1 comments about The Feasts of Memory: Stories of a Greek Family.

1. Regaining a Lost Homeland Through Stories
   
   The book The Feasts of Memory: Stories of a Greek Family, by Elias Kulukundis (hereafter EK), was largely inspired by the author's experience of ksenitia, loss of one's homeland, the homeland which EK recreates narratively through an ethnographically rich collection of stories, anecdotes, and embellished personal histories. Conveying both a quiet sense of humor and an unmistakable aura of human warmth, The Feasts of Memory represents EK's attempt to understand his own identity as a transnational cosmopolitan as he explores, through stories, the complex mentality of those whose lives have been shaped by conflicting elements from diverse cultural sources.
   The stories of EK's text are a colorful mixture of family history, island lore, and nurtured imagination, spanning five generations, three continents, and countless journeys, both imagined and actual. The author's ultimate destination and narrative focus is Kasos, the remote Greek island in the Southeastern Aegean, birth place of his maternal and paternal grandparents, as well as four of his paternal uncles. Before actually reaching his journey's end, however, EK moves from London, England, his own birth place, to New York, his adopted home, back to mainland Greece and the Greek island of Syros, where his parents lived until emigrating first to England and then to North America, before he finally reaches the island of Kasos. Solitary and unadorned, yet shaped by the multiple influences of Phoenician, Hellenic, Byzantine, Ottoman, and Dodecanesian cultural production, Kasos seems also to function as EK's psychological homeland. This might explain why EK begins his richly descriptive account of Kasiot history with the introspective observation that "The island is like me, and the island's life is like my life." (p. 175).
   Yet the majority of the stories focus on the residents of Kasos across the centuries, and with great attention to detail the author depicts the sights, smells and sounds of lived human experience in a traditional Greek island community. For example, in the story "The Unknown God," the author tells a more lusty and earthbound version of the traditional island story that foregrounds female virtue and its miraculous rewards during the yearly summer feast days of Kleithona. In EK's story, we meet both an innocent and pious young Kasiot woman who follows prescribed island custom to the letter, as well as the less than innocent household maid whose illicit love affairs are discovered and dealt with summarily by a team of righteous old women. In another story, "The Hollow Crown," the author again creates a more spicy variation of a familiar theme, in this instance gently poking fun at the local custom of arranged marriage. In EK's story, a guileless young doctor, through a series of unwitting social blunders and comical miscommunications, finds himself betrothed to two local women, but due to his own ineptitude and his mother's meddling, ends up marrying neither.
   In addition to narrating a series of heart-warming and oftentimes amusing stories, EK is an excellent prose stylist whose skillful yet accessible style of writing makes this book appealing to a wide range of readers, in both academic and lay circles. In my case, after reading this book, which was recommended to me by a university professor, I decided to re-read it with high school juniors and seniors whom I teach at an American international secondary school in Greece. Many students in my class are like EK in that during the course of their lives, they have lived in and been shaped by a number of different linguistic and cultural communities and oftentimes express similar self-searching sentiments when contemplating issues of homeland and identity. The last time I used The Feasts of Memory with secondary students, I also asked them to use EK's work as a springboard for writing their own auto-ethnography, and the results were quite impressive. For example, one of my students, an ethnic Chinese, was born in Italy, attended local public schools in Italy and Spain, and now lives with his extended Chinese family in Greece, where he is attending an English language international secondary school. His essay, inspired by EK's book, presented an intimate description of what it is like to grow up in a traditional Chinese family in Greece while trying to socialize according to Greek norms and manage the academic expectations of an American-style international school. Another student, a young man from Spain whose parents work in the military, wrote about the constant moves to foreign (for him) countries and the heartaches as well as the privileges that such a lifestyle offers. Other students have responded to the humor in the book, using it as a model for their own stories of misunderstanding and reconciliation.
   In sum, the stories in The Feasts of Memory are extremely well written and deeply moving. I recommend this book very strongly, to all those who have ever crossed a boundary, be it national, cultural, or social, and also to those who haven't but might want to trace the steps of a seasoned traveller who has.

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1 comments about Macedonia Passage: Dangerous Cargo.

