Joanna and Ulysses [Paperback]

May Sarton (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 17, 1987

For Joanna the month's holiday was to be an escape, a chance to paint and think and release the bitter memories of the war in Greece and of her mother's death.

She had chosen the dazzling island of Santorini, remote and inaccessible as her own heart. The holiday was to be a solitary experience. But that was before Joanna met Ulysses, the mistreated little donkey.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Miss Sarton is particularly adept at presenting intelligent women intelligently: Joanna is a fine addition to her gallery of portraits. She is famous, too, for catching the flavor of background, and she gives us the fresh, gull-white, wind-bright bravery of the Greek islands indelibly. She is an aristocrat whose patent is clarity of mind. (Book Week )

Simple, elegant. . . . Miss Sarton knows how to be tender and romantic, melancholy and amusing, all at once. (New York Times Book Review )

About the Author

May Sarton (1912-1995) was an acclaimed poet, novelist, and memoirist.

Product Details

• Paperback: 128 pages
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company (November 17, 1987)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0393304140
• ISBN-13: 978-0393304145
• Product Dimensions: 7.4 x 5 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,099,883 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #35 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Literature & Fiction > World Literature > General

More About the Author

May Sarton is the pen name of Eleanore Marie Sarton (May 3, 1912 - July 16, 1995), an American poet, novelist, and memoirist. Her parents were science historian George Sarton and his wife, the English artist Mabel Eleanor Elwes. In 1915, her family moved to Boston, Massachusetts. She went to school in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and started theatre lessons in her late teens. In 1945 she met her partner for the next thirteen years, Judy Matlack, in Santa Fe, New Mexico. They separated in 1956, when Sarton's father died and Sarton moved to Nelson, New Hampshire. Honey in the Hive (1988) is about their relationship. Sarton later moved to York, Maine. She died of breast cancer on July 16, 1995. She is buried in Nelson, New Hampshire.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Magical Story Told on Magical Greek Isle, July 7, 2003

By 

Diana F. Von Behren "reneofc" (Kenner, LA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

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This review is from: Joanna and Ulysses (Paperback)

Unhappy and tightly wound Joanna goes to the beautiful island of Santorini for a much-needed vacation. She needs to heal after the war and her mother's death and finds the seclusion and lovely vistas of Santorini just what she needs to fill part of the void she feels in her heart. Despite her father's disapproval, she has turned to painting as her only outlet. But lovely Santorini, her self-imposed seclusion and the healing stokes of her craft are not enough. . . until she meets Ulysses, a little donkey that has been mistreated by his owners and finds the perfect outlet to begin feeling again. Sad little Ulysses helps her find her way back to being human and renews her hope for a future that otherwise seemed bleak. As Ulysses heals with Joanna's love and kindness, Joanna finds her compassion a balm that works on herself; suddenly she feels alive and necessary again. Recommended to all who love the Greek Isles, admire the fierce pride of the Greeks and above all know that a love of animals can help you brook many difficulties. A lovely story told within 125 pages.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A story that stays with me, March 19, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Joanna and Ulysses (Paperback)

My mother introduced me to this classic; I have given it to several people as gifts over the years, people heading to Greece for a vacation or people who love animals. I first read this book as a teen-ager, and have re-read it many times since. I love the simple, sweet story of how Joanna -- badly needing a vcation -- heads to Greece, where she meets Ulysses, an abused donkey. She nurses the donkey -- and herself -- back to health as they eat tomatoes and bread under the hot Greek sun, and Ulysses watches Joanna try to capture the Greek landscape with her paintings. Now and forever, whenever I think of Greece, I think of Joanna and Ulysses.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A beautiful and poignant little tale, November 21, 2005

By 

Shane Johnson "Zen Master of '74" (Sydney, Australia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Joanna and Ulysses (Paperback)

In "Joanna and Ulysses" May Sarton has achieved something of remarkable depth in what is a relatively short novel. It is the story of a thirty year old Athenian woman who ventures to the island of Santorini for a month. She has come for a holiday, although it is more for the purpose of escaping some painful aspects of her past and discovering her "true" self through her love of painting. We learn of the tragedy that befell Joanna's mother during the second world war, and the strained relationship she now shares with her aged father in Athens. In Joanna, May Sarton renders a character of considerable depth; she is a mixture of pathos and middle-aged sobriety comingled with a youthful naivete that manifests most immediately in her inheritance of "Ulysses" the donkey. Joanna rescues Ulysses from a pitiful fate upon her arrival in Santorini, and embarks upon a spiritual journey during the month that follows. Her relationship with the donkey and a couple of other characters on the island becomes symbolic of her life at large and in a large sense Joanna does indeed discover more of herself as a result of this curious sojourn.

May Sarton has captured not only a richness of character in her protagonists, but she as an author has painted a splendidly vivid and authentic picture of life in this very special Greek Island. Its energy, its culture and its natural charms are unique in real life, and it was a pleasure to read a tale that portrays this with the paradox of simplicity and depth that Santorini itself possesses. "Joanna and Ulysses" is a litle gem.