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FEBRUARY 23, 2008 www.thenationalherald.com

Sponsored by the Greek Ministry of National Education and Religious Affairs 2 THE NATIONAL HERALD FEBRUARY 23, 2008

he books reviewed in this issue environment. The principals are The National Herald show the variety of books mainstream Americans living in a small A weekly publication of the available to us that can edify Midwestern town. The fiction of NATIONAL HERALD, INC. and delight us about our Petrakis always has had a social (ΕΘΝΙΚΟΣ ΚΗΡΥΞ), T Hellenic heritage. subtext, but this new work shows reporting the news and addressing Several of the books explore being heightened attention to some of the the issues of paramount interest caught between two worlds: Greek and social ills afflicting the specific Greek to the Greek American community of the United States of America. American. Immigrant Tryfon Tolides in American community and the United his book of poetry, “An Almost Pure States in general.” Publisher-Editor Empty Walking,” which is reviewed by We await the re-release of the book Antonis H. Diamataris Artemis Leontis, draws a soulful picture by the late Theodore Saloutos about the Assistant to Publisher, Advertising of a child immigrant’s difficult entry history of the Greeks in the United Veta H. Diamataris Papadopoulos into an alien American world and his States. In anticipation we offer an Special Section Managing Editor periodical return to the cherished but article by another renowned historian Elaine Thomopoulos vanishing Greek village of his youth. of the Greek American experience, Production Manager Adrianne Kalfopoulou, author of Charles Moskos, who writes about his Chrysoula Karametros “Broken Greek: A Language to Belong,” personal recollections of Saloutos. He 37-10 30th Street, LIC, NY 11101-2614 describes her life as a binational (Greek says, “My own writings on Greek Tel: (718)784-5255, and American) living in Greece. As Americans have obviously been strongly Fax: (718)472-0510, e-mail: reviewer Anastasia Stefanidou influenced by my personal interactions [email protected] describes it: “It is Kalfopoulou’s with Saloutos as well as by his www.thenationalherald.com challenge to penetrate the seemingly scholarship. We both had immigrant Democritou 1 and Academias Sts, unfathomable depths of Greekness parents, we both made our primary Athens, 10671, Greece without compromising her American academic reputations in fields outside Tel: 011.30.210.3614.598, Fax: 011.30.210.3643.776, identity. She takes us along as she of Greek America … and turned to e-mail: [email protected] searches for a space and place to call Greek American studies later in our Subscriptions by mail: 1 year $59.85, home.” professional careers. We both were also 6 months $29.95, 3 months $19.95, “American Aphrodite: Becoming committed to finding practical ways to 1 month $9.95. Home delivery NY, NJ, CT: 1 year $80.00, Female in Greek America” by Constance maintain contact between the old 6 months $43.99, 3 months $29.99, Callinicos, which was released 16 years country and the American-born 1 month $12.95. ago, continues to be relevant today. generations.” Home delivery New England States, Pennsylvania & Washington DC: She interviewed 111 women prior to Historical books include “Claiming 1 year $99.00, 6 months $51.75, writing the book. Reviewer Yiorgos Anagnostou says, “It tells the stories Macedonia” by George C. Papavizas and “Agamemnon in Performance: 3 months $37.45, 1 month $15.95 of those who have felt the iron grip of male domination and its power to 458 BC to AD 2000,” edited by Fiona Macintosh, Pantelis Michelakis, On line subscription: Non subscribers: 1 year $29.95, 1 month $3.95; put down women; to mute, insult and render them inferior and Edith Hall and Oliver Taplin. “Claiming Macedonia,” reviewed by Mark Subscribers: 1 year $19.95, 1 month $1.95 unworthy.” Lardas, outlines in detail the history and heritage of Macedonia from We feature two giants of Greek Americana, Harry Mark Petrakis and ancient times to the present. “Agamemnon in Performance,” reviewed by Theodore Saloutos, in this issue. “Legends of Glory and Other Stories” by Evaggelos Vallianatos, gives us a perceptive look into the history of the Petrakis couples eight short stories with a novella. Says reviewer Dan ancient Greek drama of Aischylos’ play “Agamemnon” and the way it has Georgakas, “The beautifully crafted stories featuring Chicago Greeks are been interpreted (or misinterpreted) and performed in Europe and vintage Petrakis that reaffirm his mastery of this genre …. In the novella, America in the past two and one-half centuries. ‘Legends of Glory,’ Petrakis explores an entirely different social History also plays a role in the novel, “The Island,” by English writer, Victoria Hislop. After a visit to a now-defunct leper colony off the northern coast of Crete, the “strange, haunting aspects of it” captured her imagination. As reported by reviewer Aphrodite Matsakis, she found the atmosphere on Spinalonga so “electrifying,” she knew she had to write a story about it. This led to historical research and her romantic story about the love and courage of a Greek family, as first one, then another, family member develops the dreaded illness. Hislop says, “Here was somewhere that had effectively been a prison, a place for a life sentence, but where the ‘prisoners’ were innocent of any crime and indeed might be living close enough to their loved ones to be able to see them just across the water. It was profoundly terrible and yet there was evidence from the infrastructure (a communal laundry, two churches, pretty homes, shops) that these people had not lived entirely miserable lives. They had dignity, and they had enjoyed a certain quality of life.” Dan Georgakas piques our interest in the Greek language through his review of “A Modern Greek-English Dictionary, Volume 1,” which was compiled and edited by his cousin, Demetrius J. Georgacas. The dictionary seeks to define in English virtually every word used in modern Greek. Georgacas amassed more than 2.5 million citation slips in the process of seeking to define in English virtually every word used in The Hellenic Museum and Cultural Center in Chicago is proud to announce the creation of a modern Greek. Institutions in both Greece and the United States Hellenic Writers Guild which will showcase authors and their works from all over the nation. supported the research. Georgakas says, “The relationship between Under the umbrella of the museum, the guild will allow for; promotion of authors and their Greece and the United States, even between Greeks and Greek- works, archiving of their books and body of works in our library, opportunity to sell volumes in Americans, is not always harmonious or productive. The creation of this extraordinary dictionary demonstrates the marvelous work that can be HMCC gift shop, allow works to be entered into competitions, offer space for book signings at the done when two powerful cultures collaborate.” HMCC and many other things. Steve Frangos, in his article, “Reading As a Greek American,” prods us to read books about Greece and the Greek American experience. He says, To this end, the Hellenic Museum and Cultural Center asks that all Greek American authors “No one will be Greek for you. But then the discovery of that fact and submit their names, address, e-mail address, phone number and bibliography list of their works even reading about it are their own reward.” to the attention of Nick Vern, Hellenic Writers Guild Chairman, Wishing you enlightening and inspiring reading. 801 W. Adams (4th Floor), Chicago, Illinois 60657. Elaine Thomopoulos Authors may also submit this information via email at [email protected]. Managing Editor-Books [email protected] THE NATIONAL HERALD FEBRUARY 23, 2008 3

Prologue by Mr. Evripides Stylianides Minister of National Education & Religious Affairs For The National Herald's special "Books" insert

From the sage scholars that fled to Europe in the 15th century, communicating ancient Greek knowledge to the West and contributing significantly to the formation of the European cultural identity, to the contemporary authors of “diaspora”, the role of the intellectuals, who live outside Greece has diachronically remained the same: they are the “ambassadors” of Greek language and civilization around the world, vividly demonstrating the inherent extroversion of the Greek ecumenical spirit. In an era of globalization, in which national languages strive to safeguard their international presence against the monopoly of prevalent cultures, Greek-American authors - members of a thriving community, with a multi-fold contribution to the financial, scientific and political life of America - are the heirs to a long-standing tradition of keeping the Greek-American experience alive. Through Greek language as a vehicle of diachronic values, which have inspired savants worldwide, they transmit the “voice” of Greece in the U.S.A., stimulating the intellectual life of the community and strengthening its linguistic and cultural bonds with the “metropolis”. As a Minister of National Education and Religious Affairs of Greece, I would like to congratulate all authors, whose work is included in the Special Issue of the National Herald, entitled “Books”, on their tenacious adherence to enforcing the vitality of the Greek-American community and to promoting education in its pure essence. I profoundly believe that through this Special Issue your work will capture the attention of a yet wider audience, furthering the on-going universal dialogue about the importance of a humanistic perspective in a largely technological civilization. 4 THE NATIONAL HERALD FEBRUARY 23, 2008 Greece from a Binational Perspective Searching for a space and place to call home

Broken Greek: longing is fragile and uncertain ironic as Kalfopoulou explains the even for those who have a stronger Greek term “koroido” (“sucker”) A Language to Belong claim on a culture, such as the na- and gives examples of people re- By Adrianne Kalfopoulou tive nationals themselves. As she fusing to budge on a crowded road explains in her preface: “The more or absurdly blocking the traffic in Plain View Press, I understood of Greek, the more order to avoid being called a “suck- 208 pages, $18.95, paperback feeble English seemed in its ability er.” to reflect the layered depths of a What is more, traffic politics world that had no analogous word and its bendable morals becomes a By Anastasia Stefanidou for privacy but four to describe microcosm of Greek society, where Special to The National Herald variations of love.” So the country people try to impose their own “became the landscape of absolute rules. Kalfopoulou vividly relates drianne Kalfopoulou’s feeling where language would the gruesome details of court trials non-fiction book “Broken- ‘hold up to,’ or break under, what, she endures after an accident with Greek: A Language to Be- conventionally, it was not meant to a taxi driver. Nevertheless, she re- Along” is an exciting, touch- do.” It is Kalfopoulou’s challenge to mains impressed by these individu- ing and provocative collection of penetrate the seemingly unfath- alist initiatives, of how, for in- autobiographical narratives based omable depths of Greekness with- stance, her lawyer suggests he rep- on the author’s encounters with out compromising her American resent her case for no payment, or Greek reality. Her account is en- identity. She takes us along as she how a store employee holds up a riched by her knowledge of Greek searches for a space and place to line of impatient clients to help an history, politics, literature and call home. elderly woman who is not even myths. Kalfopoulou is a poet with a “Broken Greek” begins in 1981 sure what she is asking for. first collection “Wild Greens” (Red when Kalfopoulou comes to Greece Kalfopoulou believes that these Hen Press, 2002) and a scholar “A in her early twenties and visits her kinds of individualist solutions to Discussion of the Ideology of the grandparents’ house on Syngrou problems originate in the Greeks’ American Dream in the Culture's Avenue, Athens. In a realistic and historical distrust of authority, and Female Discourses: The Untidy lyrically nostalgic voice, the author especially foreign governments, House” (Mellen Press, 2000). What initiates us into the protected envi- which goes as far back as the Ot- Adrianne Kalfopoulou, author of “Broken Greek” and a poetry collec- is unique about “Broken Greek” is ronment of abounding love and tomans. That is why, Kalfopoulou tion, “Wild Greens,” lives and works in Athens. When she was in her that Kalfopoulou does not write care which her elderly relatives of- suggests, people make up “unoffi- early twenties she moved to Greece to live with her grandparents, from the point of view of a visitor fer her. Here Kalfopoulou finds cial solutions for what was official- whom she had spent summers with since she was a child. She holds or even an ethnic tourist who sim- comfort and inspiration from the ly unacceptable.” dual citizenships -- U.S. and Greek ply records familiar patterns of life daily routines and the lifelong Kalfopoulou discovers too that or criticizes cultural and other dif- habits of her grandparents. They she can be victimized by the absurdi- to the “dyki tous” (“one of theirs”) clique.” The acts of favoritism by ferences. pass on to her their family history ty and inconsistency of rules. When circle of people in authority have those in authority in the public sec- Instead, Kalfopoulou writes as a and tradition, as well as valuable she is given a ticket for not wearing their candidacy for important posi- tor have contributed to the Greeks’ “binational Greek” in Greece. Dan knowledge about the city’s and the a seat belt despite her earnest expla- tions seriously considered. distrust of the State in its role of Georgakas has coined this term be- country’s past. This beginning nation to the traffic policewoman Assigning mythological names to safeguarding people’s rights. Quot- fitting those Greek Americans who fugue acknowledges the tremen- that she had been in a hurry to get to the professors involved in her efforts ing from The Economist article “A try to maintain some kind of Greek dous effect that the passing of time her daughter, Kalfopoulou feels con- to get a lecturer’s position at the Uni- Country on the Edge” by Brian Beed- identity in America or in Greece, has on people and things as fused and “trapped in the tangled versity of Athens, Kalfopoulou also ham, Kalfopoulou points out that this sense of identity facilitated by Kalfopoulou lives through her structures others manage to dodge.” takes the risk of coming across as of- there has always been a strong con- globalization. Binational Greeks do grandparents’ last days and even- A woman who has parked illegally fensive towards those who might nection between history and peo- not choose between two cultures tual death. At the same time, she in front of the narrator’s car in order recognize their mythological per- ple’s character. She mentions the ex- but are emotionally and psycholog- admires their patience, persever- to do her shopping is not penalized sonas as fallen gods and goddesses. ample of Kapodistria, the first gover- ically comfortable in and with ance and devotion to a country because she happens to have a baby After all, the gods and goddesses of nor of the newly-liberated Greece in both. Having been raised in a where “everything is too immedi- with her. the ancient world were better 1827, who was assassinated because Greek American family, educated ate, too extreme” and where peo- In innovative ways, Kalfopoulou known for their passions, jealousies the local leaders of the War of Inde- in an American context but now ple put up everyday struggles to ac- presents herself as an Arachne who and other flaws rather than for act- pendence regarded him as an out- having lived and worked for more complish even the minimum of spins “a tangled yarn, exchanged, ing out of any objective sense of sider and as such particularly sus- than two decades in Athens, tasks, such as having to wait for sold, and bartered” when she con- right or wrong. Still, Kalfopoulou pect. Kapodistria had made the fatal Kalfopoulou carries a genuine cul- years before their telephone line is fronts the bureaucratic labyrinths demonstrates that myths are not the mistake of listening to the advice of tural binationalism. “Broken connected. of Greek civil services in the in- opposite of reality. Rather, myths a foreign minister instead of the lo- Greek” represents her effort to se- The chapter “Traffic Politics” is triguing chapter “Academic Phalli- may originate in reality and could cals and putting one of the local “an- cure her own standing within this especially indicative of this kind of cisms.” The witty title reflects the even give meaning to a world where dartes” leaders in jail. Greek American current. struggle. In living the madness of mysterious entanglements of “legal formalities [are] divorced of Being regularly reminded that As indicated by the title of the today’s Athenian roads everyone Greek national universities where substance.” “without protection one never got book, Kalfopoulou is especially “needs to make the lights as if that nepotism and lack of meritocracy In the sections “The (Post) Colo- very far,” Kalfopoulou recounts concerned with the Greek lan- green light represents some con- reign supreme. This is among the nial Eye” and “Tsifliki” the author more stories she has heard or expe- guage. For her this also means the crete salvation everyone else is too very few, if not the only, pieces of further explores her belief that the rienced herself in order to prove Greek culture as marked by its slow to take advantage of; we drive writing that I know of which so ve- fundamental question in Greece is, the close connection between the complicated and sometimes dark like we are possessed, as if the hemently and frankly exposes what “Who looks after whom,” who be- personal and the political, the pri- past, as well as its tumultuous chores and errands and destina- has long been the thorn in the hir- longs to and therefore receives pro- vate and the public, when it comes course into the 21st century as a tions we are out to complete must ing procedures for prestigious posi- tection from a “tsiflik,” the Turkish to corruption and people’s suspi- European member country. Addi- occur within the next few seconds tions in the Greek public sector. It word “used idiomatically in modern cion of one another and the State. tionally, Kalfopoulou intends to if there is going to be any tomor- has become common knowledge in Greece to suggest a domain under For her, it is no wonder “why al- make the reader aware that be- row.” The tone often gets bleak and Greece that only those who belong the authority of one person, or most every Greek wore some ver- THE NATIONAL HERALD FEBRUARY 23, 2008 5 sion of the evil eye, and never countries, especially in the ways ceased to cross themselves when space, in all its literal and things took a turn for the good.” metaphorical manifestations, is Having lost the lecturer’s posi- evaluated. “The two countries . . . tion at the University of Athens to were opposed spaces: America was someone who does not seem to in love with her spaciousness, have the required qualifications, proud and defensive of her large Kalfopoulou appeals to the dreams, while Greece, passionate Supreme Court only to hear the and crowded in her small corner, now trite remark, “Greece eats her trampled her dreamers.” children.” The bitter sarcasm with Surprisingly, in America she which the chapter ends not only cannot prove her American identi- emphasizes the feeble foundation ty with the proper documents (an of the Greek state which, according American passport, a checkbook). to Kalfopoulou, has not yet fully Here she finds herself craving for developed its cultural or national the unaffected world of Patmos identity, but also implies people’s where one’s word may count more powerlessness and resignation to than official papers. It is interesting the ruling chaos around them. that Kalfopoulou associates the Those who dare to uncover the more genuine aspects of Greekness dark holes of the system or who with the closed but more depend- simply try to do things differently able community of an isolated is- stay suspect and are penalized by land village rather than the urban remaining outsiders. city where she lives. While in Athens, Kalfopoulou’s Kalfopoulou closes with a poetic American self grows into an obsta- coda, the image of Greek history cle in her dealings with public-sec- flowing into the endless depths of tor services and people, and she is seas. “Badly cut,” she says, “the often encouraged to go back to Greeks still speak of a history that America. But in the fourth chapter bled into seas. The sounds are hard “The Story of the Wall” to part from, and keep us awake.” Kalfopoulou reaches the conclu- Like many native Greeks, sion that her Greek family name Kalfopoulou has adopted a state of and heritage are in fact responsible constant alertness, as if she too for her newly discovered sense of now realizes she must fend for her- belonging. On the island of Pat- self against what cannot be con- mos, where she buys a house, trolled or changed. Kalfopoulou learns “to speak a lan- Supplemented with a glossary guage of vulnerability” and “share of Greek names, which, as the au- common ground, to become ‘dyki thor tells us, give identity and des- tous.’” She notes “I was given se- tiny, the book provides us with crets, the secrets of how people more historical and anecdotal lived and thought and built edifices background to the narrative. With of meaning as literal as the tools committed sincerity and critical as- and materials with which they tuteness Kalfopoulou draws her built them.” The lucid description own map of cultural survival, eth- of the houses she visits, the insights nic awareness and spiritual into the locals’ characters and growth. In “Broken Greek: A Lan- habits as well as the colorful dia- guage to Belong” Kalfopoulou has logues give this chapter an air of created a new kind of Greek Ameri- ethnographic quality which may can text: nostalgia for what is lost not have been Kalfopoulou’s inten- is not a burden. Instead, what is tion but which adds to the layer- lost or simply forgotten can be re- ings of her story of setting down vived and protected through inno- physical and psychological roots. vative and passionate personal in- The final chapter “Saints and terventions and reinventions. Anarchists” is a collage of sketches “Broken Greek: A Language to from daily Athenian life: its ongo- Belong” can be ordered from ing traffic politics and the notori- www.amazon.com or directly from ous Greek attitude of “dhe variese” Plain View Press www.plainview- (“never mind”). It also includes de- press.net. For information about tails about the author’s sabbatical Adrianne Kalfopoulou, visit leave in the United States. www.adriannekalfopoulou.com. Kalfopoulou recounts her realiza- tion of how she finally comes to re- Anastasia Stefanidou, Ph.D., has gard herself as a binational Greek, taught American literature and never ceasing to explore the many ethnic poetry at the Department dimensions of both her identities. of American Literature and Cul- In America where the “myth of in- ture, Aristotle University of Thes- vulnerability” was shaken by 9/11, saloniki, Greece. Her scholarly she feels “strangely disoriented.” work on Greek American litera- “The roads looked vacuumed, trees ture has appeared in the Journal and bushes had roots protected of the Hellenic Diaspora, The with plastic, large bay windows Charioteer, the Journal of Mod- like blind eyes stared over perfectly ern Hellenism, and “The Green- cut lawns.” She rediscovers the wood Encyclopedia of Multieth- huge differences between her two nic American Literature.” 6 THE NATIONAL HERALD FEBRUARY 23, 2008 The Macedonian Question Answered G. Papavizas addresses an issue that has consumed Europe since the 1870s

