Customer Reviews

Aristo's Family

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Aristo's hypnotism of his son through the 'Greek lessons' which he gives his son Pavlos, in the guise of home tuition, is so subtly introduced that I found I had to pull myself up at times to avoid going under the same influence as the teenager himself.

Why is Aristo hypnotising his son? It gradually becomes apparent that the boy has to be 'prepared' to meet a family of an altogether different kind to any he could have otherwise recognised or imagined.

The family turn out to be modern people but possessed by the spirit of their ancient Greek Cypriot ancestors and, more sinister for the teenage Pavlos, the gathering he is being slowly integrated with have a mission - to cleanse Pavlos after he has been discovered to have shamed his father by sleeping with a middle-aged woman who is an English archaeologist working with Aristo in his private museum.

Yes, the book is uncannily creepy in a way I haven't found in other authors and yet, for me, I had to keep reading because I wanted to see if the the boy could come closer to a father who seemed only interested in moulding and controlling his son.

It turns out that Aristo is as much to be pitied as his son their individual needs to be loved by family somehow excluding the possibility of their loving each other as father and son - Aristo needing to feel he belongs to the family he lost in the Turkish invasion of Cyprus, Pavlos needing to feel he is loved by a father who is totally preoccupied with his creepy search for lost family.

Twists in the Tale

The time warp that the author takes the reader into, from modern to ancient Cypriots, might make you feel you're reading one of the Greek myths and I suspect the author could be influenced by his own reading of the epic ones. Yet for me it wasn't so much the mystery and atmosphere Nickford conjures but more the powerful irony that impacts.

The irony is that, while the archaeologist Aristo yearns to belong to the family who were all taken from him when burnt in the Turkish invasion of Cyprus in 1974, Aristo's, himself divorced and living alone with his only surviving son, Pavlos, still yearns to belong and mean something to his family again and this makes him so preoccupied that he becomes remote from his own teenage son, Pavlos. In turn, Pavlos yearns to mean more to his father, Aristo, who has started to drive up through the winding roads of the Troodos mountains at night, leaving Pavlos alone, to find his 'family'. Even when he returns home to his son, Aristo seems increasingly distant, not just preoccupied but possessed by people he meets up in mountain dwellings at night and who seem to have some strangely ancient habits.

When Pavlos awakens to the realisation that he can hypnotise his father then, once in trance, he hears his father begin to utter things which reveal a disturbing link to a family who once lived millennia ago and yet who are now returning to "make his son clean" after Aristo found him beneath the beautiful middle-aged archaeologist colleague of his, Katharine.

In places you have to suspend disbelief but in doing so the story becomes both very engaging and original.

Though at times it has the flavour of myth, Aristo's Family is firmly rooted in the realities of modern Cyprus and I found it, more than anything else, a moving portrayal of a father and son alone - remote even from one another in the normal sense of family and yet each with an inner craving to be close.

Having wondered whether a modern Greek 'Aristo' could have any link to an ancient 'Aristotle' - the book description hinting at the ancient link - I began to sample the ebook version of this novel, not least because I'd also noticed from the author notes that Raymond Nickford is himself part Greek Cypriot and knows the island well.

The writing obviously benefits from the author's own connection with his scenes and, indirectly, his distinctly Greek characters. Aristo, Stefanos and the eccentric Spiropoulos seem too ooze with their Ouzo and mischievous island manners, the culture of the village Greek Cypriot almost climbing out of the page. Spiropoulos is described : "The inspector's smile had widened. He looked much like a contented imbecile; as though the world was made of honey and almond blossom," and later "That was the wink, and now Spiropoulos jerking Papas' shoulders into him so hard that some Metaxa had spilt on to the inspector's suit, and he was now so close to Papas he was in danger either of kissing or anaesthetising him with his breath.
'Kopiaste?' Papas turned from the man's breath with a pained smile."

The same loving detail of character is also given to the scenes and settings. I felt I was travelling up into the moonlit mountains alone with Aristo and I felt the haunting presence he feels of the spirits of Ancient Greek islanders lurking behind the crags in the rocks, watching his every move.

For the price this is easily as good a read from beginning to end as other literary thrillers I've paid much more for in paperback and even in ebook over the year.

