three cops – one good,
one bad, one broken – and the murder that reunites them in a showdown decades in the making.”
While “The Night Gardener” does
indeed continue in Pelecanos’ successful streak of violent gritty crime
By George Pelecanos
stories, the novel is elevated to
something greater by his presentaLittle, Brown and Company,
tion of the Ramone family. The
384 pages, $24.99
“good cop,” Gus Ramone, is a diligent Detective Sergeant. He and his
wife Regina, a one-year dropout
from the force and now full time
mother, met during Gus’ first year
as a patrolman. Some 20 years later
in 2005, they are now parents of a
middle school son, Diego, and his
seven-year-old sister, Alana.
The Ramones form a rainbow
family. With the given name
Giuseppe, Gus is of Italian American ancestry, while Regina is an
African American. The family and
heritage here are again essential,
especially considering where Pelecanos has come from, and where he
is today.
George P. Pelecanos was born in
Washington, D.C. in February,
1957. Although his father was born
in Greece, he considers
himself
third generation.
“(Dad) came over
when he was a
toddler. He couldn’t
be
more
(American)
…
(Dad) was in the
Marine Corps in
World War II. He
boxed, he played
baseball.”
For
both his mother
and father the
family hometown
was Sparta.
After settling
in the Mount
Pleasant
neighborhood
near
Washington, D.C.,
Pelecanos’ father
began his lifelong
work operating a
lunch
counter.
“My dad had a reGIOVANNETTI/EFFIFIE MILAN
ally nice little
George P. Pelecanos
business, a nice
“The Night Gardener”
little diner. He went to work every
day. Every day and he did good
work.”
An earlier Pelecanos novel from
1996, “The Big Blowdown,” features much biographical information of Pelecanos’ family. “My Dad
grew up poor in Chinatown after he
came over from Greece. He fought
in the Pacific in the Philippines. It’s
his story up to (a) point of that
book. My Mom makes a cameo. All
my relatives are there somewhere.
It’s a testament to all of them.”
George grew up a member of
the neighborhood, an American
kid, developing affinities for street
basketball and rock music, both
heavily featured in his 1997 novel
“King Suckerman.” He is a former
altar boy of Saint Sophia Greek Orthodox Church, located in Northwest Washington on Embassy Row.
A perfect-attendance graduate of
Saint Sophia’s Sunday School, he is
still active at the church.
Other than working at his dad’s
lunch counter, Pelecanos has experienced a wide variety of jobs. He
has been a line cook, dishwasher,
bartender, electronics salesman,
unskilled construction worker and
women’s shoe salesman. Oft quoted
for saying of the latter, “Best job I
ever had,” it certainly wasn’t what
he was born to do. In 1988 while
operating a chain of electronics
stores, “I had an early midlife crisis.
The next step would’ve been to get
my own business, but instead I decided I wanted to be a writer.”
Quitting the retail market, Pelecanos gathered writing material by
tending bar at a policeman’s watering hole in downtown Washington.
From his experiences he wrote his
first novel, which was literally
plucked from the stack as a blind
entry by an editor at St. Martin’s
Press, the only publisher he submitted the work to. (“I was naïve. I believed what it said in ‘The Writer’s
Market’ – no simultaneous submissions.”) Described as “very autobiographical,” “A Firing Offence” was
published in 1992.
Pelecanos still resides near D.C.
“right over the district line in Silver
Spring, just steps over the line.” He
and his wife Emily met in 1978
while both were working as salespersons at The Gap during the holiday season. Married since 1985,
they now have three adopted children: two boys, 15-year-old Nick
and 13-year-old Pete, are both from
Brazil. Their nine-year-old sister
Rosa is from Guatemala. His parents still live in the neighborhood,
“about 15 minutes from me. I talk
to them everyday or I see them.”
As a writer, Pelecanos is a man
with a driven work ethic, or “the
Greek work ethic” as he calls it. His
latest best selling novel “The Night
Gardener” is his 14th novel in as
many years. During that time he
was also executive producer of four
films, including the documentary
“The Long Haul of A.I. Bezzerides.”
Since 2002 he’s been a writing contributor to the critically acclaimed
HBO series “The Wire,” which has
been picked up for a fifth season.
Somehow he also finds time to
read and could quite probably earn
a living solely as a critic. He routinely peppers interviews with recommendations. “I’m a fan. I got into this because I fell in love with
crime novels. I had a teacher in college turn me on to them. When I
read a good book, a really good
book that turns me on, I want to tell
people about it.”
I asked him specifically about
his favorite Greek literature and authors. “Bezzerides is one. He wrote
some classic novels. He wasn’t just
a screenwriter.
“I like this guy Jeff Eugenides. I
thought ‘Middlesex’ was a fantastic
novel. A modern Greek American
writer I think is extraordinary.
“There’s not a lot of books where
Greek people are depicted in literature especially well. It’s the jolly
guy with a mustache behind the
counter wearing the apron.”
“The Night Gardener,” however,
has no central Greek characters.
Yet, he doesn’t plan on abandoning
Greek Americans. “I’ll continue to
go back to them. It’s important for
us to be represented. And we are
underrepresented.”
Pelecanos is well aware of his
heritage, and how he may be seen
as a Greek American writer, appreciated by the Greek community.
“People that I meet are enthusiastic. There is a bond between us because we’re Greek. In the same way
when I was a kid when I’d watch
movies I would wait for the credits,
and I’d try to find a Greek person in
the credits. If you did find a Greek
person it made you feel proud, and
it gave you a little bit of hope. It
wasn’t the traditional bit for our
people in America.
“I come from a generation
where just about all of our fathers
were in the food service business
(which, by the way – there’s nothing wrong with that. I know how to
run a restaurant). And so if you
were the kind of person who aspired to do anything different, like
be a writer, or work in the movies,
it was always hopeful to see somebody else who was doing it.” Pelecanos has become that someone.
The author laughed when I
asked if Gus and Regina are the first
functional couple he’s written
about. “It could be. I was ready to
write about a loving married couple
and a family that was really whole.
I’ve written for years about the different ways to make a family that
can include foster parents or coaching kids. I’ve explored many times
the workplace as a place where
someone who doesn’t have a home
life can find another family.
“This is the first time that I really
went deep into what it’s like to be a
husband and father and to come
home every night and not be a
screw-up. Let’s face it, I’ve written
about a lot of screw-ups in my career. There’s other people out there
too.”
“The Night Gardener” is not all
family wholesomeness. The screwups remain, even among those on
the right side of the law. Those
who, from the book, “were trying to
stay out of bars or simply unwilling
to face the loneliness, unhappiness,
duties, or plain boredom of their
home lives.”
Yet, the part of the book most
resonant with the reader is the
bond between Gus and Regina Ramone. From midway through the
book, with the reader knowing the
type of family that will result, Gus
reminisces on his first sight of Regina with tender poignancy, a
poignancy not normally seen in
hard-core crime novels:
“As it always did when he descended those stairs, the movie in
his head rewound twenty clicks, to
his first full year on the force. It was
through the frame of that same
open doorway that he had gotten
his initial look at Regina, standing
in her blue one-piece suit on the
pool’s edge, looking into the water
preparing to dive. The sight of her,
muscular but all woman, with a
shapely buttocks and nice, stand-up
breasts, had literally stopped him in
his tracks. He was not a guy who
was particularly adept at talking to
the opposite sex … but he was not
afraid, and he walked right into the
pool area, introduced himself, and
shook her hand. Please let her be as
nice as she is beautiful, he thought,
as his hand gripped her smooth fingers and palm. Her big brown eyes
drooped a bit with her smile, and,
swear to God, he knew.”
Pelecanos manages to present
deep love between the family members clearly and concisely. For example, during a brief exchange between Diego and his basketballplaying friend, Richard, Diego’s inner thoughts reveal a depth of feeling not typically expressed by boys
of his age:
“‘What he want?’ said Richard.
“(He told me to get home after
dark. He asked me how school
went today. He told me he loved
me. The same way my Mom always
does before she hangs up the
phone.)
“ ‘Nothing much,’ said Diego to
Richard. “He just told me to beat
you Bamas to within an inch of
your lives.’”
The book’s central crime touches
the family closely. A friend of
Diego’s has been murdered, and the
brutal details have deeply disturbed the young man. After another late night, Gus comes home to
comfort his son:
“(Diego’s) eyes were hollow and
it appeared he had been crying. His
world had been tilted. It would
right itself, but never to the degree
of comfort where it had been.
“ ‘You okay?’
“ ‘I’m blown, Dad.’
“ ‘Let’s talk a little,’ said Ramone,
pulling a chair over to his son’s bed.
‘Then you should get some sleep.’ ”
“A little while later, Ramone
closed Diego’s door behind him and
walked down the hall to his own
bedroom.”
By withholding details of the
conversation taking place behind
closed doors, Pelecanos allows the
reader to share the intimate bond
between father and son, while
maintaining true family intimacy.
The author has his own deep
bonds of family involvement.
“We’ve got this kind of rainbow
family. I’ve started from an early
age with my children. I’ve taken
them to church every Sunday, got
them indoctrinated into the Greek
community, and they definitely
know who they are.
“My sons are black, but they also
consider themselves to be Greek,
and they dig it, because it’s cool to
something else other than just a
white American. We have the traditions, we have the language, we
have the food, all these things.
“They’re very comfortable in
their own skin.”
Pelecanos is no doubt also comfortable in his own skin — as a
Greek, as a husband and father, as a
gifted writer. In “The Night Gardener,” he’s again written a well-paced
story with crystal true dialogue and
settings the reader can see. Yet it’s
the characterizations and their relationships that will remain.
The character of Gus Ramone
shows the heart of Pelecanos’ writing. Ramone is a focused, driven
man who, though possessed of reasonable day-to-day fears and concerns for his family, is well aware
his dreams have come true. In this
regard, Ramone is similar to Pelecanos himself.
Pelecanos, by drawing on his
own experience of heritage and
family, brings life to Ramone and
the others in “The Night Gardener.”
He writes from the heart.
Robert Krause works in two public libraries as an assistant librarian. He reads and writes in Lake
County, Illinois.
5
6
Congratulations
Meet Me in Greektown!
A New Concept in Greek American Literature
to
By Steve Frangos
Greek American
authors
for their contribution
in keeping alive
our heritage
and culture.
“Greektown Chicago: Its History
— Its Recipes” by Alexa Elaine
Ganakos is an entirely new genre of
Greek American literature. Quite
unintentionally Ganakos has successfully blurred several timeworn
genres into an entirely new format.
This single volume is simultaneously a history book, a cookbook, and
an album of historic photographs.
The potential implications of
Ganakos’ new volume for Greektowns everywhere is nothing short
of revolutionary.
Through their stories
we learn about
our distant past
in the old land,
Asia Minor
or mainland Greece,
about the lives of
our grandfathers
and fathers,
their hard work,
difficulties,
successes,
hopes and dreams.
These men and women
ab
take the
Greek experience
to a wider audience
making our children
proud of
their heritage
and our fellow
Americans aware
of who we are.
Ιερός Ναός
Αναστάσεως
Τίρανα
www.papadatos.com
“Greektown Chicago:
Its History — Its Recipes”
By Alexa Elaine Ganakos
G. Bradley Publishing, 200 pages, $35
As part of this volume’s title implies, Ganakos has written a concise
history of Chicago’s old Greektown
district that was once bordered by
Harrison, Halsted, Polk Streets and
Blue Island Avenue, all situated on
the western edge of Chicago’s
downtown business district. This
area was long known as the “Delta”
since Blue Island ran roughly at a
diagonal to Harrison and Halsted. It
is said that between 1880 and the
end of World War II some 40,000
Greek immigrants made this general area their home. It should be noted, even if just in passing, that
Ganakos does stray geographically
in her various historical sections.
Still in her broader goal of describing Greek life in Chicago this occasional crossing of boundaries works
to the volume’s overall purpose.
In the 1950s and 1960s, urban
redevelopment and the construction of first the Eisenhower Expressway and later the Kennedy Expressway destroyed much of the north
and east ends of the old Delta District. Today’s bustling Greektown is
a two to three block corridor running north along Halsted Street,
which still thrives as a frenetic business district active on nearly a 24hour basis.
Eighteen sections compose the
overall history offered in this volume. Very much like sections within
a museum exhibition the content of
the various historical vignettes and
the historical images seen in each
span nearly a 100 years of Greek life
in Chicago. Churches and formal
events, picnics, dances, weddings,
entertainment and an array of other
themes fill this volume. And
Ganakos is most certainly not focused exclusively on the past.
A significant part of this volume’s
appeal is that Ganakos carries the
history of Chicago’s Greektown well
past the 1960s (where most authors
have left the story) and offers a
sound appraisal of the neighborhood’s ongoing service to the local
Greek community.
The innovative techniques in the
volume’s photographs mirror the
historic narrative’s mixture of individual memories with the voices of
contemporary restaurateurs and notable others throughout this 200
page volume. And here lies true inspiration.