Claiming Macedonia: the 20th century started, and then first two decades of the 20th centu- Tito’s attempts to expand Yu- ry. The Bulgarians had the outgo- The Struggle for the goslavia following World War II. ing overlords on their side. The Heritage, Territory The prize was the Thessaloniki – Greeks had just the stubborn sup- the finest harbor on the northern port of the native population. and Name of the coast of the Aegean Sea. Except for The conflict between the Greeks Historic Hellenic unattainable Constantinople, Thes- and the Bulgarians led to two re- saloniki was the biggest industrial gional conflicts in the second Land, 1862-2004 center and mercantile port in reach decade of the 20th century: the By George C. Papavizas of these nations. Second Balkan War and World War The Bulgarians (and later the I. Greece, with the assistance of McPharland and Company, Yugoslavs) attempted to cloak their Serbia won the Second Balkan War 292 pages, $35 territorial ambitions with as irre- and claimed Macedonia. After dentism – redeeming lost home- World War I Greece recovered lands. The claim was nonsense, Thrace, as well. By Mark N. Lardas providing cover for imperialism. Yet Greece’s tenure did not re- Special to The National Herald Papavizas shows that the ethnic main unchallenged. Bulgaria allied makeup of Macedonia was over- with Germany and Italy in World acedonia is where whelmingly Greek. The Slavo- War II, receiving control of Mace- Greece ends and the phone minority also looked south donia during the Axis occupation. rest of the world be- to Greece, not north to Bulgaria. Once that was done, Greece was Mgins. The issue is They preferred identifying with pitchforked into a civil war, in where? Greece’s ancient heritage, to be- which the Communist insurgents For Greeks, that border is de- coming Bulgarians. bartered away Macedonia in ex- fined by the northern periphery of The Turks preferred turning the change for support from now-Com- the province of Macedonia. Neigh- region over to the Bulgarians, their munist Yugoslavia. bors to the north disagreed. First favored Christian minority, rather Ultimately the uprising was Bulgaria, then Yugoslavia has than to Slavs and Greeks. The Bul- crushed, but Yugoslavia never claimed Macedonia. They asserted garians were also more talented in abandoned hope of obtaining Dr. George Papavizas’ book, “Claiming Macedonia,” has been trans- that Greece ends at Macedonia’s enlisting the sympathies of Eu- Macedonia and an Aegean port. lated into Greek as “Struggles in the Greek North.” Papavizas pre- southern boundary. rope’s Great Powers than the Imitating his Soviet overlords, Tito sented his book on November 15, 2007 at the Polemikon Museum Today, Greece faces a new chal- Greeks. partitioned Serbia, creating the Yu- (War Museum) in Athens. lenge to claiming Macedonia. A The Bulgarian attempt to grab goslav Republic of Macedonia from former republic of Yugoslavia, cyn- Thessaloniki and an Aegean coast- its Slavic, southern reaches. bonds. He writes with the precision ed – will not resolve the issue. The ically carved from southern Serbia, line caused a bloody struggle for Tito pretended it was part of a of the research scientist that he new problems created by a repub- containing a mixture of ethnic the soul of Macedonia in the last greater territory of ancient Mace- was. Prior to his retirement he was lic calling itself Macedonia are Slavs, Bulgarians and Albanians, decade of the 19th century and the donia, to establish a claim on a microbiologist with over 200 much different than those earlier calls itself Macedonia. It now northern Greece. Tito created a bo- technical papers and two books to posed by Bulgaria and Yugoslavia. claims the province’s ancient her- gus heritage and created a synthet- his credit. Papavizas feels that because this itage. ic “Macedonian” language by com- You cannot come away from “nationality” was created artificial- This is the “Macedonian Ques- bining the Bulgarian dialect spo- reading these sections of “Claiming ly, it lacks legitimacy. He writes as tion,” a political issue that con- ken there with a new alphabet. Macedonia” without understand- if he believes you cannot create na- sumed the Balkans – and Europe – It did Tito little good. Protected ing how much blood and treasure tionalities. Yet history shows it is from the 1870s until the Greek Civ- by NATO, Greece was too strong Greece and the inhabitants of possible to artificially create a peo- il War ended in 1949. The issue re- for Tito to attack directly, and Macedonia, both Greek-speakers ple. opened in 1990 after a 50-year Macedonia was too wedded to and Slavophones, sacrificed to be- Sixty years ago there were no dormancy by the creation of a state Greece for Tito to separate Mace- come part of Greece and to remain Palestinians, only Arabs living in that calls itself “The Republic of donia from Greece politically. part of Greece. Palestine. If they picked up and Macedonia.” Macedonia was Greece, and For Papavizas, who grew up in moved elsewhere, they were Arabs “Claiming Macedonia.” by Greece was Macedonia. Macedonia, the story is personal. living somewhere else. Today few George C. Papavizas examines the With the disintegration of Yu- He served as an officer in the Greek would argue that Palestinians are Macedonian question. The book – goslavia in the 1990s, the former Army during the Greek Civil War, not now a separate culture. unapologetically written from a Yugoslav state gained its indepen- losing a foot to a mine. Two gener- Can Slavs similarly transform Greek perspective – is both fasci- dence and called itself Macedonia. ations earlier his grandfather themselves into a new people nating and informative. The au- While it did not quite openly claim fought the Bulgarians. called Macedonians? Demograph- thor’s intended goals are to northern Greece, it was willing to After reading “Claiming Mace- ics will likely settle that issue. Non- demonstrate the inappropriateness hint that that part of Greece – donia” you understand the sensi- Albanian populations in Serbia, of the new Serbian nation calling Macedonia – really ought to belong tivity of Greeks, especially those Bulgaria, and the nation that calls itself Macedonia and to convince to a country named Macedonia. from Macedonia – the real Mace- itself Macedonia are imploding. an American audience to stop sup- The Macedonian question, dor- donia – to the use of the name by a The ethnic Albanian population – porting that claim. mant for decades, again awoke. neighbor to the north. What Ameri- in and out of Albania and – is sky- If facts were the only considera- George Papavizas, as a second “Claiming Macedonia” is cans see as verging on paranoia, rocketing. Unchanged, these tion in naming the Republic of lieutenant of the Greek army, led strongest while reciting this seems to these people as a new trends will soon settle the Mace- Macedonia, the author would suc- a platoon fighting the Commu- chronology. Papavizas meticulous- chapter in a very old book – yet an- donian question. In two genera- ceed. nists in northwest Greece. He ly recounts the events that bound other attempt to alienate Macedo- tions Slavs that call themselves Papavizas follows attempts by lost a leg below the knee in a Macedonia to Greece and the at- nia from Greece. Macedonian will have been dis- Bulgaria to create a Balkan empire minefield on Mount Vitzi. The tempts of others – both outside and A recitation of facts – however placed by Albanians. amid the decay of the Ottomans as photo was taken in 1948. within Greece – to sever those passionately or accurately present- Under the normal scheme of THE NATIONAL HERALD FEBRUARY 23, 2008 7 things, the former Yugoslav repub- ing Macedonia” is well worth read- lic would allow itself to be ab- ing. It is a very good book. It has sorbed into one of its neighbors. To one of the clearest explanations of the west and northwest are Alba- the origins of the Macedonian nia and Kosovo, threatening the question and it intricacies since it new state an Albanian tide. To the first arose in the 19th century. north and to the east are Serbia The National Herald inter- and Bulgaria, impoverished due to viewed George Papavizas for this a half-century of Communist rule. book review. Greece, to the south, is healthy. TNH: Why did you write this It alone of the new republic’s book? neighbors (as Papavizas makes GCP: My grandfather fought the clear) has forsworn territorial in- Bulgarians (to keep Macedonia). I Books from terest in the region. This leaves the felt close to my grandfather. When republic with choice between ab- the Former Yugoslav Republic of sorption by undesirable neighbors Macedonia separated, I felt that or continued independence. Inde- their use of the name was not right. D.C. Divry’s pendence cannot be justified on My own grandson was asking, economic or geographic grounds, “Why is this happening? I expected bring you closer so it clings to its ethnicity – even if a historian to writing a book about it is a bogus ethnicity – to maintain it. No one did, so I felt I had to. I to your roots and to your culture its independence. had earlier written a book about Greece’s new neighbor realizes my experiences in the Greek Civil that in the court of public opinion, the Great – changed that. Phillip War called “Blood and Tears.” Give a gift to be remembered the United States, not Greece, is hammered the individual cities in- TNH: Can you tell us of some of the main venue. They play to that to a solid mass. Alexander an- your experiences in that war? every day of the year venue. The new republic wants nealed that mass into a nation GCP: I served three years in the strident Greek reactions to their called Greece. The resulting alloy Greek Army. During the war I was a use of the name Macedonia, since contained Macedonia. Greece lieutenant. I led a platoon fighting CALL NOW that elicits American sympathy for without Macedonia is like steel the communists in northwest and get a classic D.C. Divry’s book. them, not Greece. Tally the towns without carbon. Greece. I lost a leg below the knee Learn to converse in Greek, improve your vocabulary named Athens, Corinth, Sparta and But Papavizas spends time ex- in a minefield on Mount Vitsi Ithaca in the United States. Ameri- amining whether Macedonians shortly before the war ended. or learn how to cook like your grandmother cans have no problem with bor- were Greek before the conquest. TNH: Was the Greek Civil War a rowing place names. They are baf- This misses the larger fact: that is- real civil war or was it an invasion fled as to why Greece’s northern sue is trivial. He shows that Mace- by Yugoslavia? neighbor expropriation of the donians created the Greece nation. GCP: All of the people I fought name Macedonia differs from Macedonian culture and heritage is spoke Greek. It was 30,000 Greek $14.00 American practices as essential to the existence of the Communists against the 100,000- Papavizas’ passionate objection Greek nation as the contributions man Greek army. Tito was supply- to the name Macedonia is the re- of the city-states. Similarly, to sepa- ing them. They signed agreements sponse that the Republic of Mace- rate Macedonian heritage from the giving him Macedonia for that donia desires from Greeks. This rest of Greece is to diminish Mace- help. But the Americans were sup- book could have been more effec- donia, to rip a vital and important plying us to balance that out. $25.00 tive if Papavizas had shown more heart out of that heritage. TNH: Both the Soviet Union $ .50 understanding of the predicament Despite these criticisms, “Claim- and Yugoslavia created “au- $12.50 12 of those in this new Republic. He tonomous” states within their na- offers no solutions other than use a tions as tools to aid expansion. name other than Macedonia. Both disintegrated as a result. Do This is like telling a drowning you see an irony in that? The new Tselemente man not to cling to you because GCP: It was counterproductive, you will both drown. If he hangs but no one expected either to col- on, you might both live. If he lets lapse. If Tito had realized his tac- go he will certainly drown. While tics might lead to Yugoslavia’s dis- you see his action as folly that puts integration and acted to prevent you at risk, he sees it as his only that, things might have been bet- chance to survive. Until given a re- ter. $25.00 $6.50 alistic way to survive without the TNH: Could the Macedonian $7.50 name “Macedonia,” Greece’s new Republic be more successful than neighbor to the north will cling to Bulgaria and Yugoslavia in alienat- its Macedonian name and invent ing the real Macedonia from - Shipping and handling additional - heritage with the same persistence. Greece? Papavizas accurately depicts the GCP: Only if they convince peo- Look for these and other D.C. Divry’s Books role that Macedonia played in the ple they are real Macedonians. at your local book stores and Greek shops creation of the Greek state. Before They certainly can cause trouble. Philip’s conquest of Attica and the They are dependent upon Greece Peloponnisos there were Greeks in many ways. Greece is helping to HOMERIC GREETING and Greek cities, but no Greek na- train their border guards. It de- tion or Greek homeland. pends on the Greek government. Greeks thought of themselves as CARDS & IMPORTS citizens of their “polis,” their city. A Mark Lardas, a Texan of Greek Greek that lived in the next city descent, was born and grew up was as much a foreigner as a bar- in Ann Arbor, Michigan. An engi- a b 289 New Main Street, Yonkers, NY 10701 barian on the plains of Scythia. neer who works at a major aero- Traces of that attitude still survive space company, he is also a free- Tel.: (914) 968-7551 • (914) 968-0220 today. lance writer, amateur historian Fax: (914) 968-7552 Philip – and his son, Alexander Dr. George Papavizas and model-maker. 8 THE NATIONAL HERALD FEBRUARY 23, 2008 Tryfon Tolides' Joyous Book of Sadness A stunning debut collection on the poet's trans-Atlantic between-ness

