Customer Reviews

Eurydice Street: A Place in Athens

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This charming book was written by a British lady who goes to live in Athens with her Greek-born husband and pre-adolescent daughters. The fact that she is an anthropologist gives her analysis of the city and the Greeks a depth and completeness they would not otherwise have. She loves the Greeks and their ways of living and their values, but she is not therefore blinded to the way they sometimes take moral shortcuts and fail to live up to who and what they claim to be. Her overriding goal is to fit in and be accepted as a Greek wife and mother and citizen. She is delighted when her daughters rapidly learn the language. She relishes her new Greek friendships. She is saddened by the fast pace of urbanization and bemoans the way it combines all the country's worst traits: corruption, money-madness, rejection of traditional values. She knows Greeks have no monopoly on these traits but she hates to see them in a country she loves so thoroughly. The author has quite a sound sense of history and is keenly aware of all the historical and ethnic elements that make up modern Greece. Highly recommended.

In my search for books that would give me a sense of what it's like to live in contemporary Greece, I found Eurydice Street, a book by an anthropologist who is married to a former expatriate Greek. The author and her husband decided in 2001 to move to Greece to live, and raise their two young daughters as Greeks. They find a house in Athens on Eurydice Street, and begin their first year living in Athens as Greek citizens. This book is the story of that year. I have read several books about modern Greece, but Eurydice Street is one of only two (the other being Dinner with Persephone) that I consider outstanding. By "outstanding", I mean that not only is the book well written, but it goes beneath the surface to convey not just customs, practices and descriptions of landscape, but the psychological and feeling aspects of life in the Greek culture. I came away feeling that I understand something about the way Greek people experience life.

Ms. Zinovieff writes extremely well, and she brings her anthropologist's eye for cultural norms and folkways to her account. The book takes us through the year, starting in the dead heat of August, and each chapter focuses on a particular aspect of Greek culture -- the festival of Panaigia, Oxi Day, November 17, the Greek way of celebrating Christmas, which is to celebrate the New Year instead, and of course, Easter. Even though the chapters each focus on a particular event in Greek life, they flow naturally because the author experiences these events as part of her family's daily life.

By the time you've finished the book, you feel that if you went to Greece to live for a period of time, you would be going to a familiar place that you understand. This is a wonderful book, and I recommend it highly.

Greece is a country of extremes and exaggerated characters. So, it is not surprising that many non-Greek writers describing their experience of Greece and the Greek people have little difficulty telling picturesque anecdotes. Gerald Durrell's books and essays amuse the reader, thought Durrell's writing has a tendency to mock the Greeks from a position of presumed British cultural superiority; and in somewhat the same tradition we have John Mole's account (It's All Greek to Me). Lawrence Durrell (Prospero's Cell) just does not get it quite right; two and a half years and layers of literary pretensions are, respectively, too little and too much to do Corfu justice. Henry Miller (The Colossus of Maroussi) was overwhelmed by his experience, and the gushing metaphorical excess of his account tells us more about his emotional state then it does about the country. Greece seems to draw this kind of awe-struck reaction from Anglo-American travelers.

It is a refreshing change to encounter this book by Sofka Zinovieff who is enough of a foreigner to see things with a fresh eye, and yet enough of an insider to really understand what she sees. Her academic training enables her to penetrate the appearances of things, and to draw out the truths behind the Greeks' popular myths and definitions of themselves. To this she brings a wealth of anthropological, historical, sociological and political insight without converting this lovely light hearted and entertaining book into a studious tome. It is a wonderful account and strongly recommended.

An expat in Athens myself, I eagerly devour any accounts written by others in hopes I might find a kindred soul or nuggets of wisdom I've somehow overlooked. I did not find either in this book.

Consulting with other expats whose opinions I value, they concurred that this book was boring and the author used every opportunity to name drop or prove how connected she is, so I was shocked to find so many glowing reviews here. Everyone I know tried in vain to get through a chapter at a time, nodded off, then put this book down for good. That's what I did. The only person I met who liked this book is a trailing spouse of a wealthy Greek with children, much like the author who comes from a well-to-do family and is married to a diplomat. This is not how the majority of real people live in Athens or anywhere in Greece; this is an account of a privileged life in which the bureaucracy and infrastructure so ingrained in Greek society have been removed. People who believe this is a charming "slice of everyday life in Athens" or "spot on" are either people visiting Greece once a year or living in Greece as Greeks and/or rich.