Ganakos’ view of the Delta District in terms of history, images and
recipes is squarely focused on the
neighborhood in the widest sense of
that term. This perspective allows
Ganakos to offer the reader not simply a random memory, an old photograph or just a collection of
recipes but rather what sociologists
call the total social fact or what
artists have long called the spirit of
a place.
This spirit of old and new Greektown is powerfully invoked through
the stunning assembly of historic
and contemporary photographs
that lavishly illustrate this volume.
Ganakos has accomplished what so
few academics ever do, an insightful fusion of historical documentation with memories and commercial
information that comprise the content of every page.
An unintended consequence of
fusing a cookbook with a history
book is that in order to sell cookbooks, publishers have long recognized that the photographs of the
food must be especially clear and
JESSICA TAMPAS
Alexa Elaine Ganakos
printed on the highest quality paper. Since this volume is -- in part -a cookbook, every photograph has
been printed on the highest quality
paper with special computer enhancement given to each and every
image.
So this cookbook’s attention to
the reproduction of food images has
amplified the quality of the reproduction of historic photographs,
portraits and contemporary scenes
of Chicago’s Greektown to crystal
clear clarity.
Ganakos' vision of people and
commerce working together sees
expression in the recipe sections. In
yet another twist on standard convention there are two distinct recipe
sections. First 24 treasured family
recipes from many regions of
Greece are offered, and we see the
individual or family members who
share with us their most treasured
recipes. In yet another section, four
of Greektown’s finest restaurateurs
(and sometimes their families as
well) share the recipes of a wide array of their showcase dishes.
No other Greek cookbook in
North American has thought to offer both food and portrait photos.
The photographs in both recipe sections are simply offered as illustrations or out of respect for those involved. However, in the future these
photographs and the other contemporary photographs in this volume
will become the very source of “historic” images of Chicago’s Greeks
and Greektown during the New Millennium.
Interestingly, “Greektown Chicago: Its History — Its Recipes,” is being marketed as a model for other
ethnic groups. This vision of the
American ethnic experience as being a common cycle of events that
should be both celebrated and
7
shared is yet another example of
Ganakos as a committed coalition
builder of the first order.
I do have one observation. More
specific information should have
been made on each photograph.
Many will find this request utter
nonsense since nearly (and that is
the word to attend to) every photograph does have some sort of caption. But that is no longer enough.
Certainly with a number of the
historic images exact identification
may no longer be possible. In such
cases the provenance, that is, the
source of each photograph, should
have been provided. This is far from
a minor issue. Greek American historic photographic books such as
the one compiled by Ganakos are
exceedingly rare. It may be a hard
thing to hear but there is no assurance whatsoever that another book
of this sort (forget the high quality
of this particular volume) will see
print again.
Since we have already lost so
much of our collective immigrant
past, just knowing where photographs are archived is a major
contribution. Identifying individuals within these historic photographs is nothing short of a sacred
trust.
Let me offer an example. On the
“Greektown Chicago: Its History —
Its Recipes” title page we see three
images. The first shows an icon of
St. Nectarios, the second a photograph of flaming saganaki, and the
third an unidentified couple. No
documentation of any sort is offered
for this last photograph.
Since the man is holding a
bouzouki we can assume that this
image was selected for that reason
alone. I know that these individuals
are Zafiri and Anastacia (nee Rapanos) Harlambopoulos and that
the photograph was taken in front
of their home in Libertyville, Illinois
circa 1926-1931. If we knew where
this photograph came from then
this image of the Harlambopouloses
could conceivably receive the identification it deserves. Quite obviously other Greek Americans could
help in this overall identification
process.
This point aside Ganakos' volume unquestionably serves as a
model that can be employed to
great success not just in Chicago but
Astoria, Baltimore, Detroit, Los Angeles, Ontario, Toronto and many
other cities where Greek business
districts can still be found. Since
Ganakos’ book is obviously (and I
would stress rightly) in full support
of community’s commercial sector,
this means Chicago’s Greektown
businesses will offer this book for
sale for as long as copies are available. Potentially this volume will
stay in print far long than either
strictly a Greek cookbook or any history book. Given the potential
longevity of this book it is conceivable that this will be the only historical account many tourists, Greeks
as well as non-Greeks, will ever
read on the Greeks of Chicago. The
added responsibility for any highprofile historical volume is that it be
as accurate and as detailed as possible.
All reservations aside, “Greektown Chicago: Its History — Its
Recipes,” like good food everywhere, is an irresistible mixture of
individual items that when brought
together form a bouquet of sight,
experience and content that does
nothing less than feed the soul. We
can only urge Greek America at
large to immediately employ
Ganakos' fine volume as a template
for documenting every Greektown
neighborhood in Canada and the
United States.
To order “Greektown Chicago”
contact G. Bradley Publishing at
www.gbradleypublishing.com or 1800-966-5120.
Steve Frangos, a regular contributor of TNH, is a freelance writer
who travels throughout the country investigating and gathering historical information about the
Greek American community. Readers interested in contacting him
are encouraged to e-mail him at
greekwrite@yahoo.com.
8
A Dark, Brooding But Beautiful Book
about Childhood Memories of Ikaria
By Elaine Thomopoulos
REGISTRATION
for the school year
2007-2008
has begun
OPEN HOUSE
Saturday
December 9, 2006
10 a.m. - 12 noon
Accepting applications
on a first come, first served basis
for students entering
Kindergarden to 6th Grade
Our Goal:
To provide
a classic based
school education,
rich in the studies
of humanities
and literature
Ikaria Remembered
By Nicholas G. Lardas,
with artworks
By Zacharias A. Lardis
Lardis Fine Arts, 61 pages,
$11.95 paperback
As I looked over the gorgeous
multi-colored Florida sunset reflecting on the azure water, I felt
like my body was going to burst.
There was a funny swelling sensation deep inside of me, something I
cannot adequately explain. I experienced this same feeling when
reading “Ikaria Remembered ” by
Nicholas G. Lardas, with artworks
by his younger brother, Zacharias
A. Lardis. The book is majestic, just
like a glorious sunset. The volume
of six short stories and three poems
enthralled me with its descriptions
of rural village life in Ikaria and
life’s lessons learned from childhood experiences and village legends. The author uses poetic, magic words that capture the mystery
of the human spirit.
“Ikaria Remembered” is not a
happy book. It is a dark, brooding
but beautiful book. While reading
it I remembered a phrase that
Greek American author Theano Papazoglou Margaris used to describe
why she wrote: “I put my pain on
paper.” In this book, Lardas puts
his pain on paper, while his brother
Zacharias Lardis expresses himself
Program Highlights
• Enriched curriculum focused
on meeting and exceeding
THE STATE PERFORMANCE
STANDARDS
in all curriculum disciplines
• Daily class of Greek language,
history, art, literature/mythology
• Reduced class size
• Theater workshops/internships
• Partnerships with the
Greek government
• Educational field trips
• Foreign travel
∆ωρεάν εκπαίδευση
...to present a unified voice
of the Hellenes in Northeastern Ohio
that will promote
the Greek experience through
education, collection
and preservation
NEW YORK STATE FUNDED
Give your children
the best Xmas gift
Give them the opportunity
to a Hellenic Education
that will change their lives
CALL NOW
(718) 499-0957
The Hellenic Preservation Society
of Northeastern Ohio
P. O. B o x 4 2 2
N. Olmsted, OH 44070
through provocative,
expressionist art. A
notation by Nicholas
Lardas explains the
difference in the
spelling
of
their
names; “When I took
my birth certificate to
be registered for military service in 1943, I
discovered that my
last name is Lardas,
spelled with an ‘a’ not
an ‘i.’ Others in my
family,
including
Zacharias, continue to
use Lardis.”
In 1932 Nicholas
Lardas
journeyed
with
his
mother,
brother and two sisters from Hempstead,
Long Island, New
York to the Greek island of Ikaria, the
land of his parent’s
birth. It was the Depression, and he was
eight years old. He re- The Lardas family in Greece in 1932 or 1933.
turned with his family Top row, Nicholas, age 8. Bottom row from
when he was 13. His left to right: Annabelle, age 10; Elizabeth,
father stayed in Long age 4; Zacharias, age 2.
Island, working in a
restaurant and supporting his fami- der for him to gain acceptance to
ly by sending monthly money or- their group.
ders.
The story “Mamoushka” reLardas crafts his bittersweet and counts the loneliness and longing
sometimes painful youthful memo- of 13-year-old Angelo for his mothries and impressions of the rugged er when she goes away to America
Aegean island of Ikaria into beauti- and the loneliness and longing of
ful poems and engrossing short Katerina, his Mamoushka (a
stories. Some of the stories are true woman who cares for him) for her
while others are a product of his dead son and husband. When Animagination. All of them are deeply gelo becomes deathly ill with fever,
grounded in the real-life supersti- Katerina brings him to her bed.
tions, beliefs and traditions of rural The narrator relates Angelo’s feelIkarian life.
ing as he wakes in the morning,
In a riveting story entitled “The
“He felt the flushing warmth of
Fortune Teller,” we meet an old for- love, and although he recalled
tune teller who goes house to nothing of the night, the nagging
house, village to village, predicting perception that something very imfortune by dropping molten lead portant had occurred filled him
into a bucket of water and studying with delight. He knew that he
the form it takes. The narrator re- loved Mamoushka as completely as
counts the reaction of his mother was ever possible. A great joy was
to the fortune teller’s prediction of with him.
his father’s death: “To this date, al“‘How do you feel?’ she asked,
most sixty years ago, I can still see timidly, ‘You stay in bed today and I
the gesture of my mother’s hand to will go to church,’ She handed Anher throat, and I can still hear the gelo the honey-flavored tea, the
gasp of fear and the hollow moan cup warm and steaming in the chill
from deep inside her.”
air.
Also, we learn about the
“‘Oh, I’m fine,’ Angelo said, ‘was
“Honefterion” (depository for the I really sick?’
bones of the deceased after they
“‘You’re fine, now, Angelo,’ she
are interred from the cemetery.) said very softly, and turned away
This horrific story describes the ini- so that he would not see the tears
tiation of a young boy whose class- in her eyes.”
mates ask him to stick his head in a
Especially striking is the concluwindow of the “Honefterion” in or- sion of “The School Teacher’s Son.”
9
The narrator recalls having
shunned a fellow classmate, the
mean teacher’s son, after he
snitched to his father about their
feasting on fermented mash:
“With taunting words at recess
time we lacerated him into a
cowed silence. We turned from him
undisguised rejection whenever he
approached us. We ignored the
pain and pleading evident in his
bulging eyes.
“Thereafter, we would see Yiani
at a distance, following us wherever we went. And that distance increased with the passage of the
day, for we were adamant in our
rejection of him and made no effort
to forgive him. One day he stopped
following us.
“I sit here now, recalling with
such tremendous sadness and
shame my own inhumanity. Perhaps if I had not played such an
enormously dominant influence,
he might have been alive today,
raising his own family, enjoying his
own grandchildren. Perhaps we
might have grown together
through the years, and might even
be sitting at some coffee house today, drinking an ouzo together.”
The narrator tells about Yiani’s
tragic death, “Perhaps, in his effort
to once again be a part of the three
Nicholas Lardas in his Ann Arbor,
Michigan office with photographs of friends and family
from America, Athens and Ikaria.
musketeers, Yiani had retraced our
paths of yesterdays to relive what
little happiness he had known with
us. But now, his feet were sticking
straight up out of one of the Ali-Baba urns. He had apparently slipped
while leaning too far into the urn
in an effort to reach the mash, and
he had fallen in head first. Unable
to withdraw himself, he could only
thrash about until he died of suffocation, his nose and mouth deep
into that sweet pleasure.”
Lardas’
younger
brother,
Zacharias Lardis, a talented artist
based in Beacon Falls, Connecticut,
incorporates his collection of artworks about Ikarus in the book.
The art, done in various media, is
based on the tragic mythical figure,
Ikarus, who flew too close to the
sun with wings of wax and feather.
The sun’s rays melted the wax,
causing the wings to fall apart,
sending him toppling into the
Aegean Sea and forming the Island
of Ikaria. In explaining his art
Lardis says, “The island has a mysterious aspect about it. I was there
as a child. A lot of my work deals
with the subconscious aspect of
people and places. (My work) is
the feeling of Ikaria when I am
there.”
Lardis started doing his art on
Ikarus after having a strong vivid
dream about the island. He explains, “The dream was very surreal. I realized that after a while that
I was part of the island. It goes
with my beliefs of primal feelings
people have: love, hate, pain, fear
and anger. When you are with peo-
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10
Why is the West
Sacrificing Cyprus
on the Turkish Altar?