“An Almost Pure within words, pulling them out of the windows rolled down / on a his gypsy bag and holding them up muggy night passing green signs Empty Walking” to the light like the tiny diamonds with white / letters, taking in the By Tryfon Tolides they are, one after the other: the soft rubbery scent of air, / perhaps door, the dogs, the barbed wire thinking about what cannot be un- Penguin National Poetry Series, fence, the dying mother, the holy raveled” (29). There are quiet mo- 66 pages, $16, paperback air.” ments of joyous fulfillment that the Two story lines run through “An poet will not leave unattended. Almost Pure Empty Walking.” One America also gives the poet his By Artemis Leontis is a story of immigrant arrival, im- appreciation for the village, the Special to The National Herald migrant work, immigrant eyes and setting of a more intimate home. the back and forth movement of Greece is powerfully present in this oetry runs deep in the immigrants between two home- collection. It appears right away in Greek world, so deep that lands. This set of themes, an- “Almond Tree,” which names with Greek experiences of the nounced clearly by “Immigrant,” audible precision sights, smells and Phuman condition seem in- the title of the first poem, is a piece crackling sounds remembered tertwined with language and poet- of Tolides’ life. In 1972, when from a mountain village. It appears ry. Who does not feel the resonance Tolides was six years old, he and too in “Circus,” “The First Thing: of words like “anthropos,” “philos,” his mother and brother left the Ousia,” “Etymological” and “All “phos,” “logos,” “nous,” “psyche,” small village of Korifi Voiou in Summer,” poems pressing hard “ousia,” “hesychia” — words western Macedonia to join his fa- against the longing of “Immi- shaped and reshaped in the ther in Connecticut. grant,” the first in the collection. It mouths of so many singers of tales: Tolides’ poems take us through appears also in “From Mount from Homer to Sappho, Sophocles, the many wrinkles in the lives of Athos” and “I have Two Stones” Euripides to the writers of the New immigrants, who encounter the and other poems too numerous to Testament, to Yiannis Ritsos and new world through the old and live list, ending with the last poem, “I Eleni Vakalo? Who does not appre- both here and there. Working long Will Sweep,” which leaves us with ciate the succinct vision Greek po- hours in restaurants, a package “the ancient scent of the house, ets give to the perplexity of human- store and pizza delivery, the immi- joyous and crying” (66). Regular ness, or its ability to express “joy- grant son encounters worlds of summer visits keep the place, the ous sadness,” a paradox captured hard loneliness: a woman for people, the trees, soil, air, houses, by the Greek word “harmolypi”? whom smoking is “the only thing sparrows, swallows, plants, smoke Good poetry thrives not just in left she likes” (15), in one case, a continuous memory and pres- Greece today but also among and exceeding friendliness with ence. The village becomes a jewel Greeks writing in English. Word- strangers “with hunger for the idea that lights up whenever the immi- village priest was still alive (now plicity. Added to this is his close- smiths of Greek descent who have of sex, or some contact” (13) in an- grant son is far away. Everything there is one that comes from ness to “people nearing the gates of won national awards in the U.S. in- other. Harder still are images of feels grounded. Things all seem to Tsotili, one Sunday to our village death” (57) while he tries hard to clude Olga Broumas, born in Syros, raw power that cut through his rest in their proper place. and the next Sunday to the next hold onto things which persist in the first non-native English speaker conscience but make no sense to In comments he sent to me last village of Chrisavghi). The place life (61). selected for the Yale Younger Poets him: the unexplained surveillance fall, Tolides wrote about his experi- was full of spirit and ‘tsakna’ (dried This between-ness gives the Series for her electrifying volume, in a shoe store; supermarket aisles ence of the village: twigs) and ‘manitaria’ (mush- book its second narrative line: the “Beginning with O,” in 1977; of excess; media stories that glibly “I love the village; it is home for rooms) and ‘foties’ (fires) and son’s reckoning with his mother’s Nicholas Samaras, raised on Pat- toss around words like “democra- me, grounding in body and spirit, ‘provata’ (sheep) and ‘tsoknidhes’ illness and death. In the back- mos, whose “Hands of the Saddle- cy…or human rights, or words that even without the people. It is a (nettles) and ‘kalives’ (huts) and ground are more disease and maker” also won the Yale Younger seem opposite: genocide, weapons meditation, a simplicity and reju- ‘moures’ (mulberries) and ‘tiria’ death: the father, already dead 15 Poets Series in 1992; and Eleni of mass destruction, terrorism” venation for my soul…. A beautiful (cheese) and psychically rich peo- years and appearing to him only Sikelianos, California-raised great- (37). magical grounding home, haunt- ple and the cemetery was alive at once in a dream (27); Uncle Apos- granddaughter of the revered In a set of powerful poems ing, spiritfilled windfilled moun- night, the presence of the living tolos, sick with cancer in a clinic in Greek poet Angelos Sikelianos, where conscience burns, beginning tainfilled ‘monopatifilled’ (path- people always had the effect of Thessaloniki (6); a dead aunt in who was the 2002 National Poetry with “The Mouse and the Human” filled), stonefilled ‘korombilafilled’ making the dead more living, too, the village (58). Series Selection for her “The Mon- (a much-discussed poem which (plumfilled) ... place. A village like they were always in the air and in Terminal illness follows the ster Lives of Boys and Girls.” won the Foley Prize), he questions many, which is dying out. Now, in the houses with us and the ani- mother’s years of living unground- With his award-winning book, the human drive to destroy un- the wintertime, there are perhaps mals. Two churches and five ‘ek- ed, suitcases here and there (62). “An Almost Pure Empty Walking,” wanted guests. Tolides follows a 30-40 people that live there. In the lisakia’ (chapels) and a bunch of Seen from the mother’s eyes, Tryfon Tolides joins this eminent charge and a duty prescribed by summer the population spikes, but iconostasia. 980 meters up with a America is an impossible adjust- list. His collection of poems earned poet Odysseus Elytis when he not like it used to. The youngest of spectacular view of many moun- ment. “What is America? A hole in almost instant accolades when it called poetry a source of inno- the people that live there year tains around us there, including the water. What have we gained appeared in 2006. Mary Karr, a cence, full of revolutionary forces. round are in their mid-70s. Before I Smolikas and Vasilitsa and Ai’ lias but poison and illness?” (1), she best-selling poet and essayist on Still there are moments of quiet and my mother and brother left in and Grammos. A bus twice a week complains in “Immigrant.” From the New York Times list, called it a revelation. The poet finds a barren 1972 to join my father in Connecti- for trips to the local market town of the first hard note she utters, we “stunning debut” and spoke of peace in the new world: “I sit cut … there were 3 little stores, Tsotili” (http://www.lsa.umich.edu feel her deep pain coupled with the Tolides’ “illuminated grandeur. alone, / barren, peaceful, safe with one ‘periptero’ (kiosk), the elemen- /modgreek/detail/0,2250,6740 immigrant son’s helplessness. “Her Tolides is the shaman of epiphany.” no one, / as on a sunny windless tary school was still open, two %255Farticle%255F51497,00.html). whole message, a cry, though still Paul Mariani, poet, biographer and day in an empty parking lot” (16). ‘kafeniea’ (cafés) and the popula- “An Almost Pure Empty Walk- she asked / what I would eat for literary scholar, praised his powers From odd angles he discovers tion of the village, though it had ing” captures the transatlantic be- lunch. Back in bed, / I listened of observation: “In the things of beauty in the unobserved details or been dwindling for some time, was tween-ness of the poet’s life: be- awhile to the furnace. Then, this world, which we so often fail simple acts, as in driving on an at least three hundred people. Two tween America and Greece, city dressed, / passed the same books to notice, Tolides finds worlds American highway “in August with ‘tsangaridhes’ (shoemakers). Our and village, complexity and sim- and papers spread on the floor, / THE NATIONAL HERALD FEBRUARY 23, 2008 9 and out, to the snow, the crows in of poems. Tolides earned a B.F.A. the park” (1). in Creative Writing from the Uni- Again and again we follow the versity of Maine at Farmington and son through intersections of pain an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from and longing to the precipice of in- Syracuse University. He also com- comprehension. Rather than hurl pleted a two-year diploma pro- himself over the edge, he tries to gram at the Hartford Conservatory hold onto the life he has, gently, in Jazz Composition. I add this fact not by crushing but by observing because I believe you can hear in and listening deeply. And here we his poetry his feeling for texture see his “shamanesque” power: his and phrasing, for the pauses, ability to find healing in the small- breaths and silences in music from est things: in two white stones guitar to “klarina,” from Pat Methe- picked up “by the shore of a ny to Petros Lukas Chalkias to the monastery in Greece,” or “a green gypsy musicians “o Angelos,” “to shirt that runs when I wash it,” or Tsimouli,” “o Minas” who’d come “a raw throb around one tooth” to his village for weddings and (18); or in walking “Walking is like walk through his “horio” with the the air and the sky and the stars “ghambro.” You can also hear in his whenever I need them. / Or like poetry the “horiatika” (village) the sun on your back, or on your Greek, as he calls it, of his mother face, or through a window on a bed tongue, a language not restricted in a / room where you’ve gone to to speech but full of inflection and read the letter in the quiet house, gesture, smells and forces, and or like the smell of / the sun on thick with the inflections he re- your arm, or like touching your members in voices no longer living. nose on the hair on your arm to Readers will find in “An Almost smell, /even on a cold day” (18). Pure Empty Walking” the insight of For brief moments at least, he an old sage, the energy and curiosi- reaches points where “knowledge ty of a young boy, the pacing, the and the intellect are subsumed in pausing, the inflections and the po- wonder, in ecstasy, where knowl- tent feeling of “harmolypi” we find edge is made perfect through in the best of Greek poetry. faith,” as Tolides has described it in an interview he gave me through Artemis Leontis is associate pro- correspondence. He elaborates on fessor of Modern Greek at the the process in religious terms and University of Michigan. She has shows that his poems really seek to published essays on Greek litera- enter an interior place: Tryfon Tolides earned a B.F.A. in creative writing from the University of Maine at Farmington and a M.F.A. ture in Greek and English. Her “Isaac the Syrian speaks of ‘ine- in creative writing from Syracuse University. In 1972, when Tolides was six years old, he and his mother books are “Topographies of Hel- briation’ with the love of God, a and brother left the small village of Korifi Voiou in western Macedonia to join his father in Connecticut. lenism: Mapping the Home- point at which knowledge and the Tolides in his book of poetry, “An Almost Pure Empty Walking,” draws a soulful picture of a child immi- land”; “Greece, A Travelers' Lit- intellect are subsumed in wonder, grant's difficult entry into an alien American world and his periodical return to the cherished but vanish- erary Companion,” an edited in ecstasy, where knowledge is ing Greek village. volume of short stories by Greek made perfect through faith ‘to see authors; and “What These the radiance of him who is incom- for it already. Or maybe our wills or (http://www.lsa.umich.edu/mod- A few details about the author’s Ithakas Mean ... Readings in prehensible to the intellect and to environments can shift us toward greek/detail/0,2250,6740%255Far- education add to the appreciation Cavafy,” coedited with Lauren E. the knowledge of created things.’ the need for it” ticle%255F51497,00.html). of this marvelously accessible book Talalay and Keith Taylor. So that the soul, ‘because of her trust in God,… becomes as one drunken, in the awestruck wonder of her continual solicitude for God; and by simple, uncompounded vi- sion and by unseeing intuition con- Writings of Harris P. Jameson cerning the Divine Nature, the in- tellect becomes accustomed to at- tending to rumination upon that I. Jameson’s Chronicles nature’s hidden-ness.’ One way to this life is through awe at what Volume I ...... $6.95 God has created, all around us. And there is a state, not a method, Volume II ...... $6.95 which makes a way toward this life. That is stillness, according to BOTH FOR ...... $12.00 Isaac. I think I am someone who needs more solitude than the aver- age person. ‘Hesychia,’ stillness, al- lows for, is the climate in which, II. Novel “For Sully’s Sake”...... $10.25 something of seeing, of commu- nion with being and with the di- ALL THREE FOR ...... $20.00 vine might take place. Something in me wants this sweetness. And NAME: ______recognizes its value to my sanity ADDRESS: ______and spiritual progress or health. I CITY: ______STATE: ____ ZIP: ______don’t know. I think it may have to Mail to: Jameson’s Chronicles do with temperament. I don’t know Offer for USA only 2002-2008 if one can aspire toward ‘hesychia’ 37 Central St., Wakefield, MA 01880-1755 if something in his soul isn’t aimed 10 THE NATIONAL HERALD FEBRUARY 23, 2008 Empowering Greek American Women A feminist critiques Greek patriarchy and advocates cultural change

