Customer Reviews

North of Ithaka

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It comes as no surprise that Eleni Gage turns out to be a gifted writer. It runs in the blood, I guess. Her father is the well known Nicholas Gage who wrote, among other fine books, one about his mother Eleni who was murdered by Communist guerrillas in the Greek civil war just after WW II. When I read it a few years ago it left me in a state of shock for about a week.
The present more upbeat work recounts the author's yearlong stay in the village of Lia, close to the Albanian border, where she succeeds in rebuilding the very house in which her grandmother and other villagers were kept prisoners before being brutally murdered more than a half-century earlier.
The author wants to strengthen her sense of rootedness in Epirus while holding on to the values and habits of thought she has acquired as an American woman. She wants to fit into life in her ancestral village without being seduced by a mindset she has been conditioned to reject - or at least question. She encounters lots of customs and practices that can be classed as superstition or magic (or even idolatry) that the locals think are part of Christianity but which she finds only marginally acceptable. Most of the people she runs into treat her with great kindness and become her friends even though none of them are nearly as well educated as she. They are, in fact, mostly old or elderly.
The author experiences some emotional turmoil as the reconstruction process runs into some snags and delays, and as she has to deal with bureaucrats and others whose venality and incompetence would make a less motivated person wonder if it is all worth it. An almost constant presence in the book is the author's earthy Aunt Kanta, the Greek-born American lady who speaks imperfect English, believes everything in America is perfect, and has opinions on every conceivable topic, including why her niece is single and what she should do to get married. Even though Kanta is very in-your-face and sometimes a pain in the neck, she is still lovable. And so are the villagers. And so are the undocumented Albanians who cross the border looking for work.
During the year the author has some fascinating close encounters with groups of people who enrich her experience and teach her a lot about the importance of history and continuity in the life of groups and individuals. A group of uprooted Greek Jews arrive from New York and take her to Ioannina to visit what is left of their cemetery and synagogue. She spends some time with a Gypsy family who are involved in local politics and even gets to attend a Gypsy wedding. She goes on a "field trip" to make contact with the descendents of the Dorians known as Sarakatsani.
The thing I like most about this book, apart from its being very well written and sometimes lyrical, is its spirit of optimism and hope for the future - of humanity.

For anyone who has read Nicholas Gage's "Eleni"--the story of his mother's death at the hands of the Communists during the Greek Civil War--"North of Ithaka" is a poignant, yet life-affirming sequel. Gage's daughter, also named Eleni, is a New York writer who returns to the family village in Northern Greece to reconstruct her grandmother's house, ruined by years of neglect. It's a difficult job, involving an unpredictable architect, bureaucratic obstacles, and strong-headed contractors, but Eleni perseveres, and despite her cosmopolitan background, grows to love the village with its simple rhythms and closeness to the Greek Orthodox faith. Her parents are part of the story, too, as they come to visit and check on the progress of the rebuilding. The finished house stands as a tribute to the lost Eleni. A very delightful book!

The star is still her grandmother, Eleni, killed during the Greek Civil War for trying to save her children. In a word, it's the story of Eleni returning to Lia, the family village, to remember her grandmother close up and rebuild the family house. Without the memory of reading ELENI by her father, Nick Gage, I would never have read or understood NORTH OF ITHAKA. So that's the review: first read Nick's book about his mother, most likely the most riveting and compelling of my 55 year reading career. You should read ELENI, and you must have to understand NORTH OF ITHAKA.

This is a wonderful book. Reading it transported me to the author's family's small mountain village in Greece, with all the characters, story, drama, laughter and sadness you'd expect from a movie (or real life). Ms. Gage lets you in on all her adventures. Her main project is to rebuild her grandmother's house, years after terrible events took place there, but some of the best parts of the book are the encounters she has outside the village, with Gypsies, ancient oracles, shopkeepers, et al. After reading this book, I can't wait to travel to Epiros!

Eleni Cage made such a refreshingly pleasant book, like a cool glass of water in the summer.

No love stories here, no soap opera sugary sweet. Just honest to goodness real people and amongst them a self fulfilment perhaps even a self discovery.

As a Greek living in the city with all its distractions I find the village life and customs depicted here as interesting and quaint as anyone would around the world.

And this is the success of this book. That which is deeply human is also without frontiers. I think everyone will find it appealing.

As a Greek-American, I've been looking for a memoir about the Greek-American experience that I could identify with. Over the past few years, I've read several memoir-style books, but none really hit home...until now. Even thought my family is not from Epiros, I did not grow up in Massachusetts, and my family did not have such a traumatic post-WWII experience, I could totally identify with Eleni Gage's story of straddling two countries and exploring the duality of her persona. This struggle to "fit in" in both Greece and America is something that I have dealt with and am continuing to deal with, and Eleni is able to describe the emotions and process more eloquently than I ever could!

Eleni's elegant prose makes this book easy to read, and I especially enjoyed the sprinkling of folk lore and traditions that she included. By the end, I wanted to read more, to find out what happened afterwards...always a sign of a great book!

I will recommend this book to all my friends, Greek and non-Greek alike! Bravo, Eleni!

This book is a rare treat.

I loved reading it - I was mesmerized by it and during this snowed-in weekend when I read it, I was transported to Lia, where I lived under its magnificent sky with the changing sunset colors (enjoyed from the vernada of the Haidis house); observed up close the house reconstruction project; and came to know an entire village, feeling if not a Liotan myslef, at least like a frequent visitor.

What also springs out of the book, perhaps more than Lia and its people, is the author herself: nice, smart, mature, perceptive and talented.

And a note to her father: you're a great author but she is at least as good a writer as you, not to say better. So please give up the comparisons with her at the Thanksgiving table, there are genetics out there and there is also evolution -- and she has both aplenty. I'm sure you glow with justified pride having her as a daughter. Anyone would!

Bottom Line: A SUPERB BOOK - NOT TO BE MISSED!

Eleni Gage takes you on a jouney to the type of place we all long for. It's a warm and refreshing look at village life today. "North Of Ithaka" is truely "a fun read" which I enjoyed from cover to cover. It provides a wonderful counterpoint to serious overtones of Nicholas Gage's "Eleni." Having spent time many years ago in another village in Epiros, Eleni Gage gets this one right.

This book is a beautiful portrayal of life as it was and life as it is in the small villages in Greece. A great read. Very moving.

In 2002, Manhattan magazine editor Eleni N. Gage decided to rebuild her paternal family's villa in the Greek village of Lia on the Albanian border. Her four aunts, residents of Massachuestess, were upset and angry as they feared their neice would be murdered by Albanians. In their minds that was the good outcome; the bad outcome would be the return of the curse of their late mom, Eleni's paternal grandmother, who, in 1948, was tortured and executed for enabling her children to escape the Greek civil war (see ELENI by Nicholas Gage). Still the obsessed Eleni believes she must do this to pay homage to her grandmother and to provide solace to those still impacted over five decades since her murder. With the help of the townsfolk and the hindrance of the bureaucracy, Eleni's odyssey begins.

This is a fascinating memoir that is at its best with the reactions by the author's Greek-American relatives and the Greek villagers to the energetic American's objective. Readers will feel the impact of her grandmother's death on those still living in the village and in Massachusetts though over fifty years have passed. Though warm and well written, NORTH OF ITHAKA never leaves the audience with a sense of importance or wonder even when making the case of good omens vs. evil memories. Still this is a fine entry that is best read after obtaining her father's memoir ELENI that hauntingly describes what happened in 1948.

Harriet Klausner