By E. G. Vallianatos
“War and Cultural
Heritage: Cyprus
after the 1974
Turkish Invasion”
By Michael Jansen
University of Minnesota, 92 pages,
$30 paperback
ORDER NOW this detailed guide to
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Offer for USA only 2002-2007
“An International
Relations Debacle:
The UN SecretaryGeneral’s Mission of
Good Offices in
Cyprus 1999-2004”
By Claire Palley
Hart Publishing, 395 pages, $45
The books under review, “War
and Cultural Heritage” and “An International Relations Debacle,” examine how Turkey takes advantage
of the West to continue its plunder
and domination of Cyprus. These
books tell a story of tragedy in
Cyprus, itself a symptom of the declining state of Western civilization.
On May 16, 2006, I heard
Michael Jansen lecture on the
Turkish plunder of Cypriot antiquities. The objective of the lecture,
which took place on Capitol Hill,
was to enlighten the indifferent
American political class to the destructive consequences of being in
bed with Turkey, an enemy of the
Greeks and Western civilization.
Jansen, an experienced American reporter writing for the Irish
Times, did not pretend she was lecturing us on an issue that had a beginning and an end, much less an
easy solution. The Embassy of
Cyprus sponsored Jansen, who had
just published a report on the fate
of the Cypriot Greek culture in
northern Cyprus since 1974, the
year the Turks invaded and captured a third of Cyprus.
“War and Cultural Heritage:
Cyprus after the 1974 Turkish Invasion” presents a scholarly and
personal examination of the brutal
plunder of Cyprus in our time, a
war against the Greek culture and
people of Cyprus. Jansen speaks of
the “looting and destruction” of the
cultural heritage of Cyprus. It is
that – and much more.
Her honesty impresses me. The
destruction of the monuments of
culture in northern Cyprus made a
difference in her life. Her whole
being got involved in her work of
documenting and denouncing that
destruction. That drive to bring us
the truth, as well as her outstanding writing ability, make the book
interesting and memorable.
Tomb robbing is probably the
second oldest profession. Humans
express their hatred against their
enemies with the looting and destruction of whatever is left after
the annihilation or slavery of those
enemies.
Once the Turks were through
with their bloody 1974 invasion
and capture of northern Cyprus,
looters, smugglers, thieves and the
“international art mafia” started
pilfering the 12-millennia-old
Greek cultural heritage of Cyprus.
Stolen works of art found themselves in homes in Munich and
Berlin in Germany and the art markets of London, ending in American and European private collections.
According to Jansen, the agents
of that cultural genocide include
Turks, above all, as well as Greek
Cypriots and thieves and merchants from the top museums of
Europe and America, including
U.N. officials. For example, in
1979, one of the thieves of Cypriot
antiquities was the Austrian-born
prince Alfred zur Lippe-Weiden-
Michael Jansen speaks of the
“looting and destruction” of the
cultural heritage of Cyprus. It is
that – and much more.
feld, a friend of the U.N. Secretary
General Kurt Waldheim and representative of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees in Cyprus.
Officers of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural
Organization (UNESCO) also suppressed critical reports of the Turkish plunder.
Jansen interviewed some of
those thieves so her story, at times,
reads like a mystery novel: how
gangsters plan and execute a
crime. Most of what she reports zeros in on the Turks’ plunder of
churches, cutting out the extraordinarily beautiful and, sometimes,
ancient frescoes from the walls of
the destroyed churches, and the
trade in the stolen icons. She also
recounts how the Church of Cyprus
is using legal challenges and money in (1) discouraging the trade in
the art from churches under Turk-
11
ish occupation; and (2) buying
back the stolen treasures from
northern Cyprus.
Jansen also says that the Turks
are causing inestimable damage to
the pre-Christian history of the 12millennia-old island of Cyprus.
There are illegal digs and the perpetual robbery of tombs and ancient monuments, which not only
disrupts Cyprus’ extremely ancient
civilization but also defiles Western
culture.
As long as Greece remains impotent, incapable or unwilling to
throw Turkey out of Cyprus, and as
long as the international “community” and, especially, Western Europe and America tolerate the violent and criminal occupation of
northern Cyprus by Turkey, the
looting and destruction of Cyprus’
patrimony will continue.
The best artifacts of the Turks’
plunder of Cyprus end up in Western private collections and museums. Jansen says that Britain is
“the hub of the European trade in
antiquities.” Without that option,
without the huge sums thieves
earn by robbing tombs and churches, there would be little if any systematic cultural looting of the antiquities of Cyprus. The Turks
would have made many Cypriot
churches, as they have already
done, into stables and mosques.
Or, out of revenge, they would
probably wreck many of them, as
they have already done, or convert
them into property for their use.
In my estimation, the moving
flame behind the cultural plunder
of Cyprus, and all other plunder of
Greek antiquities is the envy of rich
institutions and persons in the
West who like to surround themselves by the ancient products of
Greek culture. They know that
Greek art is incomparable in beauty, the model of all Western art.
And since they cannot create even
Greek-like culture, much less
Greek culture, they resort to robbing it from its rightful owners, the
Greeks of Greece and Cyprus.
Aydin Dikmen, perhaps the
most successful of the Turks in the
illicit trade of Cypriot antiquities, is
a petty thief compared to Luigi Palma di Cesnola, a U.S. consul in Larnaca, Cyprus from 1865 to 1876.
This American diplomat pillaged
Cyprus on a grand scale. He managed to excavate and sell more
than 100,000 Cypriot archaeological pieces. The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York “bought”
35,000 of those stolen artifacts
from di Cesnola.
Jansen’s timely and thoughtful
book is an introduction and a case
study to this grand looting of culture. War is terrible for all living
things. But war is also a great opportunity for the industrialization
of cultural robbery, as was the case
with the Turkish conquest of northern Cyprus. Jansen’s book is a reminder of how delicate and corrupt
the edifice of the West has become
– allowing a Moslem country with
a documented history of hatred for
Greek and Western civilization to
continue to provoke and destroy
the essence of what brought Greek
and Western civilization into being.
More evidence of this corruption comes from Claire Palley’s
book, “An International Relations
Debacle.” On the surface this book
is about the efforts of a small but
powerful group of U.N. experts
(Secretariat) working for Kofi An-
nan, Secretary-General of the United Nations, to find a solution to the
Cyprus problem. The author, Claire
Palley, a British lawyer and legal
scholar, advised the president of
Cyprus for 25 years. Her report is
not a typical bureaucratic or diplomatic account. It is rather a personal, pro-Cyprus story based on inti-
mate knowledge and understanding of the main actors and events
in the recent tragic history of
Cyprus, especially the role the Secretariat played from 1999 to 2004
in its advocacy of a pro-Turkish
policy in order to put “a Cyprus setContinued on page 14
12
Greek Jews on the Battlefields of World War II
By Dan Georgakas
Jewish Resistance
in Wartime Greece
By Steven Bowman
Vallentine Mitchell, 142 pages,
$60, $27.50 paperback
During World War II, Greece
mounted the largest per capita resistance to the Nazis of any nation
in Europe, delivered the first battlefield defeat to a fascist army, and
forced Hitler to divert so many
troops to Greece that he had to delay, perhaps fatally, his invasion of
Russia. Despite these realities, the
loss rate of Greek Jews was nearly
90%, among the highest in Europe.
Some Holocaust commentators
have speculated that the Greek
Christians must have abetted the
Nazis in their attempted genocide
of the Jews or at least remained inactive. Other authors have opined
that the Jews were unwilling to
take up arms to defend themselves.
Steve Bowman’s new book tells an
entirely different story. Many
Greek Jews took up arms and the
Greek Resistance welcomed them.
Steven Bowman, Professor of
Judaic Studies at the University of
Cincinnati, is well known in academic circles for his “The Jews of
Byzantium: 1204-1453,” which
presented all the existing Byzantine documents relating to Jews.
Bowman has taken the same care
with documentation in his writing
on the Holocaust. Not content with
recounting anecdotal tales, he has
added his own original research to
COURTESY OF JEWISH MUSEUM OF GREECE
Dr. Manolis Arouh (2nd from left on top row) with fellow partisans. He was chief medical officer for V/34
Battalion, located in Sterea Ellada. He also fought bravely with his unit.
already existing data to give a detailed accounting of all the forms
of resistance undertaken by Greek
Jews. He includes detailed biographies of particular Jewish resisters,
and his final 30 pages contain the
The First
names of 650 individual fighters,
often with their city of origin and
their military unit. Bowman is generous in acknowledging his
sources, most notably a landmark
article by Joseph Matsas, “The Par-
S.P. BOOK AWARDS
Christian Emperor
THE LIFE AND TIMES OF
CONSTANTINE
THE GREAT
THE FIRST CHRISTIAN EMPEROR
by Prof. D.G. Kousoulas
D.G. KOUSOULAS
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Prof. Kousoulas has great storytelling abilities,
which he puts to considerable use here, making the
volume’s 500 pages of text fly by like 50. The results
of his labor are an illuminating, insightful, and
intriguing look into the life of one of history’s most
fascinating individuals.”
Greek-American Book Review
“fascinating, filled with dramatic details...lucid.”
Henry J. Ferry, Mediterranean Quarterly
SELLING
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The book is sold by Amazon.com
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CONSTANTINE THE GREAT
ticipation of the Greek Jews in the
National Resistance,” which appeared in the Journal of the Hellenic Diaspora (1991).
Bowman divides the Jewish resistance into three major categories: battlefields, espionage and
combat in other nations. His most
detailed and longest chapters involve Jews who participated in military units. Other chapters identify
Greek Jews who worked as spies
and saboteurs in Occupied areas. A
final section chronicles Greek Jews
who rebelled even after being captured by the Nazis, most notably in
Poland.
Bowman concentrates on what
he specifies in his title and does not
cover the broader topic of all the
forms of aid offered to Greek Jews
by their fellow Greeks. Consequently he does not dwell on the
well-known heroism of Archbishop
Damaskinos and the Greek Orthodox Church in general. Nor does he
write at length about others who
aided Jews, such as Police Chief
Everet in Athens. Similarly, he does
not spend much time discussing
Greek collaborators. His focus is on
the numerous forms of resistance
directly taken by Jews themselves,
and he tells that story magnificently.
ON THE BATTLEFIELD
Bowman begins by reminding
readers that 13,000 Jews fought in
the Greek army on the Albanian
front. Among the national heroes
of that victorious campaign was
13
Colonel Mordechai Frizis, a career
officer who was killed leading nonJewish troops in a successful
counter-attack that turned the Italian flank. Even after the Greek
army was decommissioned, numerous Jews continued to fight in
the remnants of the British Expeditionary Force and in scattered units
of the Serbian and Greek armies
that would not surrender. In the
Battle of Crete, Jewish dockworkers were involved in the crucial
provisioning of the resistance
forces and later the successful
evacuation; and Jews from Palestine, units in the British force,
fought alongside Greeks.
When “andartic” bands began to
form in late 1941, Jews were in
their ranks. At that time, Jews
could still slip out of most cities relatively easily. Michael Matsas of
Yannina has told such a tale in his
brilliant, “The Illusion of Safety,”
which is frequently cited by Bowman. The largest Jewish community in Greece, by far, however, was
the 50,000 Jews in Thessaloniki.
Like other Greeks, young Thessaloniki Jewish men began to leave
their families to join the armed resistance. A special unit at Aristotle
University moved hundreds of
Jewish fighters into the mountains
in 1943. Bowman estimates the total number of Jewish “andartes”
was at least 1,000.
The largest Jewish
community in Greece
was the 50,000 Jews
in Thessaloniki.
EAM-ELAS, by far the largest of
the Resistance formations, welcomed Jews, usually placing them
within its regular ranks rather than
creating all-Jewish units. Not content to make it a crime to turn in
Jews, EAM-ELAS announced that
in territories it controlled it also
was a criminal offense to not assist
Jews. EAM-ELAS would eventually
have the largest numbers of Jews
of any of the Resistance groups and
Jews occasionally commanded
EAM-ELAS units.
EDES, the largest of the royalist
resistance organizations, had fewer Jewish fighters than its rival, but
a number of these Jews were closely associated with Col. Alexis Zervas, the EDES leader. David Nahmias, for example, was one of Zervas’ personal guards. Dr. Errikos
Levi, a personal friend of Zervas,
gave up refuge in the mountains,
when Zervas convinced him he
would be more valuable as a German-speaking spy in the medical
corps. Working with Major Makrinioti of the Greek police, Levi undertook that risky assignment and
supplied vital information to EDES
and British intelligence.
What has always puzzled outsiders not familiar with the specific
history of the Holocaust in Greece
is why more Jews did not escape to
the already liberated zones. Part of
that tragedy turns on the actions of
Zvi Koretz, the Chief Rabbi of ThesContinued on page 15
14
Why is the West Sacrificing Cyprus on the Turkish Altar?
Continued from page 11
tlement in place.”
The Secretariat manufactured
this pro-Turkish policy with its
briefings and reports, which did
two things. They misled the international community and, second,
they put the tiny Republic of
Cyprus under tremendous pressure
to self-destruct by accepting as inevitable and legitimate the aggression of Turkey. Cyprus, of course,
refused to self-destruct.