American Aphrodite: iron grip of male domination and The sample does not include post- its power to put down women; to World-War II immigrant women, as Becoming Female mute, insult and render them infe- the author makes clear. For her re- in Greek America rior and unworthy. Its author search, Callinicos scoured the By Constance Callinicos records the far-reaching conse- country between 1978 and 1982, quences of psychological and phys- looking to interview women who Pella Publishing Company, ical abuses against women. Viscer- grew up in various places in the 298 pages, $14 paperback ally felt, patriarchy shattered United States but who shared the dreams, crushed desires, crumbled social background of early 20th lives, dwarfed ambitions, stripped century rural Greece. Separated by By Yiorgos Anagnostou away self-confidence, fermented geography but connected through Special To the National Herald rebellion; it traumatized and op- an “almost identical upbringing,” pressed. Family relations were in- these three generations of women Dedicated to the memory jured, and immigrant culture was “were acculturated,” Callinicos dis- of Eleni Anagnostou. spited. Patriarchy exiled women tressingly points out, “as Greek doubly, both from family and eth- peasant girls, first, last and al- merican Aphrodite: nicity. ways.” It was the transplanted Becoming Female in The book builds on an oral his- Greek village in America, the “ho- Greek America” tory project, which consists of the rio,” which overwhelmingly de- “Aturns private dramas author’s interviews with a total of fined their existence. into public documents. It reports 111 women spanning three gener- There is a personal component the experiences of those Greek ations. It gives voice to the “picture in the book as well, with the author American women who were op- bride” generation of the 1920s and disclosing parts of her own story as pressed by ethnic patri- 1930s and to the well as her family’s history. Briefly archy. It tells the daughters and yet poignantly, she draws the por- stories of those granddaugh- trait of her immigrant grandmoth- who have ters of that er. Familiar only with bits and felt the cohort. pieces of the family’s distant past, Callinicos puts together the frag- NITSA TELESCO ments to reconstruct her grand- Constance Callinicos, a longtime feminist and activist for women’s mother’s world, a peasant way of rights, has in “American Aphrodite” concentrated her activism and life wholly transplanted in 1920s writing on the subject of becoming female among Greeks in America America. Readers are told a story and Greece. She is currently working on the companion to “American of uninterrupted continuity, where Aphrodite,” research on the men of Greek America, whose working the ways of the Greek village sur- title is “Hermes in America.” vived intact to entirely define the life of an immigrant woman in glimpse into this nexus of these saying that women are lesser than America. “In fact,” the author feelings. Intimately confessional, men. In the context of the honor- writes, “my grandmother did live the numerous testimonies con- shame culture, where non-confor- out her life in the village, even verge on a single point: they sor- mity to traditional ideals brings though her body was here in rowfully document and bitterly in- shame to the entire family and America.” dict Greek patriarchy for limiting compromises its honor, patriarchy Callinicos, a professed femi- the lives of women. A chorus of requires that women must be su- nist, also undertakes a dejected women’s voices expresses an pervised and controlled. appraisal of her mother’s life. avalanche of grievances. Women The accretion of ordinary in- American-born, vibrant, and were denied opportunities for edu- sults against women ultimately “gifted with a talent for music cation; shamed for their non-con- weaves a suffocating social reality. and a beautiful voice,” Mary Zer- formity; silenced as inferior; hu- The author informs readers that vas Triantafillou aspired to “be- miliated, again and again, because women’s asphyxiation constituted come a musician and teacher,” an they happened to be women, an a grim reality even in the late ambition that was thwarted by tra- identity which patriarchy devalues. 1980s and 1990s. Ominously, she ditionalist parents. Despite her The author joins the chorus, re- reports: “The Greek world in Amer- struggle to escape from parental calling episodes of her own experi- ica remains largely androcentric. control, Mary ultimately suc- ence growing up in Greek America. Many (women) feel it is a world cumbed to an arranged marriage, She brings attention to ordinary so- they are not inclined to continue to ending up as an unpaid waitress ciability where the ideology of pa- inhabit or perpetuate. Simply put, and cashier in her husband’s triarchy infuses the worlds (and they leave.” restaurant, and a dutiful “Good words) of men and is internalized Callinicos offers acute insights Greek Mother and Homemaker.” by women. Toasting newlyweds for on how patriarchy is transmitted. This is a book driven by deeply a son (not a daughter); rehashing She understands that this ideology felt emotions. Anger layers it. Pas- proverbs about women as sexually can be found where least suspect- sionate resolve motivates its writ- vulnerable and dangerous; treating ed, in the pleasurable experience ing. Frustration textures it. Tears sons preferentially. It is in this kind of folk dancing for instance. Con- Constance Callinicos’ mother, Mary Zervas Triantafillou, who aspired stain its pages. And the conviction of everyday incidents that patri- sider the reasons why she recalls to become a musician and teacher, is shown in this high school grad- that it matters, at all cost, to tell its archy works most effectively to an early dance lesson from her im- uation photo. Her ambition was thwarted by traditionalist parents. story animates its purpose. The au- dominate women. It makes it ap- migrant grandmother. Her purpose Her story is one of the stories featured in Callinicos’ book, “American thor’s decision to include lengthy pear natural that women represent is to show that this instruction is Aphrodite.” interview material affords a direct a burden. It is as if it goes without more than learning how to dance; THE NATIONAL HERALD FEBRUARY 23, 2008 11 it is learning, in fact, how to be- of rebellion when women violate time, wrapped up in their past, me- want to know her (the Greek come a traditional Greek woman. the patriarchal restrictions im- chanically reproducing peasant pa- American woman).” The young Callinicos is instructed posed upon them through folk triarchy. At least some immigrant In this regard, reading “Ameri- to dance, “delicately and modestly. dancing. The narration of this families displayed remarkable cul- can Aphrodite” presents a twofold Never (to) kick the feet up off the event overflows with the cathartic tural versatility and openness to challenge. On the one hand, it calls ground.” The authoritative admo- exuberance one experiences in the new ideas where caring, non-patri- upon the reader to enter a world nition continues, drawing a con- act of subverting structures of archal males encouraged their that devastated women, and to re- nection between dance and gen- domination. With “the hypnotic daughters' creative proclivities. In flect on how to actively battle pa- der: “Too much like a man that melodies of the clarinet” and the the piece “The Twined Muses: triarchy. On the other hand, a criti- way,” the grandmother cautions. “incessant beating of the drum” Ethel and Jenne Magafan,” for ex- cal reading should resist accepting “This is a woman’s dance. A little (288) as the sensory background, ample, Steve Frangos takes note of that world as the only ethnic reali- lift of the skirt, a modest woman’s the leader of the folk circle dance an immigrant father from a small ty. way. Never too much.” appropriates male behavior and village near Mesinia who “recog- “American Aphrodite” can be Callinicos ponders the meaning creates an emerging imagery that nized and warmly supported” his ordered by sending a check in the of this warning, contemplating changes a tradition that has re- daughters’ “artistic gifts.” This por- amount of $18.00 ($14.00 for the how the immigrant past shaped the strained women. The woman trait alerts us about the existence book and $4.00 for postage) to Pel- identities of Greek Americans. Re- dancer leaping with “her billowing of a male Greek America far more la Publishing Company, 337 West flection leads her to recognize that skirts swirling at her ankles” (288), diverse than the one reconstructed 36th Street, New York, NY 10018. traditions are far from innocuous; kicking up her legs, and shouting, in the book. As it is evident in my they may perpetuate women’s redefines tradition in women’s discussion, “American Aphrodite” Yiorgos Anagnostou is an associ- domination. Traditional expecta- terms. greatly contributes to the struggle ate professor in the Modern tions of folk dancing, for example, Documenting and critiquing pa- whole. It is precisely this erroneous of women’s liberation. But in ne- Greek Program at The Ohio State encourage male dancers to display triarchy exemplifies a particular assumption that enables her to por- glecting to take into account the University. His book “Contours of daring, assertive bravado, and bold feminist strategy, namely con- tray Greek American families of heterogeneity of peasant families ‘White Ethnicity’: Popular aggressiveness; in contrast, it de- sciousness-raising. Revealing the early 20th century rural origins as the book commits a disservice to Ethnography and the Making of mands that their female counter- workings of patriarchy explains the a homogeneous entity across time Greek America and to the wider Usable Pasts in Greek America” parts adhere to modesty, self-re- real causes of women’s domina- and space. Incredibly, Greek Amer- reading public, which it explicitly is forthcoming from Ohio Uni- straint, and discipline, norms that tion. In this manner, women who icans are depicted as frozen in identifies with the “Americans who versity Press. define appropriate behavior were taught to blame themselves throughout a woman’s public life. as intrinsically unworthy are now Expressive traditions contribute to in a position to understand what women’s subjugation. brought about their condition (and conditioning). Exposing the causes of their domination empowers It is from this feminist women. It provides a language Underwater Dreams angle that Callinicos through which they can speak back A Modern Greek Tragedy advocates resistance and resist patriarchy in all its guis- to patriarchy. es. By Dr. James Rouman A subversive component in “American Aphrodite” is bound to See the animated book trailer at NEW website! generate controversy, as it bull- http://www.jamesrouman.com Significantly, while the author dozes away a cultural taboo in indicts immigrant culture, she is Greek America, the absolute prohi- Reviews of Underwater Dreams not willing to altogether abandon bition against airing one’s dirty it. Ethnic food and dancing still linen. Violating this code of silence Odyssey Magazine, in their international function as sources of pleasure, assaults the principles of the hon- Junuary/February 2007 issue says: “What sets Rouman's novel meaningful sociability, and cher- or-shame culture: Transgressions apart is his insight into immigrant life in small town America.... ished intergenerational remember- from cultural ideals must be kept A laudable effort, Underwater Dreams is an interesting addition ing. At the same time, it is not pos- hidden, away from the prying pub- to the literature of the Greek-American immigrant experience.” sible for women to authentically lic. Predictably, interviewees made connect with ethnicity, Callinicos a point to keep their anonymity, to Connecticut Medicine highlights the medical angle. “This is not a tale that requires familiarity suggests, unless they form their avoid exposing their family. It is with the writer to grip the reader in its spell. For any physician who has heard a colleague say own exclusive, all-female circles, the making of the author’s story at retirement, ‘I think I have at least one book in me and now I'm going to write it,’ this is one away from the authoritative male public that defies the principles of that really got written and deserves a read.” gaze. Here, the author borrows a honor. It is also the decision to page from a specific brand of femi- publish narratives about duplicity nism, influential in the 1970s and in Greek America that risks ethnic Historywire.com, January 27, 2007, in Book Alert: “The new novel by retired the 1980s. It was common for stigmatization. Ethnic groups are anesthesiologist James Rouman is a welcome gift... Rouman is at his best in the difficult women to establish their own sepa- conscious of their historical vulner- task of capturing urban black dialect in dialogue between characters Martha and Daisy, rate places to socialize, create, and ability, exercising caution to keep as their friendship deepens.” work, shutting off the males whose “dark secrets” away from public demands, controlling attitudes, view. The airing of such secrets Kirkus notes: "The most intimate -and interesting- sections of the novel are the censoring comments, and sexism raises a politically and ethically descriptions of anesthesiology: “ We have a connection to our patients no other doctors were seen as inhibiting women’s sensitive issue, namely how an au- have... when they 're asleep there's a constant dialogue going on between us... only the liberation. thor introduces and discusses eth- linguistics are different... It's almost a spiritual thing that's hard to explain.” It is from this feminist angle nic self-critique. that Callinicos advocates resistance Throughout the book women’s to patriarchy. Adopting the per- narratives of victimization power- Midwest Book Review calls it “Α dramatic and bittersweet tale, which paints thoroughly spective of an activist, she urges fully cascade, leaving no doubt believable characters to the very end.” women to battle those ideas and about the reality of patriarchy in behaviors that subjugate them. As Greek America, past and present. Featured Book on home page http://www.dailyfrappe.com/ - Read an author interview a template for future action, she of- Yet the persuasive case laced by the on this popular Greek website & blog. fers a personal story, which unfolds testimonies should not distract the in the exclusive company of readers’ attention from a serious Available now at fine bookstores and many on-line retailers women who gathered to celebrate fault of the book. Callinicos sug- the birthday of her sister. This fes- gests that the sample of inter- Peter E. Randall Publisher tive occasion is turned into an act viewed women represents the 12 THE NATIONAL HERALD FEBRUARY 23, 2008 Harry Mark Petrakis: Master Storyteller Writes with enormous compassion for his characters

Legends of Glory and of the social ills afflicting the specific stances change, but he frequently Greek American community and the deals with the tragedy of those un- Other Stories United States in general. able or unwilling to change. He is a By Harry Mark Petrakis Harry Mark Petrakis has au- firm advocate of the idea that au- thored 20 books, including novels, thors should work hard to make the Southern Illinois University Press, memoirs and collections of short sto- reading of their work as accessible 174 pages, $25 ries and essays. He first burst into as possible. When one is successful American consciousness in the 1956 in that endeavor, as Petrakis so often when his story “Pericles on 31st is, there is a danger of the stories be- By Dan Georgakas Street” was published in the presti- ing read too quickly. Ernest Heming- Special to The National Herald gious Atlantic Monthly and then way, another advocate of simplicity adapted for use in one of the dra- of style, complained that readers of- he new collection of writing matic television shows of that era. ten mistake dense prose for density by Harry Mark Petrakis, With the publication of “A Dream of of thought while assuming that “Legends of Glory and Other Kings” 10 years later, Petrakis be- something that is easily read lacks TStories,” couples eight short came a best-selling novelist. That depth. Some critics have made that stories with a novella. The beautiful- work was the basis of a motion pic- error regarding Petrakis, categoriz- ly crafted stories featuring Chicago ture of the same name released in ing him as an artist whose appeal is Greeks are vintage Petrakis that 1969 with Anthony Quinn and Irene largely limited to ethnic or regional reaffirm his mastery of this genre. In Papas in the starring roles. audiences. Fellow writers have not the novella, “Legends of Glory,” Pe- Petrakis likes to speak of himself been so foolish. His work his been trakis explores an entirely different as a storyteller even though he praised by John Cheever, Kurt Von- social environment. The principals knows that is not a fashionable des- negut, Isaac Bashevis Singer, Mark are mainstream Americans living in ignation these days. He likes to write Van Doren and Elie Wiesel, among a small Midwestern town. The fic- about recognizable people in recog- others. He has twice been nominat- tion of Petrakis always has had a so- nizable settings experiencing recog- ed for the National Book Award in cial subtext, but this new work nizable emotions. Some of his char- Fiction. The legendary Harry Mark Petrakis is the author of 20 books and has shows heightened attention to some acters are able to change as circum- been twice nominated for the National Book Award in Fiction. He is THE GREEK AMERICAN currently finishing the second of three novels dealing with the Greek STORIES Revolution of 1821. Petrakis prefaces each story in “Legends of Glory and Other Sto- in the nature and need for physical waiter, become attracted to one an- ries” with a few paragraphs that dis- love, ultimately is about the empow- other. At one point, after some naïve cuss the real-life circumstances that erment of a mother and daughter talk about sexuality, Sofoula impetu- inspired the writing. This anecdotal through the most unlikely of circum- ously exposes her breasts to Panos, material enhances the stories by stances. an action she immediately regrets. making a vital connection between Romance is the main concern of Panos, too, is embarrassed by her the real life of Greek America as “A Tale of Color” as well. The lovers behavior. How that incident reveals lived by Petrakis and the Greek in this instance are Denzel, an the loneliness and frustration on America of his fiction. Wisdom does African American from Chicago, and which their mutual attraction is not necessarily accrue with age, but Sofia, a village girl Denzel meets based is the central focus of the sto- the octogenarian Petrakis writes while serving in Greece as a soldier ry. Further enriching the tale, how- with enormous compassion for his in the 1950s. They marry and relo- ever, is the candor Petrakis brings to characters, a sense of the travails of cate to Chicago. Denzel’s parents re- his discussion of relationships in a everyday life that has grown keener ject the couple outright and the Greek restaurant. When Panos de- with his advancing years. Greeks are distant. Petrakis shrewd- cides to change his life entirely, Pe- These are traditional stories with ly avoids the use of horrible Ku Klux trakis informs us: a beginning, middle and an end. We Klan types. The problem is not this “He felt confidant that he'd make want to know what is going to hap- or that unsavory individual, but a so- his way and find another position pen. But much of the richness of the ciety whose social structure was not where he wouldn’t be at the beck writing comes in the sly commen- prepared to accommodate such a and call of anyone with a few dollars tary by Petrakis about our life in couple. for a plate of gyros and a Greek sal- America and the vagaries of human “The Birthday” deals with the ad. He would never again have to mortality. The characters often carry trauma of reaching age 75 while flame the platters of saganaki and classic names that suggest historical “Christina’s Summer” deals with a cry the foolish “Oppaaa!” again.” and mythological parallels. But the sexual moment of truth for a 13- “A Dishwasher’s Tale” is told by a disciplined Petrakis does not let year-old boy. What is striking about dishwasher whose best friend sells those echoes disrupt his narrative. these tales in which age plays a hot dogs from a pushcart. The dish- They simply offer additional color- prominent factor is the rich nuance washer is a cynic of sorts, but the hot ing to the events at hand. and context of the telling. Using a dog seller feels the events of ancient Some aspect of sexuality is the straightforward narrative for “The history as if they were current news. theme in many of the tales. The Birthday” and a retrospective voice As he explains to the dishwasher, events of “Beauty’s Daughter” are for “Christina’s Summer,” Petrakis “You are an earthbound creature! told by a daughter whose mother adroitly captures the impact of the You don’t allow yourself to take bore the name Aphrodite and was various ages at play. wing and dream!” The relationship the wife of a baker. Her marriage “Rites of Passage” take places in a of the hot dog seller with his son is was not happy, leading to a brief af- Halstead street restaurant. Sofoula, wretched and his life seems barren, fair with grocer. The story, grounded the owner’s daughter, and Panos, a yet when he dies and the dishwash- THE NATIONAL HERALD FEBRUARY 23, 2008 13 er goes to his gravesite, there is a football and worked at Kentucky litical data needed to drive the story. military. His grades go from straight ensuing consequences. Along the magical moment in which the world Fried Chicken to make pocket mon- The names, as in the Greek stories, A to an occasional B and even a C. way, however, the story has moved of myth asserts itself. ey. Thomas Joshua Scott, Dan’s fa- often carry echoes. A family of Scots Abruptly, he leaves college and, to beyond the four main characters Older men who consider marry- ther, a veteran of World War II, won with a warrior tradition reside in a his mother’s horror, enlists in the and a particular war. Petrakis has ing younger women are the subject a Medal of Honor for bravery on town called Plainfield, and all the Marines. The town is thrilled to have raised issues regarding the nature of of “The Wisdom of Solon” and “The Omaha Beach on D-Day. men in the family have names with one of their own take such a heroic military traditions and the responsi- Rousing of Mathon Sarlas.” In “The The Scott family has a proud mil- distinctive biblical associations. and patriotic step. Dan is surprised bilities of the generations to each Wisdom of Solon” such a marriage itary tradition. A glass case in the At the time of the Gore-Bush elec- by the depth of their support. Molly other. He offers no easy answers to takes place with many unforeseen Scott household is filled with medals tion, Molly and Dan, although a bit thinks this reaction is stupid and in- questions that ought to be central to consequences. In the other story, and ribbons won by generations of embarrassed by President Clinton’s tensifies her anti-war activities. our national discourse but he seems Mathon, aged 55 and a widower for Scott warriors who have fought in sexual escapades, are strong Gore Thomas Joshua informs Dan he had to feel closest to the positions associ- 10 years, wants to marry a younger every American conflict since the supporters. Not surprisingly, counseled Noah not to enlist at this ated with Molly. woman but fears she may come to civil war of 1861-1865. The only Thomas Joshua is a fan of George time, but he doubts Molly will be- “Legends of Glory and Other Sto- resent him due to the gap in their reason Dan never served in the mili- Bush. As the war in Iraq begins, the lieve him. ries” is a remarkable collection from ages. He is concerned that such a re- tary was that he came of military age positions of all concerned harden. When Noah is shipped to Iraq, he a remarkable author, an example of sentment could become a hatred, during the peaceful decades be- Molly circulates petitions against the writes home regularly. Obviously a writer demonstrating he can still causing him a hurt that would be far tween the two world wars. war, attends anti-war rallies, and seeking to comfort Molly, the letters produce the kind of stories for which worse than the loneliness he now Thomas Joshua lived with Dan even gets into arguments with are innocuous, and speak of eating he is famed, while having the feels. and Molly for many years, but due neighbors. The more gentle Dan well, contain snapshots of fellow sol- courage to risk taking on new liter- to medical problems moved to a vet- signs petitions and has his students diers, and refer to cooperative Iraqi ary challenges. Petrakis is not an au- THE LEGENDS OF GLORY eran’s home while in his 80s. During study the “Iliad” and “The Trojan civilians. Unknown to Molly, a sec- thor to be read too quickly. “Legends of Glory” breaks new the years when the family lived un- Women.” He also ponders the long- ond group of letters is sent only to ground in the work of Harry Mark der one roof, Noah, like many boys, term dangers of atomic war and his grandfather. These are much Dan Georgakas is a Fellow at the Petrakis. It is the longest work he felt closer to his grandfather than to fears a nuclear Armageddon may lie more stark and grim. One ends, Center for Byzantine and Modern has ever done involving non-Greek his father. Noah was particularly en- in the near future. “There is something wrong here, but Greek Studies at Queens College- characters. More significantly, it is a tranced by the war stories Thomas Noah has entered his freshman I’m not smart enough to figure out City University of New York. His novella dealing with the most im- Joshua told with considerable flour- year of college, but he feels the only what that is.” most recent book is “My Detroit: portant political issues of our time. ish. Molly was never pleased with honorable option for a true-blue The novella moves forward to Growing Up Greek and American “Legends of Glory” is further distin- that circumstance. After Thomas Scott at a time of war is to join the Noah’s eventual fate in Iraq and the in Motor City.” guished by being one of the first told a tale about what napalm does novels by an American about con- to the human body, Molly comment- temporary debates regarding Ameri- ed that his stories were “sickly and can political morality in the wake of unnatural.” Dan responded that his 9-11. father was just a good storyteller. Dan and Molly Scott, moderately The narrative of “Legends of Glo- Dimitrios & Georgia Kaloidis Parochial School liberal Democrats, live in Plainsfield, ry,” which focuses on the behavior of Indiana, a moderately conservative the Scotts Republican town. Dan is a high in the aftermath of the attack of of Holy Cross Greek Orthodox Church school teacher who frequently uses 9-11, is not as seamlessly rendered Greek classics as texts. Noah, their as the narratives in the short stories. 8502 Ridge Blvd, Brooklyn, NY 11209 • (718) 836-9096 only child, is a typical American Petrakis has not quite figured out teenager. He starred in high school how to elegantly work in all the po-