I'm not sure if this book would make me want to go to Cyprus but it definitely would make me want to go on the time travel it takes to ancient Cyprus. It's not that the settings aren't convincing. They're really well researched and must have something to do with the author being part Cypriot himself. But the way the teenage Pavlos - born of an English mother and having to adapt to the Cyprus of his eccentric dad's private Paphos museum - has to struggle to feel he belongs in his father's affections is so well done, it's almost as if you want to escape, with Pavlos, from the island.

Otherwise great on character - Spiropoulos the educational inspector for home tuition from Nicosia and Stefanos the ancient Greek with a scythe and a mission to make Pavlos 'clean' are both unforgetablle - especially when the only thing that has made Pavlos 'dirty' in their ancient minds is the tender relationship the teenager develops for Katherine, a beautiful archaeologist colleague of her father's at the museum who, at 45 years to his 16, has more than popcorn with him.

Reckon I started to read Aristo's Family as a bet. I bet myself the author couldn't make the Cyprus I've seen interesting. I spent two weeks near Ayia Napa and the modern hotels and night life could have been in England's Newcastle had it not been for the difference of language and the unique aromas of restaurant food out of doors through a humid evening on the island.

Nickford has either done a lot of research or else spent a lot of time in the villages and in the Troodos Mountains where the tourists don't go so much. For me, the night scenes, Aristo's Land Rover spiralling upwards round narrow stony bends between the fir trees and Aleppo pines to find an isolated cottage on the site where his ancient ancestors once lived, crept me out the way this author does it.

When you do begin to meet Aristo's so-called 'family' it's the more chilling because they seem so normal on the outside. But there are subtle hints which build the tension around the idea that the people he meets up with at night in the mountain dwelling are in some way 'inhabited' by people who have long been dust, yet whose spirits still have this strange lust to make Aristo's boy Pavlos 'clean' ... in a sort of ancient purification for sins of the body that the teenager has had with a middle aged woman.

The romance between the boy and the older woman wouldn't normally be my cup of tea but it grew on me, the seduction too subtle and tender to be erotic but in places not far off.

A bit of a slow burner to start but grabbed me with its faithfulness to Cypriot culture and scenes, and then the dark and looming threat of ancients who are not pleased.

When I first saw the title of this book, I have to confess I thought the 'Aristo' meant it was going to be about the family of an 'aristocrat,' which didn't overly interest me, as I've not much time for celebrity.

Of course the agonised ancient and the lady in the tent on the front cover then adjusted first impressions, and on reading the reviews by Barbara Erskine and Allen Synge, the mention of an "exotic setting" and a book comparable with John Fowles' "The Magus", I realised the Aristo was short for 'Aristotle', the Greek.

As it happens, I've read "The Magus" and all the eerie magic of events on Fowles' island of intrigue, so I thought I'd have to give this a go. Of course Aristo's Family doesn't have the Fowles' touch but there's definitely a very individual voice at work in this novel which kept me fascinated. I think it was the sad but powerful theme of a child's need to belong to a father and a father's distance from his son when the father is obsessed - perhaps I should say crazed - which really moved me as I got deeper into this novel. Archaeologist, Aristo's consuming need to spend all his time, not on his son, but on trying to excavate for traces of his family which he has been told were all burnt and unidentifiable after the Turks invaded northern Cyprus in 1974, is one of the best parts of this book, even though the chase through the Troodos mountains and the threat of Pavlos's being 'cleansed' by Greeks of another era is good if you like to bite your fingernails off.

The description of Cypriot villages and villagers, and the author being part Greek Cypriot, for me lends Aristo's Family the faithfulness to detail and plausibility which makes the book a really satisfying read - as much for its moving family relationship as it is for its seemingly first-hand knowledge of Cyprus and Greek culture.

All-in-all, a book that made me re-assess some of my presuppositions about life in Cyprus - both modern and ancient, and characters like Aristo, his troubled son, Pavlos and Pavlos' lover, "Katerina" who I felt almost accompanied me on most pages of the book.

A Child from the Wishing Well

Aristo's Family is a powerful character-driven novel but doesn't suffer as do some of the literary thrillers of its kind from any slowing of tension or pace as a result. From the start, nuggets of information hint that Aristo's 'family' is furtive, creepy, occupying isolated dwellings in the Troodos mountains at night, uncannily out of tune with contemporary life - in fact, just possibly ancients in a modern world, but as Aristo's only teenage son, Pavlos, gradually realises they are, above all sinister as well as shadowy.