The consequences of the Secretariat’s taking sides, what Palley
describes as “an unhappy episode
in international relations,” are bad
for the reputation of the United
Nations and for future U.N. efforts
to be of help to Cyprus or in resolving political crises in other countries. The Greek Cypriots, who had
faith in the U.N. for four decades,
have been particularly disheartened with the bias of the Secretariat. That’s why On April 24, 2004
the Greek Cypriots rejected Annan
V, the fifth version of the Secretariat’s Plan for a “United Cyprus Republic.” On June 7, 2004, the president of Cyprus, Tassos Papadopoulos, complained to Kofi Annan that
the Secretariat’s Plan provided immediate benefits to the Turkish
Cypriots but leaves the Greek
Cypriots at the mercy of Turkey, a
country not friendly to them. Papadopoulos was particularly bitter
because of the failure of the U.N.
Plan to guarantee that Cypriot
Greeks could recover their property and land in northern Cyprus and
for the years it would take for the
Turkish army to reduce its size under the agreement.
Cypriot Greeks also have been
concerned with Turkey’s insistence
it has a unilateral right to send its
armies to Cyprus, claiming, falsely,
that Article IV of the 1960 Treaty of
Guarantee is the source for its aggressive attitude. So Papadopoulos
told Kofi Annan it would be imprudent for the Greek Cypriots to rely
on Turkey’s good will. The Greeks
were convinced the U.N. proposed
settlement was “blatantly unjust,
uncertain of application and full of
grave risks for the future.”
Not only did U.N. officials manipulate international opinion in
favor of the Turkish Cypriots and
Turkey, wishing to erase Turkey’s
bloody invasion and occupation of
northern Cyprus, but threatened
the Greek Cypriots with dire consequences precisely because they had
exercised their democratic right in
rejecting the biased U.N. Plan. The
Secretariat’s revenge found expression in its May 28, 2004 report:
that the Turks’ pseudo-state in the
conquered territory, the so-called
Turkish Republic of Northern
Cyprus, should be given all the
support and attributes of an independent country, thus legitimizing
Turkey’s fruits of aggression. This
report, of course, remains silent
about the 119,000 illegal Turkish
settlers, the 35,000 troops Turkey
maintains in northern Cyprus or
that Turkey appropriated 36.4 percent of Cyprus.
Such behavior, well documented in Palley’s outstanding, timely,
and lavishly illustrated book, undermines international relations,
weakening the machinery of conflict resolution, while sowing seeds
for further trouble. And, of course,
the dishonest policies of the Secretariat solidify the aggression of the
Turks, convincing them that, in
fact, might is right, a barbarous
concept of long standing.
The British and U.S. governments, meanwhile, worked behind
the Secretariat, shaping its proTurkish policies, thinking nothing
of the horrific injustice of the 1974
Turkish invasion of Cyprus, while
boosting Turkey’s ominous ambitions.
These policies continued a longstanding anti-Greek Cypriot tradition. England brought Turkey to
Cyprus in 1955 to become the
wrecking crew among the Cypriot
Greeks. England simply had to
have its pound of flesh because the
Cypriot Greeks resisted British
colonialism and, later, fought England for their freedom. Fifty years
later, England continued with its
subversion of Cyprus by activating
Turkey. The United States did the
book Ø worm. - noun
1. One who spends much time reading or studying.
2. Any of various insects, especially booklice and silverfish, that
infest books and feed on the paste in the bindings.
Source: The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
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15
Greek Jews on the Battlefields of World War II
saloniki. The German-educated Koretz stupidly believed the German
assurances that the Greek Jews
were just going to be resettled in
Germany. He was told that as long
as Jews remained cooperative, no
one would be harmed. The Nazis
then demanded that Koretz show
his good faith by providing the
names and addresses of all the
Jewish families in Thessaloniki.
With that information in hand,
monitoring the community became
a simple matter.
One of the first acts of the Nazis
was to examine family lists to determine if anyone of military age
was missing. When this was the
case, they assumed such males
(and sometimes females) must be
in the mountains. The Nazis indicated this meant that the community was not being cooperative.
The response of the Jewish leadership was to ask those who had
gone into the mountains to return!
Many, in fact, did so, and many
who would have left remained in
the city, opting to share the fate of
their families. When Jews began to
be rounded up and brutalized it
was no longer easy to escape. Jewish communities in cities such as
Yannina that followed the Thessaloniki pathway suffered the same
horrific losses.
Rabbis in cities such as Athens
and Volos were not deceived by
German lies, and the loss rates in
those cities were quite low. Bowman discusses how Jews already in
the Resistance, often working
closely with Orthodox clergy, were
crucial in persuading those rabbis
to urge their congregations to go
into hiding. The total number of
Jews in those cities, unfortunately,
was much lower than the Jewish
population in Thessaloniki.
Bowman’s account is especially
strong in detailing individual acts
of courage and the comradeship
felt by all the patriots. He offers a
poignant account of the only
recorded military action undertaken solely to save Jewish lives. In
May of 1944, 12 Jewish families
that had been caught hiding were
being transported through the
mountains by the SS. An ELAS unit
that included numerous Jews decided to respond with an ambush.
They succeeded in freeing the
Jews, killing 230 Germans, and
taking dozens of captives, including the commanding officer. Machine-guns, rifles, pistols, and considerable ammunition were also
liberated. The unit’s losses were
light: eight dead and 12 wounded.
A resistance role of Jews not
widely written about previously
concerns Jews who passed themselves off as Germans, Italians, or
Greek Christians in order to use
their medical, language, or technical skills to get close enough to the
Occupation forces to provide intelligence to the Greek Resistance and
to Allied special forces. Isaac
Kostis, a law student, for example,
was part of a clandestine group
that blew up German ships in Piraeus early in the war and Sam
Modiano did particularly valuable
espionage in concert with British
intelligence. The creation of networks to smuggle Jews out of
Greece by sea had the added value
of being a means of bringing Allied
officers and equipment into
Greece. Much of this activity involved Jewish Zionist organizational units operating out of
Turkey.
WARSAW AND AUSCHWITZ
Bowman includes tales of Jews
who escaped the Nazis during
roundups or who killed Nazis at
the camps rather than simply succumbing. An intriguing story involves Greek Jews used to do menial labor in Poland. When the
Jews in the Warsaw ghetto staged
an armed revolt, a number of the
Greeks broke free from their Nazi
guards and joined the insurrection.
Among those who fought were officers and enlisted men who had
Steven Bowman
served in Albania in 1940. These
Greeks frequently participated in
the commando-style assaults on
the German positions. Two prominent fighters were Albert and Dario
Levi of Thessaloniki. They used colored cloth to make a Greek flag
that served as the banner for their
unit.
Perhaps the most amazing resistance occurred in the death camps
themselves. Even as the Russian
army was getting closer to the crematoriums, the ovens continued
their murderous work day and
night. A core of Jews from different
nations tried to organize simultaneous uprisings at various camps
with the hope of destroying the
ovens and allowing for a mass es-
cape. Unaware of this plot, Alberto
Errera, a former officer in the
Greek Army, acted individually.
When he was sent to dump bodies
in a river, he overpowered his Nazi
guards and escaped. He was later
captured and publicly executed,
but survivors of the camp have testified that his heroism inspired
many Greeks to join the plot to
blow up the ovens.
Crucial to the revolt were the
young men who made up the Sonderkommando. These were the
units assigned to clearing the
ovens of bones and ashes. Anyone
so assigned was doomed as the
Nazis periodically killed them to
eliminate eyewitnesses to their
crimes. When 400 Greek Jews
were selected by the Nazis at the
Auschwitz complex for the task,
100 simply refused, preferring to
be killed. The bulk of those who
did go into the Sonderkommando
were committed to the planned revolt.
The broader plot eventually fell
apart, but the Greeks at Auschwitz
went forward with the plan. They
were able to wrest weapons from
the some of the guards and managed to blow up two of the ovens.
Nazi reinforcements came swiftly
and in great number. As they battled to the death, the doomed
Greek Jews sang the Greek National Anthem. Over 400 Greek Jews
would be executed for their part in
the rebellion. Another 30 managed
to escape from the camp proper,
but were later recaptured and executed.
The dominant image of Greek
Jews during World War II has always been that of passive victims,
often misled by politically naïve
rabbis. Greek Jews usually are seen
as somehow separate from the
Greek nation. Steve Bowman has
written a powerful corrective to
such depictions.
He shows that from the time of
the Albanian campaign through
every stage of the Resistance,
Greek Jews were part of the national effort to defeat the Nazis and
that Greek Jews were welcomed
into the ranks of the Resistance.
Today, too few Greeks in the homeland or the diaspora are aware that
Greek Jews not only fought
valiantly for Greece on the home
front, but that they raised the
Greek flag during the Warsaw Uprising and sang the Greek National
Anthem as they fought to the death
at Auschwitz. Greek heroes one
and all.
Dan Georgakas is a Fellow of the
Center for Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies at Queens College and the author of, “My Detroit: Growing Up Greek and
American in Motor City.”
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16
Economou Rediscovers Amorous Ancients in “Acts of Love”
Marvelous Poems Celebrate Love & Physical Passion in Contemporary Idiom
By Penelope Karageorge
“Acts of Love,
Ancient Greek Poetry
from Aphrodite’s
Garden”
Selected and translated
by George Economou
Modern Library, Random House,
137 pages, $13.95
Erotic. Playful. Yearning. Heartfelt. These are just a few of the
words that apply to eminent scholar and poet George Economou’s
brilliant translation of the ancient
Greek poets and their amatory
verse, “Acts of Love, Ancient Greek
Poetry from Aphrodite’s Garden,”
published by Modern Library. In
this small, blue volume, 255 poems
topped by Eros’ arrow, Dr.
Economou brings ancient poetry
out of the dusty literary archives
and into the 21st century.
For today’s Greeks, always hungry to know more about the life experience of their illustrious forbears, these impassioned poems
arrive like a huge present. The poets hold forth on the entire spectrum of love and desire, homoerotic and heterosexual, from lusty
youth to poignant old age.
Economou selected the poems
from “The Greek Anthology,” a
compilation of more than 4,000
short poems from Ancient Greece
through the Byzantine era and
translated them with wit, brio and
sexual candor.
“While there have been fine
translations of some of these amatory epigrams, they have also been
subjected to a series of translation
practices that have distorted or
suppressed an important aspect of
their linguistic and aesthetic integrity,” Economou writes in the
Translators Preface. “Too often,
readers have encountered these
poems in English versions that
have Latinized or sanitized their
discourse in Greek through euphemism,
circumlocution,
or
downright bowdlerization.”
“I wanted to be true to the poetry and the language,” Economou
told The National Herald. “Translating a poem is the ultimate form
of studying a poem. And so I
learned a lot about the poetry, and
at the same time I know there’s an
awful lot more to know about the
ancient Greeks.”
According to Economou, the
early Greeks approached love and
sex differently than Western civilization today. “For contemporary
people, ever since Christianity, sex
has become one of the primary instruments of original sin. But in ancient Greece there was no original
sin giving taint to sexual expression. That’s not to say they didn’t
have their own conventions. They
had their own ethos and morals.
But in a fundamental way, they did
not hesitate about sexual expression.”
Economou was led into
“Acts of Love,” he says, by
the poet Philodemos. “I
discovered Philodemos in
‘The Greek Anthology’ on
my own. I was reading a
book by Havelock Ellis
about Catullus, and he was
talking about this Greek
poet who influenced Catullus. So I followed up on
it. And then I found 29 poems of Philodemos, and I
translated those. They
LISA ASKINS
were published by Walter
Eminent scholar and poet George
Hammond.”
When Modern Library Economou.
Editor Will Murphy approached Economou about doing a had company.”
book and asked him to suggest a
He hated to see the project end.
topic, Economou said: “We need a “I had such a good time, and when
full book of amatory ancient Greek I was done, finally, I felt bereft,”
poetry.” The contract was inked, Economou says, his voice tinged
and two summers ago Economou, with more than a touch of nostala Philadelphia resident, set to work gia. “It’s like I had a wonderful love
on the translations in his summer affair with all the poets and all the
home on Cape Cod.
people and their poems. The sub“I wish I could say I had done ject was just so wonderful. People
the translations on a Greek island, talk about the post-partum after
but I did it in Wellfleet, the perfect finishing a book but it was differplace to work. I was getting up ear- ent from that. I had an affiliation
ly in the morning – 6:30 or 7 – and with these people. And a ‘philiacoming up to my study. I’d do four tion’ as well. Because they were
or five poems a day. Sometimes a Greek, and I’m Greek, and I just
couple a day. I worked on the po- felt that – it’s gone. It’s over with.”
ems every day, except when we
He came to like particular poets.
17
“Philodemos is one of my favorite
poets. Meleagros is a wonderful
poet. I think Archilochos is a fabulous poet. And the one fragment of
Antipilos is a marvelous piece of
writing.” A complete set of Notes in
the back of the book includes brief
biographies of the poets.