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Agamemnon of Athens. He wrote more than 90 said that men lust for power; they plays, but only seven survived to never have enough. in Performance: our times. The message of Aischylos’ 458 BC to AD 2004 Aischylos staged his “Oresteia” “Agamemnon” / “Oresteia” is By Fiona Macintosh, Pantelis in 458 B.C. during the festival of against war and savagery, especial- Michelakis, Edith Hall Dionysos, the patron god of the- ly among Greeks and for allowing ater, freedom, wine and rural life the healing and civilizing power of and Oliver Taplin (editors) in Greece. Theater in Athens was a Greek culture to do its work. This is Oxford University Press, political school where citizens especially relevant at this present 484 pages, $125 went to see and hear, out in the time of war and rising savagery. open, in the sunlight of the day, the The fate of “Agamemnon,” and, reenactment of stories about the therefore, the reception of Greek origins of Greek culture. Aischylos’ culture in the West, is documented By E.G. Vallianatos “Agamemnon” was Homeros’ in the illustrated and scholarly Special to The National Herald Agamemnon, king of the rich-in- book, “Agamemnon in Perfor- gold Mycenae and leading general mance: 458 BC to AD 2004.” The n June 16, 2004, I was in in the Greeks’ war against Troy. 39 images of this book relate to the Carnegie Hall in New Homeros’ “Iliad,” the world’s great- theatrical performances of York. I came at the invi- est epic poem, is about the Trojan “Agamemnon.” They range from Otation of Peter Tiboris, War. ancient art depicting Agamemnon, conductor of Manhattan Philhar- The “Iliad” was the model for Klytaimnestra and Kassandra to monic, to attend the opera Aischylos’ “Agamemnon,” which is posters and pictures from the per- “Agamemnon.” I had not seen Pe- why its message was dear to the formance of the play since the Re- ter since student days at the Uni- Greeks who loved their country naissance. versity of Wisconsin in the early and knew their early history. Ais- Two-thirds of the 19 scholars 1970s. Now he was a famous con- chylos appealed to Greek patrio- who wrote this book are classicists. ductor, directing the American pre- tism. Aischylos urged the Greeks to The rest have positions in depart- miere of Sergey Taneev’s opera, fight for freedom and never to sub- ments of English, comparative lit- “Agamemnon.” mit to slavery, believing it was bet- erature and theater studies. They Despite the fact this was ter to die on your feet than live on include the editors: Pandelis “Agamemnon” out of 19th century your knees. Michelakis, who teaches classics at Russia’s “Oresteia,” it was a Greek Agamemnon led the Greek the University of Bristol; Edith “Agamemnon” that came through armies to Troy to avenge the ab- Hall, professor of Greek cultural Book cover: Juliana Carneiro da Cunha as Klytemnestra in “Les the Russian opera, with Russian duction of Helen by Paris, prince of history at the University of Atrides” at the Cartoucherie de Vincennes, Paris, directed by Ariane singing by the Russian Chamber Ilion or Troy. Helen was the daugh- Durham; Fiona Macintosh, senior Mnouchkine (1990). Photographer Michele Laurent. By permission Chorus of New York and the read- ter of Zeus and wife of the king of research fellow at the Archive of of Oxford University Press. ing in English of the speeches of Sparte, Menelaos. Performances of Greek and Roman the protagonists. Olympia Dukakis, Agamemnon and Menelaos Drama and a faculty of St Cross ta from this chronology indicates count of exiled Emperor Napoleon the Greek American actress and were children of Atreus, king of Ar- College, Oxford; and Oliver Taplin, the reception of Aischylos in differ- reading “Agamemnon” to his faith- opera singer, sang the words of gos. Atreus offended the gods by tutorial fellow at Magdalen Col- ent countries. Unfortunately, the ful colleagues at St. Helena, in the Klytaimnestra, the explosive force feasting his brother, Thyestes, with lege, Oxford. Twelve of the contrib- author of this chronology, Amanda South Atlantic in November 1816. in the “Agamemnon” play. Both the flesh of his own children. Only utors of articles are British. The Wrigley, describes Greek Anatolia Here was one of Europe’s greatest Sergey Taneyev, 1856-1915, and Aigisthos, son of Thyestes, survived others are French, Italian, Swiss, in 100-50 B.C. as Turkey, a country leaders going to Aischylos for con- Peter Tiboris made slight changes the massacre of his brothers by Russian, Australian and American. that did not exist even as the Ot- solation, perhaps reflecting upon to the original text, but they left Atreus. Of the 19 chapters, one is a gen- toman Empire for more than a mil- his own fall from power and seek- the integrity of the play intact. Agamemnon and Menelaos eral overview of the performance lennium after that date. ing inspiration from the tragic fate Unfortunately, this had often came out of a murderous family, a of “Agamemnon,” four examine From the chronology at the end of the Greek king Agamemnon. not been the case with past perfor- legacy that followed Agamemnon the early history of the transmis- of the book, I noted that “Agamem- “Agamemnon in Performance mances of “Agamemnon,” as is to the end. When he returned sion of this play in the West; four non” returned to Greece after some 458 BC to AD 2004” gives dozens shown in the scholarly book, home after the end of the Trojan chapters look at the play in Ger- 2,300 years of absence. Its first per- of examples of the travail of “Agamemnon in Performance: 458 War, the citizens of Argos greeted many and England, with the Aus- formance took place in Athens in “Agamemnon” in the West. The BC to AD 2004.” him as a hero. However his wife tralian scholar writing the German November 1903. In the next 100 book shows the fleeting, often Agamemnon is one of the three Klytaimnestra and her lover chapter; four examine the problem years the Greeks staged “Agamem- careless, handling of Aischylos’ plays of “Oresteia,” the crowning Aigisthos murdered him to avenge of translating Aischylos; and six in- non” / the “Oresteia” another 42 “Agamemnon,” a seminal work achievement of Aischylos, who Agamemnon’s sacrifice of her vestigate the international fate of times. Americans saw the play for presented and studied in the the- lived from 525 to 456 B.C. He was daughter Iphigenia. Agamemnon the play, especially in France, Unit- the first time in 1895. From 1895 aters, operas, and classrooms of the proud and noble Athenian son sacrificed his daughter to appease ed States, Russia and Switzerland. to 2004 “Agamemnon” or the the West since the text of Aischylos’ of Eleusis, the sacred polis near goddess Artemis so she would al- Because it is a product of a scholar- “Oresteia” played in American the- play appeared in print in the first Athens. The Persian invasion of low the blowing of the winds that ly conference, the book is technical aters 217 times. half of the 16th century. In fact, Greece shaped his work and life. enabled the Greek fleet to travel to and somewhat difficult to read. The chronology and the book from the 16th to the 18th, the He fought against the Persians at Troy. The diversity of the contributors are very useful in that they summa- “Agamemnon” the Europeans mis- the battle of Marathon in 490 B.C. , The Trojan princess Kassandra, makes for fascinating reading, rize when and how the West treat- used -- calling the play “cold and and again in 480 B.C. at the battle whom Agamemnon brought to Ar- however. ed a masterpiece of Greek litera- atrocious,” “primitive,” “obscure,” of Salamis. His epitaph said the gos, saw through Klytaimnestra’s At the end of the book there’s an ture, a play that has been central in “unbalanced” and “unnatural” -- longhaired Persians would remem- revenge. As a priestess of Apollon, extremely useful chronology of the the intellectual life of the West, in- was Seneca’s “Agamemnon,” not ber him but made no mention of she shared his insight into human “Agamemnon” / “Oresteia,” refer- cluding its theatrical canon, for at Aischylos’ (chapters 3-4, 6). his plays. Aischylos almost single- affairs. She warned the elders the encing more than 750 works in- least the last two centuries. Seneca was influenced by Aischy- handedly created the tragic theater palace breathed with murder. She spired largely by Aischylos. The da- Pandelis Michelakis cites the ac- los, but lived 600 years after Ais- THE NATIONAL HERALD FEBRUARY 23, 2008 15 chylos, during the first century of of the Greek vision and patriotism the Roman Empire. of Aischylos, the performance of During the last two centuries “Agamemnon” has largely become Westerners adapted Aischylos’ another piece for technical virtuos- ‘Oresteia” to reflect their own ity or entertainment in the West. unique concerns. They searched Lorna Hardwick, a British ex- for their origins, erroneously think- pert on the reception of classical We would like to thank ing they were related to the Greeks texts, describes this decline in cul- (Chapters 6-16). The British, par- tural standards as the “performa- ticularly in the 19th century, were tive slide,” where the translation “ The National Herald” obsessed with “origins and the evo- effort has little to do with respect- lutionary process.” And because ing the meaning of the original. the “Oresteia” evolved from bad to Rather, the strategy of the produc- for its efforts good, it received a favorable recep- er of “Agamemnon” is governed by tion in Victorian England (Chapter “performability” and “speakabili- 8). ty.” That is, the translation be- American producers also tried comes “adaptation” or “version” of to “explore” their neuroses of gen- the original. For example, the der, gender conflict and identity British producer David Stuttard in providing its readers through “Agamemnon.” They often made an effort to Christianize Ais- did radical surgery to the Greek chylos in his production of text in order to highlight gender Agamemnon (Chapter 11). with such an excellent conflict or to make Klytaimnestra There’s little doubt, therefore, even more prominent than she is in the way the difficult Greek text has the original play or to stress her been translated is one of the great- opportunity “complexity or androgyny.” The est reasons why Westerners are adaptations during the Vietnam still confused with the Greeks in War highlighted the violence of general and Aischylos in particular war. And the coming of the millen- (Chapter 11). According to Chap- nium, with all the anxieties of turn- ters 1 and 10, the first English and to learn about ing to a new century, sparked per- French translations of “Agamem- formances of “Agamemnon” that non” took place in the 1770s. addressed hidden fears, including Those and subsequent translations Greek American writers the dangers of advanced technolo- of “Agamemnon” tried to “update gy. “Oresteia” became the play of and modernize” Aischylos’ text choice after the Moslem attack and, by that hubris, they create a and their work, against the United States on Sep- translation sometimes alien to the tember 11, 2001. Justice and re- meaning and power of the original. venge became the theme of the To conclude, I believe that Euro- 2002 performance of “Oresteia” at pean and American producers have Baylor University (Chapter 17). been manipulating “Agamemnon” According to Pandelis at will, now supporting this or that and to let Michelakis, Klytaimnestra’s killing academic fad, or making a state- of Agamemnon “has haunted the ment against violence or war. For Western imagination’s pursuit of its example, according to the book’s the community know past and identity.” But, in my opin- chronology, there was a rush to ion, behind these blurred visions of “Agamemnon” in the United States Greekness, Westerners are telling after the Islamic attack on Septem- about diverse interests themselves they are superior to the ber 11, 2001, “Agamemnon” / the Greeks, mocking them for not be- “Oresteia” being staged 33 times ing “modern” enough (Chapter 6). between September 2001 and Sep- With some exceptions, they ex- tember 2004. ploited “Agamemnon” to test, at- Nevertheless, “Agamemnon” re- tack or support their own political mains popular in the West. The in the Greek American or philosophical problems, rarely play reflects the pale image of the to learn from the Greek tradition. illusions we have about our impor- Michelakis summarized the love tance. Aischylos said that the literary world and hate relationship between the fragility of culture is what breaks people of the West and the Greeks, the heart. And, at a time of wars nay, the schizophrenic attitude of between civilizations, his message Westerners towards the Greeks. ought to be heeded. “Agamemnon,” he says, “has been I believe that reading “Agamem- Και εις Ανώτερα!!! seen variously as a paradigm of non in Performance” is indispens- pre-modern Western culture, a able. It is a technically accurate mirror of modernity, and a vision of and somber assessment of the ef- postmodernity. It has served as a forts of the West, not always suc- reflection on the appeal, but also cessful or artful, to understand the on the disintegration and reconsti- Greeks. tution, of some of the most central “Agamemnon in Performance” tenets of modernity such as the is a controversial, scholarly, diffi- Μ. Α. ANGELIADES, Inc. ideals of progress, reason and ra- cult, but useful book. tionality.” th Chapters 1 and 12 describe the E.G. Vallianatos is the author of 5-44 47 Avenue, Long Island City, NY 11110 outstanding performance of “The Passion of the Greeks: (718) 786-5555 “Agamemnon” in the Greek The- Christianity and the Rape of the ater of Syracuse in 1914. With that Hellenes” (Clock and Rose Press, rare exception in the appreciation 2006). 16 THE NATIONAL HERALD FEBRUARY 23, 2008

