Customer Reviews

Macedonia to America and Back : A Biographical History of Dimitri Nasos

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Macedonia is in the news today because of the refugees crossing the border from Kosovo. Read about Macedonia and its history from a personal viewpoint. It will help to understand the problems in that part of Europe. Macedonians have struggled for years with the Bulgarians and Turks. Now they have an insurge of people needing help. Read about the Macedonian people and learn of their culture and their ways. It will help one understand the struggle going on in that part of the world. It is not a new one but an ongoing one. The Macedonians of Thomay Nestor's book are a kind and gentle people. It has been said that this book is better than ANGELA'S ASHES.

This is not a good book, in fact, it is a dreadful book. The problem is not so much the subject matter (D. Nasos), rather, it is the way it is written. The author unfortunately does an injustice to the life of her father by the inclusion of pan-Hellenic nonsense throughout much of the book. References to Greek gods, heroes and morality is fine, but in this case it was grossly over-done and verging on the ridiculous. The total disregard to the Macedonian-speaking population in northern Greece is tragic. Perhaps she did not have enough information to write a comprehensive account of her father's life. This is a pity as I was quite seduced by small framents of his life, especially in America. His early years in the "new world" when he was struggling to earn a few dollars were most moving and I feel much, much more could have been said. This book appears to be nothing more than a Greek ethnocentric view of life written by a person who should have left the writing to someone who has something interesting to say. To the reviewer who claimed that this book is better than ANGELA'S ASHES - you have got to be joking!

The subtitle of this book, "A Biographical History of Dimitri Nasos", is a very telling statement of the contents. Mr. Nestor has taken the story of his father and placed it within a fictional context. Most likely this was done because it is difficult to tell the life of one who is no longer alive and able to add to what one has been told. Too many other reviews of this book get into the politics of a region of the world where blood has been shed over and over again for national politics. The beauty of this story is the description of the life and character of Dimitri Nasos who displays the best of teachings of an Orthodox Christian who emigrated to America and embraced the great opportunities offered here. It tells a story of the early Greek American who has not often found a voice. Dimitri Nasos is mirrored in other Greeks who arrived here before 1920, worked hard, helped their extended families in Greece and friends in America. Dimitri Nasos in speaking to his child tells her, " I've done everything I could to help our people here, from the first day I came back from America. It didn't matter who they were or what they believed. If they needed help--money, jobs,a good word--I gave it to them. It is not right to talk about the good things one does, but I am telling you this so you'll understand what I stand for and how I feel." This sentence explains why the author wrote this book and what it makes it a very good read.

An interesting story which, althought from a personal point of view as any biography, it provides a good description of macedonia during the 20th century. I have read this book and I may say that some of the previous reviewers rated it only based on its title and the sort description provided. Thus I attribute the attacks to misunderstanding. This book refers to the province of macedonia in northern greece (the ancient kingdom) and it's relation to bulgaria and NOT to the slavs (of bulgarian blood) and their civil war with the minotiry of albanians in the modern-slavic-macedonia (the ancient kingdom of Paeonia).
This common 'macedonia' name tends to confuse a lot of people.

PS. I know that albanians hate this name, please forgive me, but this is the name that the ex-yugoslavian state selected since 1991.

this book is about the asian christians that were brought into aegean macedonia, to assimilate with the native macedonians, to give them a feeeling of greekness, after the greeks occupied the southern half of the kingdom of macedonia after the second balken war. this person(author?)is having an internal conflict themselves after having a sex change. interesting though, that they have the same problem about their identity, since they were brought into macedonia as greeks from turkey in the 1920 s , they know deep down they cannot be real greeks so they try to steal the native macedonians identity and make it their own. confusing, yes, just as the writer he/she is. I doubt that any of these stories are real infact thats all they maybe is just that stories, pitifull!!!!!