Economou would like to see
more emphasis on Classic Greek
studies in colleges. “I think there’s
a kind of resurgence in Greek studies and Classics, although it’s been
hampered by the cultural wars.
Maybe
people today have to
study computer science. But the
Classics are hanging in there.”
Although Economou had done
many translations of Greek work,
by profession he is a “medievalist”
and acclaimed translator of “Piers
Plowsman.” He is the author of
several volumes of poetry, most recently “Century Dead Center.” He
served as chairman of the English
department and creative writing
program at the University of Oklahoma before retiring in 2000, and
had taught at the Brooklyn Center
of Long Island University.
A 1956 graduate of Colgate University, he earned his M.A. and
Ph.D. Degrees in English and Comparative Literature, concentrating
on medieval studies, at Columbia
University. He held fellowships for
his writing from the National Foundation of the Arts, the New York
Council for the Arts and the Rockefeller Foundation.
Economou grew up in Great
Falls, Montana, where his father
had emigrated from the Peloponnesus.
“At first my father went to St.
Louis and worked in a mattress
spring factory, which he didn’t particularly like, so he went to Great
Falls working on a railroad gang.
He stayed because he liked it. He
liked the mountains of Montana.
He and three other Greeks were
partners. They had a big grocery
store/meat market/liquor store all
rolled into one. One of the partners
was my Uncle Bill, who was married to my mother’s sister. They also had a big sheep and wheat
ranch. At one time, they had two
ranches, including a cattle ranch.”
Economou spoke Greek at
home, giving recitations of poetry
in church on Greek Independence
Day, after being coached by his
mother. Recognizing his artistic talent, his mother gave him drawing
lessons with a Catholic nun, Sister
Raphael, “a formidable teacher and
painter.” Economou continued
painting until he entered Colgate,
when he took all of his work and
dumped it in the basement. He later returned to art on Cape Cod,
and one of his books contains his
art as well as poetry.
“My parents were great,”
Economou says. “First of all, there
was their desire for education. My
father was always saying ‘Education, education, this is it.’ They
said, whatever you want to do,
we’ll support you. But I think
maybe they thought I’d be a doctor,
or a lawyer, or something. My father used to say, ‘Economics. Why
don’t you do economics? You have
the right name for it.’
“And when I finished Colgate,
and wanted to go to graduate
school and study medieval literature, he said, ‘I’ll buy you a ranch.
There’s a ranch out here.’ And I
“Acts of Love” Poetry Selections
From the Garlands
of Philoppos of Thessalonika
p. 47
From the Garland of Meleagros
p. 36
Here’s the Laconian river Eurotas,
Leda with nothing on, Zeus hidden in the swan.
Loves, why do you test me so? Me a bird?
If Zeus is a swan, then I’m a white duck.
Antiphilos (first century A.D.)
From the Garland of Philippos of Thessalonika
p. 61
Thirty-seven years have already turned,
pages torn out of my life’s work;
already my hair’s sprouting whites,
messengers, Xanthippe, of wisdom’s age.
But the lyricism of carousal – I
still care for, and a hungry fire burns in my heart.
So write me an ending with a flourish, Muses,
to my madness with this very girl.
Philodemos (ca. 110-30 B.C.)
Self-deceiving
lovesick boy-love
bitter honeylipped burn victims,
pour cold water,
ice-cold water
over my heart.
For I have seen
Dionysos.
My fellow slaves,
don’t let this fire
run to my guts.
Meleagros (ca. 140-ca. 70 B.C.)
“Excerpted from ACTS OF LOVE by George Economou. Copyright © 2005 by George Economou.
Reprinted by arrangement with The Random House Publishing Group.”
said ‘No, that’s really not what I
want to do.’ Of course, I know
what ranching life is all about. And
it’s not like in the movies. It’s hard,
a very hard life. For people to make
good money on it rides on all kinds
of contingencies that you have no
control over.”
While in graduate school,
Economou became one of the
founding editors of the prestigious
literary journal, the Chelsea Review. He and another editor,
Robert Kelly, were more interested
in poetry than prose, so they left
that enterprise to start the poetry
magazine Trobar, Provencal for poetry.
At a seventh anniversary party
for the Chelsea Review, Economou
met his future wife, Rochelle
Owens, a poet and playwright who
now has more than 17 books to her
credit. “Rochelle was a very young
poet and she was introduced to me
by Oscar Williams, the anthologist,
who knew her and knew I had my
eye on her. I said to her that I had
just read a poem of hers in LeRoi
Jones’ magazine, and, of course
there was no better line. I invited
her to send poems to Trobar in
1960. We got married in 1962 and
we’ve been married for 44 years.”
Economou dedicated “Acts of
Love” to his wife. “It took only one
of Eros’ arrows for this love to
take.” When first married, they
shared a study in a New York apartment, and often work side by side
GREEK SCHOOL OF PLATO
“The book is majestic, just like a glorious sunset.”
The alternative to excellent
Greek American education
“He is an articulate, imaginative, and reflective guide.”
Elaine Thomopoulos, Book Editor, The National Herald
Lorene Erickson, “Ikaria Remembered” editor
“...stories so strong and pure they burn the imagination.”
Artemis Leontis, Associate Professor of Modern Greek, University of Michigan
1703 86th Street
Brooklyn, New York 11214
Tel.: (718) 621-2226
Fax: (718) 621-6160
“IKARIAREMEMBERED”
Short stories and poems by
NICHOLAS G. LARDAS
with artworks by
ZACHARIAS A. LARDIS
Our school offers:
1) Afternoon school
Monday - Thursday 3-6 p.m.
2) Nursery school
Tuesdays and Thurdays 12-2 p.m.
3) Saturday classes 10 a.m. - 2:50 p.m.
4) Greek as a second language
5) Adult classes
Saturday 10 a.m.-1:15 p.m.
6) Dance classes
for children: Fridays 3:30-8 p.m.
Adults: Mondays at 8 p.m.
7) School music band
8) Private and safe environment
9) Greek language teachers
from Greece
Our children learn:
The greek language, history and culture
greek orthodox religion
For more info please call
the school office at 718-621-2226 or visit us
Nicholas Lardas, architect and author, writes about his
childhood on the Island of Ikaria during the Great Depression.
His stories have classic “O’Henry-twist endings” as he propels
the reader through intertwined and complex relationships.
Utilizing multi-media artworks, his brother Zacharias,
illustrates the mythological Ikaros. This collaboration between
brothers provides a compelling journey of fictional tales about their
ancestral home of Ikaria.
Soft cover author’s edition. Six stories and three poems, 14 full-color illustrations.
$11.95 Plus $ 3 for S&H. Send check or money-order to:
Lardis Fine Arts -- PO Box 73 -- Beacon Falls, CT 06403 -- Questions: 203-729-0800
18
A Dark, Brooding But Beautiful Book about Childhood Memories of Ikaria
ple you can feel that about them or
the place. Ikaria has a lot of shadows, metaphysically speaking, and
they hide mysteries that emanate
from the island ... The island was
not liberated from the Turks until
the 1920s. I heard as a child stories
told by relatives of terrible bloody
battles between the Turks and
Greeks.”
Although Lardis was born in
East Chicago, Indiana, he lived on
Ikaria during his formative years,
from age one to five. He explains
his early interest in drawing.
“When I started school I could not
speak English, so I drew pictures. I
was expressing myself visually instead of with words.”
Lardis expresses his admiration
for his brother in his drawing,
which appears on the cover of the
book. “It is of Nick, my brother,
who always had flights of imagination. Subconsciously he is like the
Ikarus in my drawings. He dares to
soar with his imagination and his
insight. I did that drawing of him
for his birthday in 1978. The title is
‘You Saved my Life.’ He saved my
life by being there for me. He
would carry me up the mountainside or would come to find me in
an olive tree when everyone was
looking for me. He was like my surrogate father. He put me on some
good paths. He is one of the most
important persons in my
married Betty Perros.
life.”
They raised three chilIt is heartwarming to
dren.
experience the love and
Lardis became a regcreative collaboration beistered architect and
tween
the
brothers
opened his own firm in
Nicholas and Zacharias.
1971. After his retireThey have brought us an
ment at the age of 65, he
exception book.
felt a void. With the urgNICHOLAS LARDAS,
ing of his wife Betty, he
AUTHOR
returned to school to deAfter serving for three
velop his dormant writand a half years in the U.S.
ing abilities. He took
Army during World War II,
courses in writing and
Nicholas Lardas returned
literature where he was
home confused and angry.
the star student amongst
Man’s inhumanity hauntthe college youth. His
ed him for many years.
writings include stories
He drifted to Manhatof the Village Restautan where he worked in
rant, the war years, pohis father’s Bar and Grill
ems and a collection of
on Fourth Avenue. On his
stories dealing with the
off hours he sat in subway
struggles humans encars observing the riders
dure, their failings and
and making up vignettes
triumphs.
about them. Other times
He traveled to Ikaria
he would go to the Bowery
in 1992, seeking to unand listen to the sagas of
derstand vague feelings
the drunks and the dereof unfinished connecNicholas Lardas in his U.S. Army uniform during tions from his early forlicts.
When the Bar & Grill World War Two. He was drafted in 1942 on his mative years in Greece.
closed, he moved to De- 18th birthday and served in the European theater.
On his return home he
troit, Michigan with his fawrote “Ikaria Rememther and uncle. His father and un- of Runyon-like characters.
bered.”
cle bought a restaurant which they
Dissatisfied with restaurant
ZACHARIAS LARDIS, ARTIST
renamed the Village in memory of work, Lardas enrolled at the UniZacharias Lardis graduated
Greenwich Village. The night shift versity of Michigan in Ann Arbor from the University of Michigan
at the restaurant provided Nicholas where he studied architecture and with a Bachelor of Arts, majoring
with a first class seat to the world design. In his sophomore year he in Information Design with a minor
THE SAINT NICHOLAS
WILLIAM SPYROPOULOS
GREEK AMERICAN
DAY SCHOOL
Mission
of the
school
To provide our children
with a solid education
based on Hellenic
Christian ideals and
principles that will
instil good character,
strong intellect
and the capacity
to make a valuable
contribution to society
4 3 - 1 5 1 9 6 th S t r e e t
Flushing, NY 11358
(718) 357-5583
in Fine Arts. After working as an
advertising art director in Manhattan, he traveled in Europe with his
wife, Jill, and settled in Amsterdam, Holland for five years where
he successfully developed an art
department for a new office for the
advertising agency, J. Walter
Thompson Company (JWT). During their stay in Holland, Lardis
and his wife produced four musical
comedies and a concert by Eartha
Kitt. He also had the opportunity to
return for a visit to his Ikaria,
where he had lived for four years
as a young child. When he returned to New York, he art directed
many national accounts for JWT.
He moved to Connecticut where he
started his own agency and remarried. He and his wife Shirley raised
four children.
He continued his art studies at
The School of Visual Arts in New
York, The University of Hartford
and Wesleyan University in Middletown. Lardis’ art started to solidify as he focused on the human
face. Intrigued with the dark and
mysterious side of his subjects, he
sought to capture in his portrayals
an aspect of the primal feelings
people were afraid to acknowledge
or express in their conscious world.
He has had numerous exhibitions
and awards, as well as solo shows
in New York, Connecticut, Indiana
and Michigan.
Impacted by the catastrophic
event on September 11th, 2001,
Lardis sought a visual symbol for
his artistic expression. He discovered that the common 55-gallon oil
drum was a powerful metaphor for
global issues involving the environment, the energy crisis and the
Middle East war. He started a nonprofit art organization called Oil
Drum Art and explored the transformation of oil drums into aesthetic and geopolitical art statements. He has curated ten Oil
Drum Art Exhibitions.
Two years ago Jack initiated the
collaboration with his brother that
resulted in the book, “Ikaria Remembered,” a book well worth
reading.
To order “Ikaria Remembered”
send $11.95 plus $3.00 for shipping to Lardis Fine Arts, P.O. Box
73, Beacon Falls, CT 06403.
Elaine Thomopoulos, who has a
doctorate in psychology, is a
freelance writer and independent scholar. She edited and contributed to the book, “GreekAmerican Pioneer Women of Illinois” and is currently project director and curator of the exhibit,
Greeks of Berrien County, Michigan. She can be reached at thomop@msn.com.
19
Why is the West Sacrificing Economou Rediscovers Amorous Ancients
Cyprus on the Turkish Altar? in “Acts of Love”
same thing. America is pathologically connected to Turkey through
the cold war and the military alliance of NATO. This included
America’s approval of Turkey’s
1974 invasion of Cyprus. America
has also had the delusion Turkish
Islam is amenable to democracy
and Western values. The Moslem
attack of September 11, 2001
against America affected Cyprus
even more because now the United
States is fighting a war against
Iraq, wanting Turkey on its side;
sacrificing Greek Cyprus is small
potatoes. This is the picture emerging from Palley’s pioneering study,
shedding light on the suffering of
the Cypriot people. The corrupt
politics of England and America
corrupt the U.N. and prop Turkish
aggression, diminishing hope for a
just settlement of the grievances
between Greeks and Turks in
Cyprus. It is this international lawlessness that allows, nay encourages, plunder of northern Cyprus.