stooped with anxiety, and over the na’s daughter) and Alexis. Both A Story of Courage, Betrayal and Hope next few months he was to age be- mother and daughter become more yond recognition. His hair turned emotionally honest and expressive from olive black to the silvery grey and form a more meaningful con- Love and life on a leper's colony off the Cretan coast of the eucalyptus, and people nection, not only with their Greek seemed always to refer to him as roots, but with one another. ‘Poor Giorgis.’ It became his name.” One of the most fascinating as- (92) pects of this book, as well as the Although both of Eleni’s daugh- source of several intriguing sub- The Island around us now and those who Contrary to popular misconcep- ters are shattered by the departure plots, is life on Spinalonga where came before us.” (43) tions, symptoms of leprosy often and ultimate death of their mother, most of the inhabitants look and By Victoria Hislop Alexis’ mother Sofia holds tight develop quite slowly and the their reactions couldn’t be more dif- function like ordinary people. In- Harper Collins Publishers, to her family’s secrets, lest she shat- grotesque images we have of lepers ferent. Anna becomes explosive stead of moaning on dirt floors in 474 pages, $14.95, paperback ter. One secret involves a deadly belong to the last stages of the ill- and even more determined to es- dark hovels or trying to escape their love triangle, another that her ness. Also, there are two types of cape the mundane household plight with ouzo or unrestrained grandmother, Eleni Petrakis, was a leprosy, one type being far less chores and the many family and so- sex, these social outcasts valiantly leper. The disclosure of these inter- lethal and disfiguring than the oth- cial duties associated with being a try to recreate their former village By Aphrodite Matsakis twining secrets is the basis for a er. Eleni suffers from the more seri- traditional Cretan woman. Anna life. Alongside the hospital and spe- Special to The National Herald plot, which is highly believable, yet ous type, yet she lives for several wants riches, romance and excite- cial quarters for those in the last full of unexpected twists and turns. years, during which time she writes ment instead. Like Scarlet O’Hara stages of the disease, the residents eprosy. The very word con- The story of the Petrakis family to her daughters regularly and is in “Gone with the Wind.” Anna is have a church, town hall, kafenio, jures up images of hideous begins in Plaka, a small coastal vil- visited weekly by her husband, who self-centered, impulsive and often various shops and, like most Greek creatures whose open lage in Crete that faces Spinalonga. is careful not to come too close. utterly insensitive to the feelings villages, gossip and political and Lwounds and disfigured bod- Eleni Petrakis, Sofia’s grandmother, Hence Eleni’s family suffers the tor- and needs of others. In contrast, personal rivalries. ies are so repellant all we want to is a pure hearted vibrant Cretan ture known to anyone who has or Anna’s sister Maria is more like the While some inhabitants cannot do is flee. Yet “The Island,” Victoria woman, beloved to her husband, has had a family member suffering saint-like Melanie in “Gone with overcome their justifiable despair Hislop’s sorrowful yet inspiring Giorgis, and her two daughters, An- from a long-term fatal illness. the Wind.” Maria, as pure-hearted and the loneliness caused by their look at leprosy’s effects on a Cretan na and Maria. She is also Plaka’s fa- Death is inevitable, but not merci- as her mother, finds fulfillment in separation from their families, oth- family, has made the best seller lists vorite teacher. “Eleni had a magnet- fully short. Instead the beloved the traditional female role and ers marry and have children. Many in the United Kingdom, Greece, Is- ism that attracted children and lingers and hopes for a cure rise when Eleni departs for Spinalonga, decorate their homes or apart- rael and Portugal. The book is cur- adults alike to her and was admired and fall alongside fears and uncer- silently commits herself to taking ments, make friendships and find a rently being translated into 22 oth- and respected by all.” (52) tainties about how much and how care of her father. In contrast Anna new sense of purpose in helping er languages. When Eleni develops leprosy long the beloved will suffer. As long thinks only of her own pain and one another. For example, Eleni, Spinalonga, the island of the and must depart to Spinalonga, her as Eleni lives, Giorgis cannot bury gain and after marrying a wealthy bereft of her own children, showers book, is located off the northern family is devastated. her and hope to find any closure. man, rarely bothers to visit, much her maternal affections on a fright- coast of Crete. A former fortress But the author neither over sim- Instead, he must watch his wife de- less help, her bereft father. ened young leper boy bereft of his and smuggler’s retreat, the tiny is- plifies nor over dramatizes their teriorate and lose her, a little at a To reveal more of story would be parents. She also resumes her role land was the main leper colony in grief. Instead she artfully draws us time, which causes him immense a disservice to those who will read as schoolteacher, infusing Spina- Greece from 1903 to 1957, when a into the soul of each family mem- suffering. this unforgettable book. Suffice it longa ’s students with a love for cure for leprosy was found, and the ber as they struggle with loss, anger “Giorgis was not even forty to say that the disclosure of the learning and hope for the future. lepers no longer needed to be seg- and fear. when Eleni left, but he was already family secrets transforms Sofia (An- The author first visited Spina- regated from others. longa in 2001, even though she had “The Island” is a multi-genera- made annual visits to Crete since tional story about the love and 1981. At the time, she had no per- courage of the Petrakis family as sonal connection with or interest in first one, then another, family leprosy and no thoughts whatsoev- member develops the dreaded ill- er about writing a novel. She sim- ness. It is also a story about ro- ply wanted a break from the beach- mance, infidelity, jealousy and war, lunch-beach routine. “Going to infused with the passionate tem- Spinalonga was a fluke,” the author perament of the people of Crete. Al- states. though the book’s English-born au- At first glance Hislop thought thor has no Greek roots, she writes that Spinalonga was like “any rural as if as if her “yiayia” and “papou” Greek village, with a church, stray were Cretan villagers themselves. cats and urns filled with basil and The books begins with 25-year- geraniums.” Yet there were old Alexis Fielding, who in her “strange, haunting aspects of it” struggle to make a decision about that captured her imagination. marriage, realizes she needs to find “Here was somewhere that had ef- out more about her roots. Alexis is fectively been a prison, a place for a familiar about the history of her life sentence, but where the ‘prison- English-born father, but her moth- ers’ were innocent of any crime and er, Sofia, never speaks of her Cretan indeed might be living close past. A Cretan family friend ex- enough to their loved ones to be plains to Alexis: “Your mother’s sto- able to see them just across the wa- ry is your grandmother’s story, and ter. It was profoundly terrible and it is also your great grandmother’s yet there was evidence from the in- story. .... Their lives were inter- frastructure (a communal laundry, twined, and that’s what we really two churches, pretty homes, shops) mean when we talk about fate in that these people had not lived en- Greece. Our so-called fate is largely tirely miserable lives. They had dig- ordained by our ancestors, not by nity, and they had enjoyed a certain the stars. .... Of course events seem quality of life.” to take place out of the blue that For author Victoria Hislop (center), making friends with a former leper, Manoli Foundoulakis, 84, of She found the atmosphere on change the course of our lives, but Crete (right) has been one of the most rewarding aspects of having written “The Island.” Her book has Spinalonga so “electrifying,” she what really determines what hap- helped to remove the stigma of leprosy from him and others throughout the world. The author and her knew she had to write a story about pens to us are the actions of those husband, Ian Hislop (left), Private Eye editor and TV personality, have two teenage children. it. “The inspiration to write this THE NATIONAL HERALD FEBRUARY 23, 2008 17 novel came completely out of the the rapport between them.” “Since didn’t know of his existence while I blue. As a travel journalist, my very writing ‘The Island,’” Hislop says, “I was writing the book, Manoli is first thought was to write a feature have met many many wonderful very close the nature of people I im- about it, but I realized immediately people in Athens and in Crete. I aged there (dignified, clever, funny, that ... there was much more of a have been so warmly embraced by warm and loving). He tells me that story to be told – one that couldn’t the local community that I feel I the book has helped to remove the be contained in so few words and have discovered the true and over- stigma of the disease, and if I have one that had to be inspired by my whelming nature of ‘filoxenia.’ It’s done that purely for him, that mat- emotional reaction to it, rather something very special.” ters more than anything else.” than pure fact,” she states. When asked how this book For additional information The main narrative is set in the changed her life, the author noted about leprosy, which is now called era of World War II because Hislop her involvement in LEPRA, the Hansen’s disease, after the 19th wanted “to maintain the true life U.K.’s lead leprosy charity. She century Norwegian physician who chronology of when the cure was helps raise funds for LEPRA by discovered that leprosy was caused CHRISTINA TETTONIS first used and when the patients ac- speaking about leprosy. Last year by bacteria, visit www.leprosy.org; Principal tually left Spinalonga.” Working she traveled to India to see LEPRA’s about “The Island,” visit www.vic- JOY PETRAKOS backwards, she found herself in the efforts in rural communities and toriahislop.com Director of Operations 1930s. “It actually suited the plot plans to return next year. She also and the themes of the book well to values having met and become a Aphrodite Matsakis, Ph.D., coun- have this period of the war ... a ter- close friend of a former leper, seling psychologist, is the author OPEN HOUSE DATE rible time for the people of Crete, Manoli Foundoulakis, 84, who lives of “Back From the Front: Combat and to show that at times the pa- in Elouda, the village next to Plaka. Trauma, Love and The Family” SATURDAY tients on the island were in some tiny villages there. “I would watch “He is now cured,” states Hislop, (www.backfromthefront.org), as strange way better off than those the way people in Crete interact “but not before the disease had well as 13 books on a variety of MARCH 15 on the mainland.” with one another – with passion done considerable damage to him. psychological topics, and “Grow- With its authentic, historically and involvement – rather than the How do I explain why Manoli is so ing Up Greek in St. Louis.” (Arca- 10:00 AM TO 12 NOON accurate and vivid portrayal of vil- slightly cool indifference which we important to me? In some rather dia Publishing, 1998). See lage life and wartime Greece, “The English are so practiced at. It’s hard to define way, he is the reason www.matsakis.com for further Accepting applications Island “ has been well received in amazing to watch their friendships, I wrote ‘The Island.’ Even though I information. for students entering Greece, It has been in Ta Nea’s top Grade K through Grade 7 ten for 16 weeks. This has made Hislop “incredibly happy.” She says, “I wouldn’t have dreamt in a mil- Our Goal is lion years that it would ever be translated into Greek .... “So for the to provide a classical Greek press not to say, ‘Who does based primary this woman think she is, writing school education about us; what does she know?’ has rich in the studies been immensely ratifying.” Both critics and readers alike de- of humanities scribe “The Island” as “a real page and literature turner” and so it is. The book has suspense. Who will develop the dis- UNIVERSITY SEMINARS PROGRAM ease and will they live or die? What Program will be the outcome of the various Highlights romances? In carrying out its mission, the Alexander S. Onassis Public Benefit Foundation (USA) runs More importantly, the book has • Enriched curriculum focused heart. Despite the enormity of their a University Seminars Program that places eminent professors and scholars (Senior Visit- on meeting and exceeding pain, a group of broken-hearted ing Scholars) from the United States and abroad at Universities throughout North, Central, THE STATE PERFORMANCE lepers and their families had the and South America for the purpose of offering public lectures, seminars, and courses on STANDARDS courage to find love and purpose in in all curriculum disciplines their lives, while at the same time subjects related to Hellenic culture, history, and the arts. Subjects include modern, Byzan- contending with the heartlessness tine and ancient history, political thought in Greece and the Balkans in the 19th and 20th • Daily class of Greek language, history, of the outside world. Even today, centuries, modern Greek letters (prose, poetry etc), archaeology, few are aware that leprosy is not art, literature/mythology, latin in the upper grates only less contagious, but more cur- philosophy, art (painting, sculpture, theater, cinema, dance, music, ancient Greek drama), able than the common cold. theology, law, economy, and finance. • Reduced class size Victoria Hislop, an Oxford-edu- • Theater workshops/internships cated journalist, lives in Kent, Eng- Since the inception of the Program in 2000, over 100 Senior Visiting Scholars have been land with her husband, journalist • Partnerships with the and TV personality Ian Hislop, and hosted by more than 300 University departments and major cultural institutions. More Greek government their two daughters. She writes than 60,000 people have attended the lectures and seminars. • Educational field trips travel features for The Sunday Tele- graph and The Mail on Sunday, as • Foreign travel The Alexander S. Onassis Public Benefit Foundation (USA), in the context of the University well as celebrity profiles for Woman and the Home. “The Island” is her Seminars Program, has also organized three international Conferences and Workshops ∆ωρεάν first novel. Her second novel, with the participation of eminent scholars from Greece, the United States, Canada, Central εκπαίδευση scheduled for completion by the and South America. end of the year, is set in Spain, NEW YORK STATE FUNDED some of it during the Spanish Civil *A Conference of Canadian Hellenists in Ottawa, Canada (April 2003). War (1936-1939). She hopes to *A Conference on Hellenic Studies in North, Central, and South America at the Onassis write another novel set in Greece. Cultural Center in New York (October 2005). CALL NOW Hislop describes her first visit to * A Workshop on the Teaching of the Modern Greek Language at Universities in North, Greece during her teens as “‘agape’ (718) 499-0957 at first sight.” She was particular Central, and South America at the Onassis Cultural Center in New York (October 2007). drawn to Crete and spent many www.hccs-nys.org hours sitting quietly in kafenions in 18 THE NATIONAL HERALD FEBRUARY 23, 2008 Ted Saloutos, the Dean of Greek American Studies Charles Moskos remembers the professor who guided and inspired him