When Aristo is regressed in hypnosis he unexpectedly begins to reveal to his son direct knowledge of another life and a direct knowledge of ancient Greek individuals who want to make Pavlos 'clean' after Aristo had discovered his boy taking much more than verbal comfort from a pretty archaeologist colleague of his, Katherine.

At times, I found that I had to take the cleansing ritual and the ancient misuse of the scythe with a pinch of salt but there is nothing gratuitous or shocking in a forced way in Raymond Nickford's treatment of this theme.

This brings me back to what I mean by the emotional power of this book. While Pavlos is put in jeopardy and we wonder whether, frankly he may end up with a very high pitched voice if Aristo's 'family' finally catch up with him, even so, it's the underlying message about the acute tunnel vision of one culture's perception of a teenage boy having sex with a 45 year old woman and the need to punish it as 'unclean' that lends this book its own fascination for me.

Through all this menace, Pavlos wants only to believe in his Dad again, to trust that Aristo is not leading him to a family which will endanger him but, after all, trying to get closer to the son, born of an English mother, and to whom he's never really been able to properly relate.

A very unusual book but researched well enough to keep it plausible and specially interesting if you want a free trip to the Troodos mountains and their unique atmosphere, to smell the firs and the eucalyptus without needing to see them fleetingly over the heads of those in a plane, coach or car.

From the start, I felt I was living along with the strangely hypnotic Aristo, his emotionally confused son, Pavlos, and the very strange night visitors to Aristo's private museum of Greek antiquities in Paphos, Cyprus. Nickford seems to get you so involved with the conflicts between the characters - Pavlos's need to belong more to his father, his father's need to trace his so-called 'family' - that you find yourself more deeply engulfed in the sinister, without having seen it coming. When Pavlos falls into trance at the hands of his father and then overhears visitors to the museum who seem to be speaking in 'ancient' Greek at the late-night 'staff meetings' I couldn't help feeling that he couldn't have what he most needed at that moment in his life - his father's emotional closeness.
This is a demanding novel, more a literary thriller, yet once I'd bathed in the writing it really grew on me.
Aristo is remote and an enigma until the end but I think Pavlos redeems the book as a central and very accessible teenager who I, as an adult (and once a teenager), can easily identify, if not sympathise.
Generally a moving and refreshing angle on the genre.

Twists in the Tale

Needs a bit of slang to make the teenage Pavlos totally credible but he's very individual and perhaps this is where I think the book wins out for me.

The Greek characters: Spiropoulos the Education Inspector from Nicosia with his bad breath and back slapping bon ami, then Katharine and her English rose charm, Pavlos and his need to feel he belongs to a father obsessed with finding a mythical family, and then Stefanos's menace with the ancient Greek scythe that can 'make Pavlos clean' - all left me with the feeling that this was a powerful character driven book with an impact all of its own.

The hidden-away Troodos mountain dwellings, where Aristo's eerie family live a strange life of their own, adds to the lingering sense of jeopardy and tension. But I have to say that, for me, the most unforgettable part of this novel comes from the middle-aged Katerina's role in seducing the lonely young Pavlos... graphic yet tender.

I wondered whether I could chance following the author reviews on Aristo's Family because I was fascinated with the concept of the teenage Pavlov's consuming need to belong to a dad, Aristo, who had become so obsessed with tracing his family that he had almost totally distanced his son from him.

Although the book is closer to literary fiction, and sometimes forces you to think deeply about the characters, the insights that are gained make this really well worth the read if you like a book which revels in the English language, has different layers of meaning and is yet eerie and tense.

The descriptions of the Troodos mountains in Cyprus and the ancestor masks lining the walls of Aristo's museum home in Paphos reveal the kind of home that Aristo's son has to grow up in, which must have been very disturbing. When this is added to the boy's loneliness, while his father devotes his time to excavating human remains, which he believes to be those of his family killed in the Turkish invasion of Cyprus in 1974, we get a window into a dysfunctional relationship between father and son which, as the book goes on, shifts towards a really moving resolution.

This book is like a meeting between Stephen King and Ian Mcewan, and yet unique to Nickford.

A Child from the Wishing Well