One feeds on the other.
To order “War and Cultural Heritage” send $ 30 to Modern Greek
Studies, Univ. of Minnesota, 267
19th Avenue South, Minneapolis,
MN 55455 (612.624.4526).
To order “An International Rela-
today in a large, open study space
in their Wellfleet home. “We had
the house built for us in ’74, and
nobody had ever lived in this house
before, and so that’s special,”
Economou says. The couple reads
each others work, and occasionally
they give poetry readings together.
They went to Greece together in
1977, and again in 2000. “Rochelle
loved it, and my relatives loved
her. I have a lot of Greek cousins
there. I would like to go again.”
For Economou, his first trip to
Greece in 1957 after earning his
master’s degree proved significant.
On that trip, he not only discovered his Greek family, including a
Zorba-like uncle, but got to know
the poets Odysseus Elytis and
Nikos Gatsos.
“They were pals,” Economou recalls. “They were wonderful. They
were older. I saw them numerous
times. I would go to the cafenio
where they met every afternoon for
coffee. They talked about poetry,
and gossiped a little, but they
wanted to talk mostly about literature, and I felt at times they were
testing me. For instance, they
wanted to talk about James Joyce.”
When Elytis came to New York
City on a State Department visit,
Author Claire Palley, a British
lawyer and legal scholar, advised
the president of Cyprus for 25
years.
tions Debacle” send $ 45 to International Specialized Book Service,
920 NE 58th Avenue, Suite 300,
Portland,
OR
97213
(503.287.3093).
E. G. Vallianatos, a student of
Greek history and global environmental politics, is the author
of several studies, including the
forthcoming “The Passion of the
Greeks.”
Economou played host, showing
the famous Greek writer around
New York. He and wife Rochelle
then invited Elytis to their apartment for a real American dinner: Tbone steaks, a large Greek salad,
and corn on the cob. Elytis disdained the corn. “He said that in
Greece, we feed corn to pigs. But
we said, ‘Here we love corn. This is
not horse corn.’ But he ate the
steak and salad with relish, and
drank the wine. He was a very elegant man, and gave me books and
signed them.”
Economou has new projects underway, including a Cavafy translation, soon to be published, and a
poetry book about “an invented ancient Greek poet.” Economou never took a creative writing course
and questions the efficacy of their
proliferation.
“I used to tell my students, you
will not become a creative writer by
taking this workshop,” he says. “So
now I catch myself saying, look at
all these assembly line poets -- you
know you contributed to that. Writing has become kind of a business,
and an industry. Wherever you look,
there are ads for prizes, ads for summer workshops, and all those are
money-making things. They have
guest faculty. They have people
come in for a day or two. People pay
good money, and then they sit
around and have someone else look
at their poems. Some of the faculty
doesn’t even look at the poems.
They go in and talk about their own
work. But who am I to criticize?”
Asked “Do you think poetry’s
become too much of a hobby?” he
offered his trenchant view on the
topic.
“When you’re a writer, you meet
people. If people ask what you do,
and you say ‘I’m a poet,’ the response is usually something like
‘My daughter won a prize for poetry in the first grade.’ Of course, poetry is made of words, which is the
most common coin of the realm.
But right away people say ‘I do poetry, too,’ a rather different response than if one announced, ‘I’m
a brain surgeon.’ ”
A freelance journalist, Penelope
Karageorge is the author of a poetry collection, "Red Lipstick and
the Wine-Dark Sea," and two
novels, "Murder at Tomorrow,"
and "Stolen Moments," published
in England as "Winners" and in
Germany as "New York, New
York". Her film script, "The Neon
Jungle," recently emerged seventh out of more than 3,000 entries in the prestigious Final
Draft competition.
Scholarships available
The Hellenic University Club of NY
ANNUALLY OFFERS
scholarships to students and researchers
of Hellenic ancestry:
Undergraduate
Graduate
Awarded to high school seniors (3) who reside
in the New York Tri-State area. Must be top 10%
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income under $70K.
Deadline for applications is April 27, 2007.
The Dr. Fred Valergakis Research Grant (several)
is presented annually to researchers and graduate
students of Hellenic ancestry who are studying
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at an accredited institution.
The Dr. Papanicolaou Heritage Grant (1)
is presented annually to a researcher who is studying
Classical and Byzantine Hellenic Culture.
Minimum monetary grant is $1,500
For further information and applications visit our web site at:
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HUC Scholarship Committee
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CELEBRATING 120 YEARS OF QUALITY EDUCATION
20
CENTER FOR HELLENIC STUDIES PAIDEIA
PAIDEIA STUDY ABROAD PROGRAMS IN GREECE
Course Catalog 2006-2007
SEMESTER/YEAR AND SUMMER PROGRAMS - ATHENS, THESSALONIKI, RHODES
UNIVERSITY OF ATHENS, SEMESTER PROGRAM
Name___________________________________________________
All students must sign up for 6, with a minimum of 4 courses.
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MGRK 293 The Olympic Games. Past and Present.
MGRK 299 The Greek Theater
ENGL 293 Modern Greek Literature
Classical Greek Literature
Classical and Medieval Political Theory
HIST 214 History and Archaeology of Classical Greece
HIST 250 History and Archaeology of Byzantine Greece
HIST 298 History of Modern Greece
MGRK 101 Elementary Modern Greek I
MGRK 102 Elementary Modern Greek II
MGRK 103 Intermediate Modern Greek I
MGRK 104 Intermediate Modern Greek II
CAMS New Testament Greek
PHIL 221 Ancient Greek Philosophy
CAMS 103 Introduction to Ancient Greek Mythology
CAMS 171 Classical Greek I
CAMS 172 Classical Greek II
MGRK 293 Language and Culture of Byzantium
Introduction to Drama
Introduction to Poetry
MGRK 293 Greek Art and Architecture
Music, History, and Ideas
Three credits
Three credits
Three credits
Three credits
Three credits
Three credits
Three credits
Three credits
Four credits
Four credits
Four credits
Four credits
Four credits
Three credits
Three credits
Four credits
Four credits
Three credits
Three credits
Three credit
Three credits
Three credits
ARISTOTLE INIVERSITY OF THESSALONIKI, GREECE
SEMESTER PROGRAM
Name___________________________________________________
All students must sign up for 6, with a minimum of 4 three credit courses.
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ARTH 280 Early Christian & Byzantine Art History
Three credits
Writing for Print
Three credits
COMM 293 Writing for Broadcast
Three credits
Talk, Interview and Discussion Programs
Three credits
ENGL 293 Modern Greek Literature
Three credits
HIST 214.History and Archaeology of Classical Greece Three credits
HIST 250.History and Archaeology of Byzantine Greece Three credits
HIST 298 History of Modern Greece
Three credits
MGRK 101 Elementary Modern Greek I
Four credits
MGRK 102 Elementary Modern Greek II
Four credits
MGRK 103 Intermediate Modern Greek I
Four credits
MGRK 104 Intermediate Modern Greek II
Four credits
MGRK 299 Language and Culture of Greece
Three credits
PHIL 221 Ancient Greek Philosophy
Three credits
Introduction to Drama
Three credits
Reviving Greek Drama: Interpretations @ Misinterpretations
Introduction to Poetry
Three credits.
MGRK 293 Greek Design and Architecture
Three credit
____ MARN 170 General Oceanography
Three credits
____ Introduction to the Marine Environment
Three credits
____ POLS 259 Introduction to Marine and Coastal Law
Three credits
____ ANTH 297 Maritime History and Underwater Archaeology Three credits
____ POLS 287 Global Ecopolitics
Three credits
____ POLS 296 Environmental Policy and Politics
Three credits
____ Economics for Environmental Resource Management Three credits
____ HIST 293 Study of Ancient Eastern Mediterranean
Three credits
____ Paleolithic and Neolithic Periods in the Aegean
Three credits
____ Minoan and Mycenaean History and Archaeology
Three credits
____ HIST 214 History and Archaeology of Classical Greece Three credits
____ HIST 250 History and Archaeology of Byzantine Greece Three credits
____ HIST 298 History of Modern Greece
Three credits
____ HIST 293 Rhodes of the Hellenistic Period
Three Credit
____ History of the Hellenistic Period
Three credits
____ ARTH 280 Early Christian & Byzantine Art History
Three credits
____ ENGL 293 Modern Greek Literature
Three credits
____ EPSY 240 Education and New Technology.
One credit
____ HDFS 294 Family Theory
Three credits
____ STAT 110 (QC) Introduction to Statistics
Four credits
____ Introduction to Psychology
Three credits
____ Developmental Psychology
Three credits
____ MGRK 101 Elementary Modern Greek I
Four credits.
____ MGRK 102 Elementary Modern Greek II
Four credits.
____ MGRK 103 Intermediate Modern Greek I
Four credits
____ MGRK 104 Intermediate Modern Greek II
Four credits
____ CAMS 171 Classical Greek I
Four credits
____ CAMS 172 Classical Greek II
Four credits
____ CAMS 103 Introduction to Ancient Greek Mythology Three credits
____ MGRK 299 Language and Culture of Greece.
Three credits
____ Greek Folk Dances
No credit classes
____ Greek Musical Instruments
No credit classes
SUMMER 2007, GREECE
Name___________________________________________________
All students must sign for 1 or 2 courses with a maximum of five.
1. ____MGRK 101. ELEMENTARY MODERN GREEK 101
Rhodes, July 1 to July 20. Four credits
2. ____MGRK 102. ELEMENTARY MODERN GREEK 102
Rhodes, July 22 to August 10. Four credits
3. ____MGRK 101. ELEMENTARY MODERN GREEK I
Rhodes, May 13 to June 1. Four credits
4. ____HISTORY AND ARCHAEOLOGY OF CLASSICAL GREECE
Alexandreion-Dion, June 3 to June 22. Three credits
5. ____HISTORY AND ARCHAEOLOGY OF ANCIENT MACEDONIA
Aiani-Kozanis and Dion, July 8 July to July 27. Three credits
6. ____INTERMEDIATE MODERN GREEK I
Rhodes, June 3 to June 22. Four credits
7. ____MYCENAEAN HISTORY AND ARCHAEOLOGY
Sparta-Pellana, July 1 to July 20. Three credits
8. ____CLASSICAL GREEK I
UNIVERSITY OF MACEDONIA, THESSALONIKI, GREECE
Rhodes, June 3 to June 22. Four credits
SEMESTER PROGRAM
9. ____THE LANGUAGE AND CULTURE OF GREECE
Name___________________________________________________
Ikaria, July 1 to July 22. Three credits
All students must sign up for 6, with a minimum of 4 three credit courses.
10. ____GREEK MYTHOLOGY
Rhodes, July 1 to July 20. Three credits
___ ECON 202 Economic History of Greece
11. ____THE LANGUAGE AND CULTURE OF GREECE
___ POLS 225 Elements of European Community Law
Rhodes,
July 17 to August 7. Three credits
___ POLS 287 European Union: Institutions and Politics
12. ____THE GREEK ENVIRONMENT
___ POLS 287 European Union and Greek Corporations
Mytilini and Karpenisi, June 24 to July 13. Three credits
___ Global Financial Management
13. ____BYZANTINE ART HISTORY
___ POLS 230 International Relations @ Democratization in SE Europe
Rhodes, May 13 to June 1. Three Credits
___ ECON 293 EU Economic Integration @ Labor Market Institutions
___ POLS 216 International Economic Law @ Law of International Transactions 14. ____HISTORY AND ARCHAEOLOGY OF CLASSICAL GREECE
Alexandreion
Dion,
July 22 to August 10. Three credits
___ POLS 293 The EU & USA: Comparing Economic & Social Institutions
15. ____ MGRK 293 THE GREEK THEATER
___ INTD 193 Labor Market Institutions and Human Resource ManageDelphi, June 24 to July 13. Three Credits
ment in the European Union and the United States
16. ____MARINE ECOLOGY
Mytilini, June 3 to June 22. Three credits
UNIVERSITY OF AEGEAN, SEMESTER PROGRAM
17. ____ BIOLOGY OF MARINE MAMMALS
Name___________________________________________________
Irakleion – Crete, June 3 to June 22. Three credits
All students must sign up for 6, with a minimum of 4 three credit courses 18. ____INTRODUCTION TO MARINE & COASTAL LAW
Rhodes, June 3 to June 22. Three credits
____ Environmental Science
Three credits
____ Marine Biology
Three credits 19. ____MGRK 102 ELEMENTARY MODERN GREEK II
Alexandreion
–
Dion, July 22 to August 10. Four credits
____ MARN 135 Marine Ecology
Three credits
20. ____MARINE BIOLOGY OF MEDITERRANEAN COASTAL WATERS
Irakleion – Crete, June 3 to June 22. Three credits
Courses also available for the winter intersession program
Study Abroad Programs
University of Connecticut
368 Fairfield Rd., Unit 2207
Storrs, CT 06269-1207
Tel. (860)486-5022
http://www.studyabroad.uconn.edu
or
Center for Hellenic Studies Paideia
Campus of the University of Connecticut
28 Dog lane, P.O. Box 818,
Storrs, CT 06268-0818
Tel/fax (860)429-8518
Email: Paideia@snet.net
www.paideiaonline.org
Expand
your mind...