By Charles Moskos Peloponnese. In what was probably standing Account of the Impact of Special to The National Herald an arranged marriage, she later Cultural Diversities on Individuals.” joined Panagiotis in Milwaukee. “They Remember America” was as n September 1958, I was a Ted’s first language growing up much sociology as history. Saloutos newly arrived graduate student in Milwaukee was Greek. He really started his interviews of Greek im- in sociology at the University of started to speak English only after migrants departing for the old coun- ICalifornia at Los Angeles. Upon entering public school. Ted had five try from the port of New York on the entering Haines Hall for the first sisters, one born in Greece, the oth- Greek ship, Nea Hellas. In Greece it- time, I noticed a faculty directory in ers in Milwaukee. As a teenager, he self, he interviewed hundreds of re- the entryway. In addition to con- worked at the Coney Island restau- turnees, almost all of whom were taining the department of sociology, rant for a brother-in law, Tom Ke- eager to talk to the young scholar. Haines Hall was also the location of mos. After graduating from high Saloutos comments in the book that the history department. One of the school, he attended Milwaukee whether in a big city or in a village, names on the history faculty list was State Teacher’s College (today, the once he found a repatriated immi- Theodore Saloutos, the only Greek University of Wisconsin, Milwau- grant, it “led almost instantly to the name on the directory. kee). It was there that he met his fu- ‘rounding up’ of the rest.” There was Several days later, I went to Sa- ture wife, Florence Schwefel. Flo- plenty of variation among the re- loutos’ office and introduced myself. rence was born in Milwaukee in turned Greeks, with some delighted He greeted me cordially as a fellow 1912 and was of German ancestry, to be back in the old country, some second-generation Greek. After ex- no rare thing in the Milwaukee of missing America and most with changing pleasantries about our that era. Even today, Milwaukee is mixed feelings. background, Saloutos informed me said to have the highest percentage I received my doctorate in 1963, that he was starting a book-length of citizens of German origin of any and Saloutos served on my disserta- study of Greek Americans. This was major American city. Unlike Ted’s tion committee, although my disser- to be the volume, “The Greeks in working-class background, Flo- tation had nothing to do with either the United States,” published by rence’s father was a lawyer. Greek America or agricultural histo- Harvard University Press in 1964. After receiving his bachelor’s de- ry. The thesis dealt with the inde- The subtitle on the book’s jacket gree, Ted went to the University of pendence movements in the British read: “Why They Came, What They Wisconsin at Madison, which West Indies, where I had spent a Found, and What They Accom- awarded him a doctorate in 1940. year doing field research. I never plished — The Vivid Story from The He first taught at the University of met a Greek the entire year I was in Theodore Saloutos was the author of “The Greeks in the United First Immigration to the Present.” It Wisconsin and Oberlin College, but the Caribbean (although Arab Or- States” which will be soon reissued. This book, published in 1964, was an honor when Saloutos later in 1947 moved to UCLA, where he thodox Christians did host me for was the first definitive treatment of Greek Americans and remains asked for my input for his forthcom- remained until his retirement. It is free meals). Still, Saloutos willingly the foundation of Greek American studies to this day. ing book. In fact, it was my interac- noteworthy that Saloutos first agreed to be on my committee, be- tion with him that engendered my achieved national prominence as a cause as he put it: “It’s a Greek thing loutos’ book that I learned as well California to the East Coast to lec- own research and writings on Greek scholar in a field having nothing to to help a fellow Greek.” that many Greeks were also active ture or to see his sisters in Milwau- Americans. But nothing could ever do with Greek Americans, becom- After Saloutos completed a near- in labor unions. Dan Georgakas, kee, he would come through Chica- surpass “The Greeks in the United ing a leading figure in American ly final draft of “The Greeks in the Steve Frangos and Helen Papaniko- go — the railroad center of Ameri- States.” This was the first definitive agricultural history. He was author United States,” he asked me to read las, among others, have added to ca. I would meet him at the train treatment of Greek Americans and of “Agricultural Discontent in the it, which I did, with great attention. our knowledge in this area. When station, and then drive to nearby remains the foundation of Greek Middle West” (1951), “Farmer Growing up in Chicago (through the book came out in 1964, a year Greektown, where we would have a American studies to this day. It is Movements in the South” (1960) age ten) and Albuquerque (through after I had left UCLA, I was honored leisurely meal together. After a most with our community’s deep gratifi- and “The American Farmer and the high school), my stereotype of the to be acknowledged in it, but Ted’s insightful discussion on matters cation that greekworks.com will New Deal” (1982), all this in addi- Greek immigrant was that of the personal inscription was especially Greek American, I would take him soon be reissuing this monumental tion to numerous articles published small businessman. My father had a moving: “For my good friend and back to the station. This happened work. in academic journals. Saloutos also shoe-repair store and my maternal colleague, Charlie, who is as much a several times a year and was always Ted’s father, Panagiotis, was served as president of the Agricul- grandfather operated a confec- part of this story as I am.” an event we both looked forward to. born in the village of Aspra Spitia, tural History Society, which created tionery (where he made delicious My first academic position was One aspect of Saloutos’ percep- six miles from Olympia, in the the Theodore Saloutos Book Award chocolates). In Albuquerque, the at the University of Michigan — a tion of Hellenism must be men- province of φleias in the Pelopon- in 1982. prevailing occupation of Greek im- great university, but located in Ann tioned. The conventional treatment nese. Panagiotis arrived in America Even while starting a career migrants was, of course, that of Arbor, which had no Greek restau- of Hellenism is to stress the classical in 1905 at age 27. For reasons not leading to his premier role in Ameri- restaurant-owner, although there rants. When offered a position at era with its emphasis on great clear, his family name was listed as can agricultural history, however, were many bar and liquor-store Northwestern University in the philosophers, theater, sculpture, Panagiotopoulos at Ellis Island. Saloutos also displayed a strong in- owners as well. It was reading Sa- Chicago area, therefore, I accepted and the like. Saloutos certainly was (How the name changed to Sa- terest in topics Hellenic. As a young loutos’ manuscript that I learned for immediately. Northwestern was a appreciative of classical Greece’s loutos in the United States also re- scholar, he received a Fulbright re- the first time of the large number of great university, too, but Chicago shaping role in the foundation of mains a mystery.) Panagiotis had search award and went to Greece Greek immigrants who were from was also a world-class city and, Western civilization. But he also be- relatives in Milwaukee, where he for the academic year 1952-1953. the working class. That is, Greeks most important, there were plenty lieved such emphasis could be over- eventually worked in a tannery for This led to the publication of “They who had labored in the fur industry of restaurants to go to in Greektown done to the detriment of contempo- most of his life in America. A broth- Remember America” (1956), subti- in New York, textile factories in New on Halsted Street. But moving to rary Greece and the Greek immi- er, Louis, later ran a restaurant in tled, “The Story of the Repatriated England, railroads in the Middle the Chicago area had another ad- grants abroad. Indeed, for Saloutos, western Wisconsin. Ted’s mother, Greek-Americans: A Timely Study West, mines in the Rocky Mountain vantage that I had not anticipated. the unsung story was that of the Demetra Perdikis, was born in the of How our Ways Can Influence a states, among other jobs and lo- Ted Saloutos was not keen on fly- Greeks who had come to this coun- province of Arkadia, also in the Foreign Culture, and an Under- cales. It was only upon reading Sa- ing. Thus, whenever he came from try with little formal education and THE NATIONAL HERALD FEBRUARY 23, 2008 19 no funds, and had, through hard and philanthropist Michael Jaharis in military sociology) and turned to gious and the ethnic. Each is differ- work, established a viable Greek told me to raise what I could and he Greek American studies later in our ent, yet complementary to the oth- American community that has per- would make up the difference. In professional careers. We both were er. The more the Greek Orthodox sisted through the generations. An about a month, I raised something also committed to finding practical Church reaches out and accepts overemphasis on classical Greece, like $75,000, and Michael Jaharis ways to maintain contact between non-Greeks -- without compromis- Saloutos believed, was an indirect came up with the rest. Even today, I the old country and the American- ing on its doctrinal tenets -- the way of demeaning contemporary still run across Greek Americans born generations. (Somewhat coin- more it ensures its own flowering. Greeks in Greece and abroad. This who thank me for asking them to cidentally, we both married women By opening up to the spiritually SOTERIOS ELLENAS is a view with which I concur. donate to the Saloutos fund some of German ancestry — although it hungry, the Church will bring more Prior to his passing, Saloutos had quarter-century ago. should be noted that my wife, Ilca, Americans into contact with Greek PAROCHIAL SCHOOL arranged to donate his extensive Regarding the fundraising for speaks better Greek than her hus- ethnicity. files and personal library on Greek the Saloutos archives, there is an in- band and rolls her own fyllo when At the same time, we must also KIMISIS THEOTOKOU Americans to the Immigration His- teresting anecdote that Ted would making spanakopita.) In addition, foster a Greek secular identity in GREEK ORTHODOX tory Research Center at the Univer- have appreciated. In addition to neither Saloutos nor I were com- America by increasing Greek Ameri- CHURCH sity of Minnesota. His collection oc- personally approaching various fortable with the theoretical jargon can connections to the old country. cupied a two-car garage as well as Greek Americans, I also sent out let- and overly arcane explanations of Today’s youth—and here I include 224-18th Street Brooklyn, N.Y. 11215 his home office. It consisted of ters to others whom I did not know the immigrant experience that be- those of Greek stock, mixed parent- Tel.: (718) 499-5900 books, newspapers, magazines, per- personally. The letter described how came fashionable in the academic age, and even non-Greek philhel- www.soteriosellenas.org sonal letters, and unpublished auto- the Saloutos archive would ensure world. lenes — will be the repository of biographies, among numerous oth- that the history of our immigrant pi- As evident in “The Greeks in the Hellenism’s future in America. This er items. It was surely the most ex- oneers would not be forgotten. United States,” Saloutos was very future could be greatly enhanced tensive archive anywhere on Greek Among those to whom such letters concerned with the continuation of among college students by sending American history. were sent were two of America’s a Greek identity in the United them on a junior year abroad. What Give There was one problem, howev- most prominent film directors, John States. Obviously, much has better country for Greek American er. The University of Minnesota re- Cassavetes and Elia Kazan. Cas- changed since the book’s initial pub- and philhellenic students to spend a your child quired $100,000 to transport, orga- savetes sent a $1,000 check and a lication. But it is amazing how pre- year in than Greece? By becoming nize and catalogue the Saloutos one-sentence note: “Your letter scient Saloutos was over three more Greek in a secular sense, more a most archives. I was asked by the family touched me.” Elia Kazan, mean- decades ago. He notes the declining people may find their way to Greek to undertake raising the necessary while, sent a $25 check! My wife level of immigration, the rise in in- Orthodoxy in a spiritual manner. In valuable funds, a not inconsiderable sum in said that I should return it. I did not, terfaith marriages, and the assimila- brief, as Saloutos would have 1981. I mainly approached well-to- but wonder what Saloutos would tion of the second and later genera- phrased it, we can have the best of gift do Greek Americans in the Chicago have done. tions of Greek Americans. Of both worlds: Greek and American. area. After explaining the signifi- My own writings on Greek course, we do not know how Sa- cance of preserving the archive, my Americans have obviously been loutos would have reacted to “My Charles Moskos, professor emeri- line was: “I am a professor and do- strongly influenced by my personal Big Fat Greek Wedding,” but my tus at Northwestern University, is A gift that lasts nating $1,000,” the unstated interactions with Saloutos as well as guess is that he would have loved it. the author of “Greek Americans: premise being, “You are much richer by his scholarship. We both had im- My own current thinking, and I Struggle and Success.” He and his a lifetime and can give more.” To my pleasant migrant parents, we both made our wish I could discuss this with Sa- younger son, Peter, assistant pro- surprise, raising the funds was sur- primary academic reputations in loutos, is that if Hellenism is to have fessor at the City University of A Greek American prisingly easy. It was very impor- fields outside of Greek America (Sa- a future in America, we must pro- New York, are completing the tant, however, that the businessman loutos in agricultural history, mine ceed along two avenues: the reli- third edition of the book. Orthodox Education

An education “The Complete Book “The Works of Hippocrates” filled with of Greek Cooking” Translated from the original Greek our language By into Modern English by Recipe Club of St. Paul culture HarperCollins Nicholas Dunkas, M.D., D.L.F.A.P.A. and ethics A valuable leather bound edition Congratulations by the Diachronic Publications of Athens Greece, dis- Enroll your child to the Recipe Club of St. Paul tributed in the U.S. by Hellas Publications. in a nurturing environ- Celebrating their This book could make a truly exquisite gift for a physician, healthcare professional, medical stu- ment, 50 year anniversary dent or an owner of a collective library. enroll in our Nursery, Of For information, please contact or Pre-Kindergarten Promoting Greek Food! Hellas Publications program designed 1210 Sheridan Rd, Evanston, IL 60202 for 3 and Available in all bookstores, on line at Amazon, Tel: 847-491-1194 Barnes and Noble Fax: 847-864-9523 4 year olds And their church bookstore: Email: [email protected] 110 Cathedral Avenue, Hempstead, NY 11550 www.doctordunkas.com Tel.: (516) 483-5700 Come and visit 20 THE NATIONAL HERALD FEBRUARY 23, 2008 A Bilingual Treasure Chest Seeks to define in English virtually every word used in modern Greek

A Modern Greek- from Greek texts. The cited sources sometimes go back to the Byzan- English Dictionary, tine period but more often are Volume 1 from contemporary sources. In short, the examples are not invent- Compiled and edited ed by the maker of the dictionary, by Demetrius J. Georgacas but offer us what publication direc- Melissa International Ltd., tor John N. Kazazis terms a “Com- 811 pages, $120 mon Cultivated Modern Greek and Literary Demotic.” Georgacas was a student of Georgios Hatzidakis, the father of By Dan Georgakas Greek linguistics. In addition to Special to The National Herald study in Athens, he studied with the leading authorities on lan- ost scholarly dictionar- guage in Berlin and later at the ies take decades to cre- University of Chicago. For 12 years ate. This is the case he was an editor at the Center of Mwith “A Modern Greek- the Historical Lexicon at the Acad- English Dictionary ” compiled by emy of Athens, and in the United Demetrius J. Georgacas. In the ear- States he founded the Modern ly 1960s when I visited Georgacas and expertise that has inspired the Greek-English Dictionary Center at (a first cousin), he was already at posthumous publication of what the University of North Dakota, work on the dictionary, financed by became his lifework. where he held a professorship. what would become the United The “MGED” is like no other Throughout his life, Georgacas Internationally-famed linguist Demetrius J. Georgacas (1908-1990) States Department of Education. Greek dictionary in existence. It wrote extensively for specialized was born in the poverty-stricken Peloponnesian village of Sidirokas- He would continue with this his- seeks to define in English virtually journals and became well known tro and immigrated to the United States about 1947. He entered the toric project until his death in 1990 every word used in modern Greek. for the quality of his etymologies. University of Chicago in 1948 to continue his studies in linguistics. at age 82. In that time period he This extends to dialect words from Correctly understanding early in With support from the American government and Greek foundations, would amass more than 2.5 million every region. All meanings of every his career that demotic Greek Demetrios J. Georgacas dedicated three decades to creating a defini- citation slips and thousands of word are given, and for the first would prevail over kathourevousa, tive modern Greek-English dictionary. During that period he was a pages of typescript. Just as crucial- time, the use of every word is docu- he gave considerable attention to professor at the University of North Dakota where he founded and ly, he left a legacy of dedication mented by phrases or passages the sources of the demotic and ex- directed the university's Dictionary Center. pressed surprise at the “astonishing wealth of cultural (or learned) de- North Dakota and the storage ar- noted, assistance for the project al- motic.” In addition to his scholarly eas in the basement of Mont- so came from the Ouranis Founda- writing, he served on the United gomery Hall were devastated. Had tion and the Foundation for Greek Pankration— Nations committee which names the priceless materials not been Culture. Further enhancing this newly discovered heavenly bodies. transported when they were to project is that the Centre for the An Olympic His work on the ongoing “MGED” Thessaloniki, they would have Greek Language has made a data- Combat Sport was funded repeatedly by the Na- been lost. base web-accessible to all interest- Vol I and Vol II tional Endowment for the Arts and The present volume nominally ed persons (www.komvos.edu.gr). various foundations in the United only contains words beginning The “MGED,” to be sure, is not the States and Greece. Numerous with alpha but due to the peculiari- kind of volume that is going to be American and Greek graduate stu- ties of the Greek language and lexi- part of the average person’s library, dents and young philologists cographic methodology in contains but it is an invaluable treasure for worked on the emerging dictio- one-sixth of all Greek words. John scholars in any field of Modern by Andreas V. Georgiou nary, but his closest associate was Kazazis explains that this is due to Greek Studies. It is a must for any • An illustrated reconstruction of the ancient Greek his wife Barbara, a philologist, who the fact that “many words (com- research library and ought to be in mixed martial arts competitions, which lasted over had earned her graduate degree at pounds containing the “alpha every Department of Modern a milenium (7th BC - 4th AD) the University of Chicago. (a/an)” -- privative or copulative, Greek Studies. • Contains a mass of new information on the preparation When Georgacas retired from or the prefixes “ana” or “apo”), The relationship between teaching in 1989, his archive and whose first letter would otherwise Greece and the United States, even for, practice, and techniques of the first and its accompany library were placed place them elsewhere, are included between Greeks and Greek-Ameri- most complete ever combat sport in storage at the basement of in this first volume.” Aristide cans, is not always harmonious or • Necessary reading for those interested in modern mixed Montgomery Hall at the University Caratzas has indicated plans to productive. The creation of this ex- martial arts competition as well as real of North Dakota. After his death, publish the entire dictionary, a traordinary dictionary demon- empty-hand combat Barbara Georgacas was anxious to pledge repeated in the preface by strates the marvelous work that • Reveals lessons from centuries of practice get the material to a scholarly insti- Dimitris Fatouros, president of the can be done when two powerful • Researched with academic standards tution in Greece. She decided the board of directors of the Centre for cultures collaborate. • 100 photos of ancient art showing techniques most suitable site was the new Cul- the Greek language. • Soft cover ($26.99) and hard cover ($32.99) ea. tural Activities Center established Binational funding for publica- Dan Georgakas is a Fellow at the To order: or in Kalamaria, a suburb of Thessa- tion of the dictionary came from Center for Byzantine and Mod- 1 -888-795-4274 www.Xlibris.com loniki. With assistance from the the Hellenic Ministry of National ern Greek Studies at Queens Col- Also available from: Amazon.com Kalamaria City Council, the Geor- Education and Religious Affairs lege-City University of New York. and Barnesandnoble.com gacas Archive and Library were re- and the National Endowment for His most recent book is “My De- To view: www.pankration-combatsport.com located in November of 1996. the Humanities. In addition to troit: Growing Up Greek and Three months later, floods ravaged these funders and others already American in Motor City.”. THE NATIONAL HERALD FEBRUARY 23, 2008 21