1. Tugboat captain, sailor, and boat racer Wright Gres presents Macedonia Passage: Dangerous Cargo, an engaging modern-day adventure on the seas, mixed with Balkan politics and a touch of romance. When Captain Frank Brown signs on to join the crew of Belle Tata in a transatlantic crossing from a Caribbean island, he has no idea what he's about to get into. The schooner's former captain and cook have vanished under mysterious circumstances; a perilous cargo is stashed within the yacht's bilges; and one problem after another plagues the voyage. When Brown reaches the Mediterranean, he finds himself caught in a crossroads of authorities and conspirators. Turkish intelligence gets involved, in the person of the comely yet mysterious agent Nevser Akkaya Chase. Together, she and Brown must untangle the mystery, figure out who they can trust, and fight for their lives in this high seas blend of danger, courage, and intrigue.

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5 comments about Sonnet: One Woman's Voyage from Maryland to Greece.

1. An anorexic woman whines her way across the Atlantic and Med. No sense of adventure or accomplishment to the feat - just an endless litany of angst and self-doubt laced with an empty, transparent pseudofeminism. Not really a book about a sailing adventure at all. In fact, if someone in your life is interested in sailing and you would like to discourage them - give them this book!



2. I didn't want to put this book down. I found the relationships aspect most compelling, although the details of sailing, the weather, the boat itself, and the experiences at various marinas are crucial to the story, since all that creates the backdrop against which the human interactions, and the growth of the narrator, take place. I had to keep reminding myself it wasn't a novel. Also, having studied, and taught, a little American women's history, I kept seeing all four women as representative of various cultural prescriptions (and proscriptions) which most of us struggle with.

   I found Monica (Bird's first crew member), fascinating. I saw her as a frightened woman, dishonest with herself as well as with others, doing what people who feel powerless often do, that is, try to control their world through manipulation.

   I identified more with Elaine, at least on one front, since I'm the type who demands a life jacket if I embark on a canoe trip in a three-foot-deep lily pond. At the same time, I saw her as buying into the very patriarchal, male-dominated military system. Probably a very strong woman but maybe a little rigid and quick to judgment.

   I liked very much the relationship that developed between the author and Skyli. The occasional descents into self-doubt, the constant self-examination and analysis of others seemed pretty typical of a female world. At one point, Bird (like the professor in My Fair Lady) wishes women could be more like men. But our tendency to read between the lines and second guess others has probably been our greatest survival mechanism.

   In short, I was impressed. By the voyage, the author's willingness to risk in so many ways (with the elements and with relationships), and by the book itself. And I mustn't forget to mention the pure poetry of much of the prose.




3. As a woman who has crossed the Atlantic Ocean, Bird's book was a superb actualization of what I had experienced my self. In fact prior to my journey across the ocean I was seeking out a woman's voice which shared the interpersonal challenges of crossing an ocean. Bird's book depicts the clarity and raw emotions of such a journey. I resonated with her experience and truly appreciated the vulnerability with which she wrote and shared her story. I have found no other woman writer to provide this personal experience. Most write about provisioning, standing watches; the how tos of ocean crossings. Bird brings much more of the voyage to life. I highly recommend this book to people who want a personal account of sailing single-handed.



4. This is one of the few books I could stand to read on this subject. Im so sick of reading storys about the "reluctant mate", and so happily read this book about a wife who wants to go more than her husband wants to go. ( I guess because I idnetify with it) It shows you to, that sialing away doesnt sail away from your problems - she has all the same issues out there on the water and with other crew mates as she would at home. The whole story was very entertaining...I hope I can do what shes done someday- either by myself, or dragging my husband aboard. It was soo soo good to read about a STRONG COMPETANT female sailor for a change! I hope she writes more!



5. Lydia Bird's story of her Atlantic crossing solo on her 42' sailboat Sonnet and her trip from the Azores to Greece with crew is well written and intriguing. This is not just another "how to" book about boating, but rather a psychological tale that is almost embarrassingly personal. Indeed it was too personal for my taste although I admit to finding it all interesting and well written. I felt like a voyeur at times reading a secret diary I had found unlocked. Lydia (I call her "Lydia" because by the end of the book you feel like you know her so well) also says some very personal and painful things about her family, her friends and their mates. Was such honesty really necessary? Hmmm...I wonder.
   
   As a boater I found especially interesting that Lydia writes in detail about engine problems and hassles docking and undocking her boat, which in fact is what many of us sailors struggle with most. I found it refreshing that someone has written about the angst involved in these seemingly trivial events. In fact there's nothing quite so hair-raising as maneuvering around windswept docks in a sailboat, trying to get the thing into the slip without smashing something, while the engine threatens to stall. Most sailors have been there, trust me, but no else describes it like Lydia does. Lydia manages to capture the pathos and bathos of these sorts of situations.
   
   And in my opinion her poetry is pretty good.

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