I know how difficult it is to write a book and really wanted to like it, and I'm sure people will vote 'no' on whether this review was helpful to punish me, but I believe in being honest nevertheless. This was not a page turner and was sold, since I had no intention of ever picking it up again. Sorry!

Eurydice Street is a beautifully written account of a British woman of Greek and Russian ancestry, who moves to Greece with her expatriate Greek husband and their two young daughters. As a trained anthropologist and a journalist, she reflects on her observations of present-day Greece. The family rents a maisonette on Eurydice Street in Vouliagmeni, a suburb of Athens. Written in first person, author Sofka Zinovieff transports her reader to Athens, vividly detailing the country's culture, her morals, religious holidays, ancient wars, Greek war of independence from the Ottoman Empire, World War 11, the communist civil war, among other topics, perhaps more than a reader cares to read. However, it's a serendipitous way of learning the history and culture of a country that has been ravaged by wars and foreign invaders. Eurydice Street is more than a one woman's travelogue but a search into a country's psyche. This book is informational, at times amusing, and insightful; not a boring book, as one reviewer claimed. He was in the wrong genre. I recommend this book to any one who cares to learn about Greece, why the country is what it is today, and simply looking for a good read.

Pauline Hager, author

Memoirs of an American Housewife in Japan

Giorgi's Greek Tragedy

Good book, well-written, broad in its scope of the mass of contradictions we call Greece. The author describes her first year in Greece, where she and her daughters and husband have taken up residence. She describes the key events during this year and uses each as a launching pad for forays into various aspects of Greek life. There is a fairly strong anti-American and anti-Brit tone always beneath the surface -- some legitimate, stemming from western support of "The Generals", the junta which unpopularly ruled Greece for a period. But I sense that the author is at heart a lefty who wants to take a few ideological shots as she goes along. Zinovieff is a masterful writer, who knows when to be blunt and when to be lyrical. Her anthropological insights serve her well -- well enough to dampen some of her left-wing passion.

Ms Zinovieff has written an entertaining journal-style "letter from Athens" about moving her family from the UK to Athens and integrating herself and her family unit into contemporary urban Greek life, circa 2002. There are certainly parts of the book that dragged, challenging the reader to continue. For example, her reflections on her earlier trips to Greece with her boyfriend as a graduate student were actually quite boring and her reminiscences as a late adolescent lend little to the experience of reading this book. A prepossessing style when you have little to say is actually quite hollow. On the other hand, the last chapter, in which she travels to the countryside with her husband and daughters to view her late father-in-law's home and confronts the question of whether or not she will make the long-term commitment to keep it and repair it is quite touchingly rendered. Ms Zinovieff, like many "ex-pats," highlights the many negatives in Athens life, but she makes a fine attempt to highlight some of the positives, too. She is best when she leaves her English anthropological interpretations aside and gives direct quotes from real Athenians -- something she does quite a bit. If you are thinking of an extended stay in the city of Athens I would recommend this. As a history of the capital of the modern Greek state, as a tourist guide, or as an "anthropological study," I would not.

Brilliant!! I was raised in America of Greek parents. I too went to live in Athens as an adult. This book is well written and spot on. Captures the Greek psyche, way of life and ethos. Truthful depiction of life in Athens and its populace. An unbiased, concise history of modern Greece. Tackles all the historical and modern issues relevant to an understanding of today's Greece and its people. Doesn't avoid the touchy issues of attitudes towards Americans, Turks and Albanians. Reintroduced me to the many traditions of my childhood but added rich cultural and linguistic underpinnings and significance. I loved the etymological explanations of common expressions and words - so many of which I use but now have a deeper understanding of them. All that and a great read too. Bravo!!

I read this book on the strength of the reviews. I did not find it a bit charming after the first chapter. What I found it to be was startlingly Anti-American. And what is worse, I found it incredibly boring after the initial chapter. I found myself skipping pages, then chapters, trying to find something "charming" or remotely interesting. Save your money on this one.

Although I enjoyed reading the book, I question all the references to Anti-Americanism. The author states "historical" problems with U.S. interference. I try to keep current on issues but have never heard of the situations she describes concerning the U.S. involvement with Greece. I have always found the Greek people to be very friendly and welcoming. IF the author's information is correct I would hope everyone keeps in mind that U.S. government decisions are not necessarily the decisions of the U.S. people. Why be uspset with a PERSON from a foreign country simply because of decisions their GOVERNMENT has made?