ΝΙCHOLAS J. BOURAS 25 DeForest Avenue, Summit, NJ 07902 • We would like to Congratulate All the Greek American Writers Who are Making Literary Contributions to Society 22 THE NATIONAL HERALD FEBRUARY 23, 2008 Reading As a Greek American The rewards of learning about your heritage

By Steve Frangos realm of habitual Greek American sciously raised or not it is unques- Special to The National Herald perceptions. But we have been tionably the reoccurring theme be- abandoned by academics in North ing voiced, again and again, across et us assume that growing American so no one has asked these any number of books. up within a Greek American very fundamental questions. Con- Greeks take everything person- cultural environment makes sequently, you and I have to go di- ally. So there is little organizational Lone something other than a rectly to the artists. Not unexpect- unity beyond family and one’s per- White Anglo-Saxon Protestant who edly when the individual accounts sonal circle of intimates within an happens to eat goat cheese. If that written by Greek Americans are extremely defined community. You is true then our experiences of the read and considered collectively, can also see this in the fiction they surrounding world as Greeks living our shared common heritage or- write, but that is another tale. in North America must have its own ganically emerges. But why take my word for it? Go unique perspective and expressive Implicit in all the biographies, and read any of the over 100 vol- nuances. This Hellenic Eye or collective histories and community umes published biographical ac- Greek American Sensibility would accounts that I have read to date is counts since 1980. That this should allow for seeing, experiencing and the core consideration, “What does be the next logical step for anyone communicating in ways outside or it mean to be Greek?” Now, a num- trying to understand a Greek Amer- simply different from our WASP ber of these books definitely act as ican point of view is really not that brethren. Taking this all to be true, if they already know the answer logical at all. On all fronts Greek by experience as well as basic logic, (which is always family or, at most, American writers, publishers and the question then becomes, “What one’s “dikos”) and so proceeds from what remains of our intellectual exactly is this Hellenic-American that point of view. In Greek, class agree that there is virtually no Sensibility?” “dikos,” loosely translated means unified support or interest from our Or perhaps they are so private in Now just to restate the obvious One would think we should au- an individual’s personal and so community in reading Greek Amer- this I simply have not seen it. we have no statistical evidence tomatically turn to our artists and unique circle of very close friends. ican writers. Or Greek authors, his- But let us presume, for the sake whatsoever that Greeks in America intellectuals for insights into this But whether this question is con- tory or cultural studies for that mat- of argument, that Greek Americans read any more than any one else in ter. are regular readers. How does that the country. So, what do Greek At this point we hit an especially tendency relate to the wider society Americans read (and if they do) re- difficult area to understand. As far in which we live? mains an open unanswered ques- as the United States government Statistics on this issue seem tion. can survey the issue, Greeks in the more anecdotal than academic but Again since we are speaking of United States are nothing if not what is available is provocative in Greeks let us clarify the definition dedicated readers. Since the 1970, the extreme. In “The Twilight of of ‘reading’ one culturally-specific subscribeUnited States Bureau of the Census American Culture” by Morris step further. I have witnessed PRINTED EDITION OF THE NATIONAL HERALD has (allegedly) reported that Berman (New York: WW Norton, Greeks reading newspapers my en- via the post-office: Greeks in America are, when count- 2000) we learn: “(O) f the 158 tire life. Obviously that is exactly ❏ ❏ 1 Month for $9.95 3 Months for $19.95 ed among their own number, near countries in the United Nations, the what you are doing right now. As a ❏ ❏ 6 Months for $29.95 One Year fo $59.85 the top in the nation in education it United States ranks forty-ninth in child I was often a courier taking an VIA HOME DELIVERY (NY, NJ & CT): seems that this statistical feat could literary. Roughly 60 percent of the article, a single newspaper or even ❏1 Month for $12.95 ❏3 Months for $29.95 only have been accomplished adult population has never read a an entire stack of newspapers from ❏ ❏ 6 Months for $43.99 One Year for $80.00 through dedicated reading habits. book of any kind, and only 6 per- one Greek to another. To this day, I VIA HOME DELIVERY (NEW ENGLAND, PENNSYLVANIA, How else could a large percentile of cent reads as much as one book a regularly receive and send news WASHINGTON D.C., VIRGINIA & MARYLAND) Greek-Americans have advanced year, where book is defined to in- clippings and entire newspapers to ❏1 Month for $15.95 ❏3 Months for $37.45 educational degrees? clude Harlequin romances and self- relatives and friends. But I think ❏ ❏ 6 Months for $51.75 One Year for $99.00 Or so one would think. My per- help manuals. Something like 120 this has much to do with Greek no- ON LINE SUBSCRIPTION www.thenationalherald.com sonal experience with Greeks in million adults are illiterate or read tions and interest in “ta nea” rather NON SUBSCRIBERS: ❏One Year for $45.95 America is that individually consid- at no better than a fifth-grade level. than reading explicitedly as plea- ❏3 Months for $18.95 ered they have each mastered their Among readers age 21 to 35, 67 sure, reading as a matter of intel- ❏ ❏ SUBSCRIBERS: One Year for $34.95 3 Months for $14.95 job or profession. But that does not percent regularly read a daily lectual pursuit and all the rest. mean they are reading Proust by newspaper in 1965, as compared Another point of cultural clarifi- NAME: ...... flashlight under their blankets at with 31 percent in 1998.” (36). cation is that Greek Americans also ADDRESS: ...... night. It does translate into their Saul Bellow’s essay, “Hidden respond quite strongly to celebrity CITY:...... STATE: ...... ZIP:...... reading related to work. My per- Within Technology’s Empire, a Re- culture. By this I mean once a TEL.: ...... E-MAIL:...... CELL...... sonal theory, then, is that Greeks public of Letters,” compounds Greek American writer becomes PLEASE SEND A GIFT SUBSCRIPTION TO: are pragmatic problem-oriented Berman’s report on reading by not- widely acclaimed by Americans, we NAME: ...... readers. Whatever affects their ing: “(A)ccording to one recent find that Greeks will line up to hear ADDRESS: ...... work or daily lives will peak their study 55 percent of American them lecture or buy their books. CITY:...... STATE: ...... ZIP:...... interest and so they will “read up” spend less than 30 minutes reading This works to our collective detri- TEL.: ...... E-MAIL:...... CELL...... on the manner at hand. But that is anything at all.” ment. In responding to this celebri- Please specify method of payment very much a supposition. And just to throw one last figure ty frenzy Greek-Americans will sup- I enclose a check/money order for $ ...... made payable to: The National Herald, Inc., 37-10 30th Street, Long Island City, NY 11101 - 2614 I say all this because I have not into the puzzle according to one re- port writers of Greek descent who or please debit my ❏ Mastercard ❏ Visa ❏ American Express witnessed Greeks, as a group, as port in 2004 alone, 194,000 books have no knowledge, or often re- avid readers. Curious readers, yes, were published. The highest num- gard, for their Greek heritage such CARD NUMBER: ...... so much so that when their person- ber ever published up to that time as the snide and almost always con- EXPIRATION DATE: ...... SIGNATURE:...... al interests are awakened they be- (www.alternet.org/story/22176). So, descending David Sedaris. come surprisingly astute re- if Americans are not a nation of It may be that Eugenides won searchers, but still not lost-in-the- readers who is buying (and pre- the Pulitzer Prize for “Middlesex” story kind of readers. sumably reading) all those books? but this book even allowing for THE NATIONAL HERALD FEBRUARY 23, 2008 23

‘artistic license’ is simply perverse. was visiting Pueblo, Colorado and going to have to create such a li- True Greek American artists, and by suggested that as one of their Cen- brary for yourself. You will have to that phrase I mean those who re- tennial speakers they have Harry seek out Greek American nonfic- flect and comment upon their her- Mark Petrakis only a few people tion, fiction, culture and anthro- itage through their art, such as Lu- knew who I was speaking about. pology, history, music, art, chil- cas Samaras, Diamando Galas There is no rhyme or reason for dren’s literature and all the rest. and/or Theodora Skipitaris employ this ongoing and open distain of Yes, on occasion you will buy extreme forms of art. These artistic our own writers. As a case in point, books you absolutely hate and re- expressions (which are also often Thomas Doulis, one of our most ac- gret buying. When that happens performance art) many within our claimed writers, has had to see his just go to your bookshelf and see community at large would label ob- first explicitedly Greek American all the exceptional books you have scene or perverse. Yet these three novel, “The Open Hearth” die at the already discovered and read. Then individuals employ art not simply press, from lack of support. Why? remember that there are so many to express themselves (or redeem Do you have to hear from others more wonderful Greek American themselves and others) but as the who to read or do you suggest books you have not as yet read. forum to unabashedly identify and Greek American authors to others? Self-awareness through shared his- rage against injustice, domination I remain deeply impressed by the torical experience isn’t something and hate. extremely high quality of writing they teach in Greek school but it’s That this type of Greek art has seen in the Mondo Greco volume true nevertheless. not been as actively embraced as “The Greek American Experience.” No one will be Greek for you. say the film “My Big Fat Greek Wed- Yet even with this landmark volume Belong in Every Home from Classic Ferebee also includes a section on But then the discovery of that fact ding” speaks more to our collective the publisher has disappeared or Novels to Children’s Stories to His- where to purchase the suggested and even reading about it are their desire to look good to non-Greeks gone into seclusion. I am not even tory and Biography.” This volume books. own reward. that it does to our individual recog- sure you can still buy that specific is organized into 10 separate sec- Ferebee’s volume can definitely nition of own true selves as we en- issue. What if he had our collective tions with necessary subsections. serve as a model for any American Steve Frangos is a regular con- gage or ignore what our artists are support? Essentially each section is a listing ethnic group or subculture. Unfor- tributor to The National Herald. testifying or revealing via their art. We have to begin consciously of books with the full title and a tunately, since no such volume ex- Readers can reach him at Greek- But even the celebrity label has reading as Greek Americans. It paragraph describing each volume. ists for Greek Americans you are [email protected]. limited credence among us. Theo won’t work any other way. Certain- Halo’s “Not Even My Name” be- ly we can look around us for mod- came famous outside the communi- els on how best to go about this ty, and while she has received hon- process. In the 1930 classic, “How ors from various Greek organiza- to Read A Book,” by Mortimer J. tions her book still remains, by all Adler and Charles Van Doren we DR. JAMES H. DOUNDOULAKIS accounts, a bestseller largely out- learn various systematic tech- side our ranks. niques for recognizing the internal D.M.D., M.S., F.A.C.D. We also begrudge our artists a structure of different kinds of basic living. I have seen this over books and how to go about reading and over. One particular example for specific kinds of information. COSMETIC DENTAL REHABILITATION, PC can stand for many others. I was in The only aspect of reading I 53 East 66th Street (between Park and Madison Ave.), New York, NY 10021 the office of a major Greek Ameri- think Adler and Van Doren fail to can cultural institution when they consider in this classic volume is (212) 517-3365 reported to me that they were hap- the subject of periodic re-reading. py that Nicholas Gage came to As we age and read more our no- www.cosmeticdentalny.com speak, but that they had to turn tions of the world and ourselves Theo Halo down. I asked why and automatically changes. So too Porcelain Laminates, was told Halo had asked for plane when we re-read any given book or fare, housing, food and an honorar- field of study we reassess with a Tooth Bleaching Implants ium. The staff person telling me new/renewed perspective vol- this story laughed because, as she umes, authors and subjects we nor- said, “How ridiculous was that.” mally believe we have already mas- “Extreme Make Over” The gossiper thought that since tered. Gage had donated his time to help Clearly where Modern Greek Featured on ABC-TV's the institution, that is what Halo Studies has most severely failed should have done. the collective Hellenic diaspora is But where is the respect for in never compiling, to my knowl- "THE VIEW" Theo Halo’s work (let alone her edge, a lifetime reading plan. person) in those remarks? “Why is Many books exist in English with starring Barbara Walters! the laborer not worth their wages?” this long-term view of reading and as our WASP brethren say? This is learning in mind. What are the Visit our website for video! truly a universal attitude among classic works of the diaspora? Greeks in North America. Every What are the essential volumes not For information on cosmetic dental Greek thinks they have worked ex- simply of the Classic Greek Era or a b options and implant tooth replacement, tremely hard and sacrificed greatly Byzantine period but Hellenistic for their life, money, social standing and the Turkokratia? With more read "THE PERFECT SMILE" and so on. And they bemoan “those scholars than at any previous time http://dentsplyfc.com/Recommended_Reading/ cheap Greeks” who never pay their in history holding university posi- share of our collective community’s tions all across the planet why is Recommended_Reading.shtml, ultimate real world expenses. As such a reading list or music discog- published by the Hatherleigh Press my yiayia used to say, “Hunchback raphy or art catalog not in print? look at your own hump!” More to our collective purpose You can review the book by going to Ultimately the fundamental here in Ameriki we need a book question here is when did you last such as Dorothy L. Ferebee’s, “How www.healthylivingbooks.com! read a book about or by a Greek or to Create Your Own African Ameri- Type "doundoulakis" in the author box! Greek-American? Can you even can Library” (New York: Ballantine name a Greek or Greek American Books, 2003). The subtitle of this author? I’m deadly serious. When I book is “A Selection of Books That ✽

K 24 THE NATIONAL HERALD FEBRUARY 23, 2008 Y M C “The German Gestapo gave up on him, he was too well-trained to be caught”

n American-born boy who moved to Crete when he was two years old, Helias Doundoulakis experi- A enced a life-changing moment at eighteen, when Adolf Hitler’s elite paratroopers seized control of his land. Still in high school, he joined a resistance organization during the German occupation.

Avoiding capture by the Gestapo, he was evacuated to Cairo, Egypt, where he was recruited by the OSS (Office of Strategic Services) and received six months of spy training. Transformed into an adept and skillful spy, he was sent on a dangerous mission back to Greece, and his reports on German troop movements to OSS Headquarters in Cairo inflicted great losses to the enemy — and silently turned the tide of World War II.

Today, Doundoulakis stands as one of the world’s leading scientists and inventors; one among the few whose signatures are found on two plaques that have been left on the moon by Apollo 11 and Apollo 12.

In I Was Trained To Be A Spy, Doundoulakis boldly re- visits the past century as he shares his cinematic life story, in a memoir that features the momentum, tension, and action of a You can order a copy of fictional spy thriller. In this sterling volume, the author mas- I Was Trained To Be A Spy terfully narrates his powerful tale of life against imposing at this online bookstore: www.Xlibris.com odds, and the grim realities of war. It is also a story of transfor- ISBN13 (TP) : 978-1-4257-5379-5 mation, a startling portrait of an ordinary man’s evolution — ISBN13 (HB) : 978-1-4257-5395-5 through the cultivation of inborn strengths and intense train- www.iwastrainedtobeaspy.com ing — into a spy of world-class caliber. K Y M C ✽