The National Herald Bookstore
(718) 784-5255
info@thenationalherald.com
A Journey of Transformation in Epiros
By Penelope M. Petropoul
Literature is a gift and Eleni
Gage has given us one that is utterly enchanting in her first book,
“North of Ithaka: A Journey Home
Through a Family’s Extraordinary
Past.” The title of the paperback is
“North of Ithaka: A Granddaughter
Returns to Greece and Discovers
Her Roots.” Set in the picturesque,
remote mountain village of Lia, in
northwestern Greece, this story
chronicles the adventures of Gage,
a young Greek American woman
who takes a hiatus from her fastpaced life in New York to move to
Lia for a year and rebuild her family’s ancestral home.
This ancestral home, which had
belonged to Gage’s grandmother
and namesake, Eleni Gatzoyiannis,
was in ruins when young Gage arrived in Greece. The decline of this
once beautiful home began when
Communist guerillas invaded the
village after the retreat of the Axis
powers from Greece and took the
home as their headquarters. They
held trials in the main rooms and
converted the basement into a
prison in which 31 villagers, including Gatzoyiannis, were tortured and imprisoned. After a series of tragic incidents in which
some villagers betrayed Gatzoyiannis and testified that she had
planned the escape from the village of her young son Nick (Gage’s
father) and his sisters, Gatzoyiannis was arrested, and as so many
others, brutally executed. Gage’s
father details this tragic story in his
book, “Eleni.”
Since the time of the children’s
escape in 1948, the home in Lia
had fallen into crumbled ruins.
And the little girls, who had now
grown to be Gage’s aunts, forbade
her from returning to the home,
which they believed had a curse.
Despite her aunts’ stern warnings, Gage follows the longing of
her heart to create a new, positive
memory in their ancestral village.
She gives up her comfortable life in
New York to move to Lia in 2002.
Through a series of humorous encounters, she hires an eccentric architect from Athens as well as
builders from neighboring Albania,
and embarks on a journey to rebuild the home, and to rebuild the
story of her family and their relationship to the place they love. In
doing so, she helps to heal her family’s and the village’s scars from the
terrible tragedy and recreates the
family home as a place of peace
and inspiration.
“Just as Ithaka provided a psychological home for Odysseus even
“North of Ithaka”
By Eleni N. Gage
St. Martin’s Press, 284 pages,
$23.95, $13.95 paperback
though he spent most of his adulthood away from it,” she writes, “so
Lia loomed in my mind: as a home
from long ago that would require
much effort to be reached.”
This gutsy act is a pleasure to
read about – the book is sprinkled
with fascinating bits of history and
culture, colorful characters, and an
honest, playful writing style that
evokes a profound sense of place.
The reader not only learns about
the tragic history of the civil war
that tore the region apart after
World War II, and the political differences that led to Gatzoyiannis’
tragic death, but also learns about
how the region has related to Albania historically and culturally, and
about all kinds of local customs.
From Lenten traditions, to views of
the afterlife, and local politics, the
reader gets a distinct flavor for life
and history in this remote area of
Greece.
For example, as the local election heats up and consumes daily
conversation throughout the village (There are six candidates for
the same office in a town of 130
people), Gage writes, “Politics is
still the major divisive factor in society. Modern Greek life has always
been overshadowed by history, not
just the legends of ancient Greece
but the still-fresh scars acquired by
the growing Greek state in the
twentieth century. Even today,
some people affiliate themselves
with their family’s political party
with a messianic fervor.”
As Gage observed early on in
her stay, “Greece is not for spectators. It’s as if the entire nation has
been raised to believe that in the
University of Life, participation
counts for 90 percent of your
grade.” This active involvement of
Greeks in life was illustrated to her
in numerous ways, most markedly
in the celebration of Easter. Religion is a major part of people’s
lives in Lia, and Gage participated
in each service and custom. She
writes about them in vivid detail
and makes the reader feel as if
he/she is there witnessing each
service with her: “My favorite celebration occurred at the ‘panegyric’
of Agia Triada, right in Lia, when I
joined my fellow villagers in a parade to show off our icon of the
Holy Trinity, which was framed by
pink and fuchsia hydrangeas for
the occasion.
“At the end of the evening service in Agia Triada, Antonis Makos,
the church council president,
picked up the icon and took the
lead, followed by Father Prokopi
wielding his censer, Spiro the cantor, Sofia the lady cantor, and several boys who had come for vacation with their families and been
given the important task of carrying the gold standards used in
Church parades. We proceeded toward the church of Agia Paraskevi,
in front of men drinking coffee or
moonshine at the ‘kafenion’ (café)
who rose to cross themselves as we
passed by singing hymns devoted
to particular saints.”
With playful language, Gage
transforms even the simplest daily
activities of village life into events
teeming with excitement. Her visit
to the “kafenion” one day is one
such example. As she had her coffee, an argument erupted about
who makes better sausage, Greeks
or Germans. “In one corner, representing Germany, was a Liotan lady
who had married a German, settled in Munich, and was in Lia on
vacation. In the other corner was
everyone else, loudly protesting on
behalf of the Greeks and particularly the Ifantis sausage dynasty,
whose patriarch had been born in
Lia.” As she describes her frequent
dinners with her new friends Dina
and Vangelis, the reader feels as if
he/she is with her, eating pita in
the neighbors’ yard, and laughing
about the events of the day. “That
night, over dinner at Dina’s, I told
everyone about the Great Sausage
Debate, the newcomers at the
‘kafenion,’ and how inflamed they
21
all were by culinary chauvinism.”
Her colorful descriptions of the
story’s characters bring them to
life. In response to Gage’s announcement that she would return
to Lia to rebuild the family home,
her chorus of aunts in America
replied, “What? You crazy? ... You
gonna get killed by Albanians and
eaten by wolves!” And in reply to
Gage’s question of how long it
would take to rebuild the house,
George Zervas, the Greek architect,
replied, “Time is just a construct.
I’ve been able to break the boundaries of time, like scientists are always trying to do. It’s easy – just
don’t wear a watch! He added that
he also didn’t believe in cell
phones, computers, or answering
machines – anything that allowed
the outside world to intrude on his
thoughts.”
Gage’s new neighbors in Lia are
described with similar panache. As
Gage is sitting on her terrace drinking tea, she hears a piercing voice
call, “Eleni!” It’s her neighbor Dina,
inviting her over for
breakfast. “Guess what I
have for you today?” Dina asks once Gage is at
her kitchen table. “It’s
milk, fresh from the
goat!” and Dina places a
full eight-ounce glass of
creamy liquid in front of
Gage, saying, “I told
Iphigenia, the shepherdess, that you’ve never had fresh goat’s milk
and she gave me this for
you – it’s so healthy!”
Lively descriptions like
this abound throughout
the book and make the
reader feel as though
he/she is vicariously
traveling to Lia with
every word.
Whether by moving
from a city of 8 million
to a village of 130 (with
the median age of 70),
transitioning from working as a magazine beauty
CHAYO MATA
Eleni Gage
editor to overseeing the
construction of a historic house or dancing
at a gypsy wedding,
Gage has transcended
borders of time, age,
culture and lifestyle in a
way
many
people
dream about. In so doing, she learned about
her past and about herself, transformed superstitious fear into a feeling of being blessed and
open to miracles, and
gave readers a lens
through which to view
an area of Greece often
overlooked by visitors
and writers. As she
notes in referring to
herself and her Thio Angelo who had just returned to his childhood
home in Albania, “The
places our families
came from were an inextricable part of our iden-
tity.” This reader ventures to say
that this is true for all of us. And in
reading this book, one might just
be inspired to learn about one’s
own family history.
In this lovely memoir and travelogue, Gage honors the memory
of her grandmother, and creates a
new memory for herself and for the
reader – one which continues to
provide joy even once the story has
ended. This reader was left wanting the journey to continue, and is
delighted to report that it may indeed. Gage has returned to life in
New York, but this time not as an
editor for People. She is in a Masters of Fine Arts program at Columbia University, where the muses
may be inspiring her to write her
next book.
Penelope Petropoul received her
bachelor’s degree in history from
the University of Chicago. She
plans alumni programs for the
University of Chicago and enjoys
traveling and writing.
Dimitrios & Georgia Kaloidis Parochial School
of Holy Cross Greek Orthodox Church
8502 Ridge Blvd, Brooklyn, NY 11209 • (718) 836-9096
From Nursery
through 8th grade
YOUR CHILD
A Harvard University
professor goes to
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the classical
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is soon diverted by
his love for a beautiful
harem girl and the
spectacular Greek War
of Independence
will spend over
10,000
hours in a classroom
Don’t let it be just any classroom
HELLAS
by Edward Kareklas
Search your website or go directly to
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22
Suggested Readings about
Greek Orthodox Church
of SAINT DEMETRIOS
JAMAICA DAY SCHOOL
84-35 152nd St., Jamaica, NY 11432
(718) 526-2622, Fax: (718)526-1680
Mission Statement
Our mission at Jamaica Day School
of St. Demetrios is to profoundly affect
the lives of our students. By providing
an environment steeped in the moral
values of the Greek Orthodox Church,
we seek to develop individuals who
learn and grow in an atmosphere
characterized by self discipline, respect
for others and, most of all, a strong
moral fiber. We teach and serve with an
enthusiasm born of special competence
and a singular devotion to our students,
which ignites within them an enduring
passion for learning.
Saint Demetrios celebrates the uniqueness
and talents of every child.
Our school offers a nurturing environment
with a comprehensive, developmentally
appropriate, standards-based curriculum to
maximize the intellectual, social and
emotional growth of all children. Our
administrators, teachers, parents and
children work together to achieve
excellence and a love of learning.
By Steve Frangos
The following books on Greek
American life and experience, in
fiction and non-fiction, are all
readily available. Not all of these
volumes are newly released. In fact
several of the books cited below
are new editions of books long
available. Unfortunately, some volumes are out of print. All of these
suggested readings are meant to
make books that are important to
Greek American self-awareness
known to a wider audience.
All books cited can be effortlessly ordered from your local bookstore, the Internet or obtained
from your neighborhood library via
inter-library loan.
Listed alphabetically we have
arranged these volumes into several categories: history/sociology, biography/memoirs, returning to
Greece, growing up Greek, fiction
and celebrity biography.
I. HISTORY/SOCIOLOGY
• Advanced Early Childhood Program
Full and Half Day
• Kindergarten - Full Day
• Standards Based program
• New York State Certified Teachers
• Grades 1 to 8
• Greek Language Program
Fully Equipped Computer Lab
• Extracurricular Activities
• Exciting Field Trips
• Small Class Size
and Personalized Attention
• Strong Emphasis
on Discipline and Moral Values
• Excellent Preparation for
Specialized and Parochial
High School Entrance Exam.
• A student at Jamaica Day School of Saint
Demetrios has pride in his/her school,
his/her community, him and herself.
Demetrios has honor in working
to make him/herself a better person
• A student at Jamaica Day School
of Saint Demetrios has courage
to stand up for what is right.
Demetrios has love for his fellow
human beings so that we all may
have a better world to live in.
ARRANGE A VISIT TODAY!!!
A. EARLY GREEK IMMIGRATION
1. “The Greek Exile: or, A Narrative of the Captivity and Escape of
Christophorus Plato Castanis, During the Massacre on the Island of
Scio, by the Turks, Together with
Various Adventures in Greece and
America” by Christophoros Plato
Castanis (New York: Cultural
Chapter of the Chian Federation,
2002, ISBN: 0972180605).
Christophorus Castanis was one
of some 40 Greek refugees and orphans brought to the United States
during the Greek War of Independence. This reprinted and edited
edition was originally published in
1851. The book deals principally
with the author's experiences during the tragic year of 1822 when
the Turks massacred over 60,000
Chians and sold another 40,000 into slavery.
2. “Hoi Sphages tou 1822 kai he
Zoe Mou/The Massacres of Chios1822: a Personal Narrative Written
for my Family” by George M.
Colvocoresses (Athena: Ekdose
Philoproodou Homilou Kampou
Chios, 1992, ISBN: 9608523508).
This is another account by an
1821 refugee to America who was
destined to become a captain in the
United States Navy. George M.
Colvocoresses took part in the
Wilkes Expedition and is the author of a noted book on that naval
adventure. Since Captain George
Colvocoresses, each generation of
his descendents have served in the
United States Navy.
3. “New Smyrna: an Eighteenth
Century Greek Odyssey” by
Epaminondas P. Panagopoulos,
(Brookline, Mass: Holy Cross Orthodox
Press,
1978,
ISBN:
0916586146).
This is a stirring historical account of the New Smyrna Colony,
established in eastern Florida in
1768 during Great Britain's administration. Over half of the nearly
1,200 colonists were Greeks. Today
the St. Photios Shrine in St. Augustine Florida, which was the Avero
House and location of worship for
the survivors of this ill-fated colony,
is now maintained by the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese.
4. "Founded on Freedom and
Virtue: Documents Illustrating the
Impact in the United States of the
Greek War of Independence, 18211829” by Constantine G Hatzidimitriou (New York: Caratzas, 2002,
ISBN: 089241572X).
A massive collection of documents related to the American response to the Greek War of Independence is included in this volume. News of the outbreak of the
war ignited a world wide response
called “The Grecian Fever.” The
United States government documents, newspaper accounts, journal entries of selected Philhellenes
and other materials are reproduced
here as testimony to the immediate,
overwhelming and sustained response of the American public and
its government to this bid for freedom.
B. GREEK IMMIGRATION
AFTER 1880
1. “New Directions in Greek
American Studies” edited by Dan
Georgakas and Charles C. Moskos
(New York: Pella, 1991, ISBN:
0918618479).
Greek American studies can be
understood as the effort to relate
academic research, intellectual understanding and artistic expression
to the manifold and ongoing experience of Americans of Greek ancestry. A major threshold was crossed
at “The Greek American Experience: A Conference on the State of
Scholarship and an Agenda for the
Future” sponsored by the Immigration History Research Center of the
University of Minnesota in May
1989. This volume presents a selection of those papers, which opened
up new and important research areas in the nascent field of Greek
American studies.
2. “A History of the Greeks in the
Americas 1453-1938” by Paul Koken, Theodore N. Constant, and
Seraphim G. Canoutas (Ann Arbor,
Michigan: Proctor Publications,
1995, ISBN: 1882792157).
This long delayed publication is
a major contribution to Greek
American history. It covers the Age
of Exploration through the Colonial
Era, into the 1880 to 1920 era of
mass migration. The authors have
presented historical material not
readily available in other volumes.
3. “Studies on Greek Americans”
by George Kourvetaris (Boulder,
Colorado: East European Monographs, 1997, ISBN: 0880333774).
This reader consists of 12 articles
on various aspects of the Greek
American experience. It includes
articles on early and late immigrants, first and second generation
Chicago Greeks, Greek Orthodox
and Greek American ethnic identity, the Greek American family,
Greek American entrepreneurs, the
Greeks of Asia Minor and Egypt,
migration of Greek scientists, conflicts of Greeks in the diaspora, Bahamian Greeks and the future of
Greek America.
4. “Greek Americans: Struggle &
Success” by Charles C. Moskos
(New Brunswick: New Jersey:
Transaction Publishers, 1999; Second Edition, revised, ISBN:
0887387780).
This book, a fine combination of
sociological insight with historical
detail, traces the Greek experience
in the United States from the 1700s
through the 20th century.
5. “Reading Greek-America:
Studies in the Experience of Greeks
in the United States” by Spyros D.
Orfanos, editor (New York: Pella,
2002, ISBN: 0918618835).
This college reader was assembled and used by Dr. Spyros Orphanos over a 20-year period of
teaching Greek American studies.
The 18 essays are divided into three
broad areas of concern: history and
politics, society and culture, and
psychology. An amazing array of
topics, events and issues are assembled and reviewed.
6. “An Amulet of Greek Earth:
Generations of Immigrant Folk Culture” by Helen Papanikolas
(Athens, Ohio: Swallow Press, Ohio
University Press: 2002, ISBN:
0804010373).
This is a fine summation of Helen Zeese Papanikolas' half a century of research and writing on Greek
immigrant life. Based on extensive
study, personal interviews, historical photographs and a vast array of
other documents, Papanikolas offers a convincing and graceful presentation of Greek American histo-
ry and culture.
7. “Buried Unsung: Louis Tikas
and the Ludlow Massacre” by Zeese
Papanikolas (Lincoln: University of
Nebraska Press, 1991; Second Edition, revised, ISBN: 0803287275).
Louis Tikas was a union organizer killed by state militia at the Ludlow Massacre during the coal strike
of 1913-1914 in Colorado. Papanikolas offers this unusual merger of biography and labor history as
the forum for reflecting upon a
whole generation of Greek immigrant workers.
8. “A Guide to Greek Traditions
and Customs in America” by Marilyn Rouvelas (Bethesda, Maryland:
Attica
Press,
1993)
(ISBN:
096380510X, Second Edition,
2002, ISBN: 0963805118).
This especially fine guide's purpose is to "explain the meaning and
beauty of Greek customs and foster
the appreciation they deserve" and
to "provide useful information on
those traditions and customs as
practiced in America.” Originally a
most useful guide for non-Greeks
marrying into the culture and faith,
this book has helped those of the
third and fourth generations understand their own cultural past.
9. “The Greeks in the United
States” by Theodore Saloutos
(Cambridge: Harvard University
Press, 1964).
This landmark book in American
immigration studies is still regarded as the foremost history of Greeks
in the United States.
10. Greek-American Pioneer
Women of Illinois: the Stories of
Georgia Bitzis Pooley, Presbytera
Stella
Christoulakis
Petrakis,
Theano Papazoglou Margaris,
Venette Askounes Ashford, and
Senator Adeline J. Geo-Karis” edited by Elaine Cotsirilos Thomopoulos (Charleston, SC: Arcadia, 2000,
ISBN: 073850825X).
Five essays report upon the
lives, careers and accomplishments
of five notable Greek American
women of Illinois.
II. BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIRS
A. “Not Even My Name: From a
Death March in Turkey to a New
Home in America, a Young Girl's
True Story of Genocide and Survival” by Thea Halo (New York: Picador, 2001, ISBN: 0312262116).
This account written by Thea
Halo’s daughter, Sano, relates her
gradual discovery of her mother’s
complicated past as a Greek Pontic
survivor of the Asia Minor 1922
23
the Greek American Experience
Holocaust.
B. “The Best of Friends: Two Sisters, One Journey” by Connie
Kiosse (Haverford, PA: Infinity Publishing: 2003; ISBN: 0741417391).
This biography interweaves the
lives of two Greek Macedonian sisters, Connie and Christine, who
were born in Bridgeport, Connecticut. Once Christine is diagnosed
with the HIV virus, the sisters band
together and try to make some
sense of the nonsensical. The
events in this volume span the
years as they try to understand how
“a working class, non-smoking,
non-drinking mother of three
(could) contract AIDS.”
C. “The Book of Jon” by Eleni
Sikelianos (City Lights Publishers,
2004, ISBN: 0872864367).
In this biography of her father
and distinguished family, Eleni
Sikelianos (who is herself a noted
American poet) fuses narrative,
journal entries, letters and her own
reminiscences to offer a loving and
critical portrayal.
D. “No Return Address: A Memoir of Displacement" by Anca Vlasopoulos (New York: Columbia
University Press, 2000).
This much praised volume is the
memoir of a daughter’s account of
her Greek Jewish family’s recollections of experiences in Romania
and their travails across Eastern Europe in their journey to America in
the aftermath of the Holocaust.
III. RETURNING TO GREECE
A. “The Olive Grove: Travels in
Greece” by Katherine Kizilos (Australia: Lonely Planet Pubs, 1997, ISBN: 0864424590).
Katherine Kizilos, a journalist
born in Australia, reports on her return to her father Angelo’s village
of Chrysambela. Kizilos’ inheritance of an olive grove, held for
generations by her family, focuses
all of her memories and concerns
onto the question of her own identity.
B. “The Feasts of Memory: Stories of a Greek Family” by Elias Kulukundis (New York: Peter E. Randall Publisher, 2003; Second Edition, ISBN: 1931807116).
This is a reprint of the highly entertaining volume recounting the
author’s journey back to his family’s
island villages. The grandson of
two Kasiot sea captains and the son
of a Kasiot shipowner, Elias Kulukundis, was born in London but
raised in Rye, New York. It was
originally published in 1967 with
the subtitle “A Journey to a Greek
Island.”
IV. GROWING UP GREEK
A. “North of Ithaka: One
Woman's Odyssey into her Family's
Extraordinary Past” by Eleni N.
Gage (London: Bantam Press,
2004).
This is a continuing story of a
Greek American family made famous through the international
best seller “Eleni” by Nicholas
Gage.
B. “Growing Up Greek in South
Bend The Early Years: 1926-1964”
edited by: Elaine Makris Daniels
(2001, ISBN: 09714322).
This book gives a detailed account of community life among the
Greeks of South Bend. Photographs
add interest to this comprehensive
volume.
C. “Growing Up Greek in St.
Louis” by Aphrodite Matsakis
(Charleston, SC: Arcadia, 2002, ISBN: 0738519561).
Aphrodite Matsakis interweaves
her family’s experiences before and
after immigration with those of
other Greeks within the broader
community of St. Louis, Missouri.
Numerous photographs help to
provide an added dimension to this
finely rendered fusion of stories.
V. FICTION
A. “Georgie! My Georgie!: The
First Greek-American to Win the
Medal of Honor” by Eddie Brady
(Xlibris Corporation, 2004, ISBN:
1413488102).
This massive novel offers a fictional survey of the life, loves and
ambitions of the first Greek immigrant to win the Medal of Honor,
George Dilboy.
B. “Hellenes and Hellions: Modern Greek Characters in American
Literature” by Alexander Karanikas
(Chicago: University of Illinois
Press, 1981, ISBN: 0252007921).
This massive tome is the foremost study on Greek characters in
American literature. Anyone wishing to learn about Greek American
literature or how non-Greek writers
in America have utilized Greek
characters in fiction should first
consult this one-of-a-kind study.
C. “The Orchards of Ithaca” by
Harry Mark Petrakis (Southern Illinois University Press: 2004: ISBN:
0809325780).
This is a vivid allegory of the
changes undergone in the Greek
American experience by one Greektown family, from one epoch to the
next.
VI. CELEBRITY BIOGRAPHY
A. “Ask Me Again Tomorrow: A
Life in Progress” by Olympia
Dukakis (New York: Harper Collins,
2003, ISBN: 0060188219).
The famed actress’s biography
includes much discussion about her
interaction and relationship with
her Greek immigrant mother.
B. “Ultra Marathon Man: Con-
fessions of an All-Night Runner” by
Dean Karnazes (New York: Penguin, 2006).
Internationally famed athlete,
Dean Karnazes, discusses his career
achievements with some very brief
mention of his Greek family. According to the British publication,
The Economist, Karnazes’ book is
rated “the seventh biggest sports
bestseller” in the world.
C. “Apollo's Legacy, The Hellenic
Torch in America at the Dawn of
the Millennium” by Effie Lascarides
(Brookline, MA: Hellenic College
Press, 2000, ISBN: 0917653513).
This collection of 16 in-depth
interviews with prominent Greek
Americans includes: former Prima
Ballerina Helene Alexopoulos, Dr.
Teni Boulikas, founder of Regulon
Inc.;
Peter
Chrisanthopoulos,
Azteca Communications; Philip
Christopher, president of Audiovox
Communications; Dr. Peter Diamandis, founder of the International Space University; Michael
Dukakis; Demetrios Giannaros,
state representative from Connecticut; Chris Giftos, Metropolitan Museum of Art; Evangeline Gouletas,
co-founder of American Invesco;
Dr. George Hatsopoulos, founder
of Thermo Electron; Matina
Souretis Horner, former president
of Radcliffe College; Tom Maniatis,
Professor of Molecular Biology,
Harvard
University;
Nikolaos
Robakis, Professor, Mt. Sinai
School of Medicine; Alex Spanos,
real estate developer and owner of
the San Diego Chargers; George
Stephanopoulos, ABC News Ana-
lyst and former advisor to President Clinton; and Dr. P. Roy Vagelos, former chairman of Merck
Pharmaceuticals. The interviewees
share their lives, their work and
their feelings for their Hellenic heritage.
D. “Tommyland” by Tommy Lee
with Anthony Bozza (New York:
Atria
Books,
2004,
ISBN:
074348343X).
An infamous rock musician offers something of his life. In part
the publicity release for this memoir notes: “I am Tommy Lee, born
Tommy Lee Bass in Athens, Greece
on October 3, 1962, and raised in a
suburb of California by an American father and a Greek mother. At
17, I joined Mötley Crüe and we became one of the baddest-ass rock
bands in history.”
E. “Sharing the Wealth: My Story” by Alex Spanos, with Mark Seal
and Natalia Kasparian (Washington, D.C.: Regnery Pub., 2002, ISBN: 0895261588).
Alex Spanos, self-made billionaire real estate developer and owner of the San Diego Chargers, recalls episodes from his life.
Steve Frangos, a regular contributor of The National Herald, is a
freelance writer who travels
throughout the country investigating and gathering historical
information about the Greek
American community. Readers
interested in contacting him are
encouraged to e-mail him at
greekwrite@yahoo.com.
24

Book and - The National Herald GR

Transcription

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