A Place for Us: Eleni's Children in America [Hardcover]

Nicholas Gage (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1989

A Place for Us begins as nine-year-old Nicholas Gage and three of his sisters escape from their wartorn Greek village and board a ship to America to meet the father they have never known. Eleni's children must adjust not only to a startling new American lifestyle, but also to a 56-year-old man who suddenly finds himself a single father. 27 black-and-white photographs.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Gage was nine in 1949 when he and three sisters set sail from Greece for the U.S. Their mother had just been murdered by Greek communists who tried forcibly to conscript the family into guerrilla training. In Worcester, Mass., the children met their immigrant father Christos Gatzoyiannis, separated for years from the clan. Expecting a tycoon, they found instead an out-of-work short-order cook, a proud, touchy, gruff autocrat whom Gage, resentfully, blamed for not getting the family out of Greece sooner. A fourth sister joined them three months later. The story of Gage's reconciliation with his father is the keynote of this wonderfully vivid autobiographical sequel to Eleni. Full of humorous, ironic, sad touches, this extraordinary, moving saga reflects one family's attempt to balance assimilation with the preservation of Old-World traditions. Halfway to becoming a petty teenaged hood, the author pulled himself together and became instead a distinguished journalist who returned to Greece in an effort to trace his mother's killers (as told in Eleni ). Photos.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Seldom has the immigrant experience been captured more emotionally than in this memoir. The "place" is America, and the "us" is the family of author Gage, who in March 1949 sailed for freedom with three of his sisters from a Greece riddled with civil war to be reunited with their father in Worcester, Massachusetts, where the family joined a large Greek contingent. Gage's story is moving and humorous, a tale of adjustment to an unknown culture, and is best characterized by a love which transcends not only the Atlantic but years of strife and trying assimilation. The narrative is excellent. Gage is a former New York Times reporter whose earlier successes include Eleni ( LJ 6/15/83), the touching story of the murder of his mother by Greek communists. The author approaches, if not exceeds, his earlier effort: this is one of the year's best books. It should be widely read; it crystallizes our sense of liberty. Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 6/1/89.
- Boyd Childress, Auburn Univ. Lib., Ala.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 419 pages
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin (T); 1st edition (October 1989)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0395455170
• ISBN-13: 978-0395455173
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,413,703 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Love never fails, April 22, 2002

By 

Kris Dotto "Bookworm Extraordinaire" (Phoenix, AZ USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: A Place for Us: Eleni's Children in America (Hardcover)

If you've read "Eleni," Nicholas Gage's previous book on the life and death of his mother, the extraordinary Eleni Gatzoyiannis, you've probably wondered what happened to her children after they came to America. "A Place For Us" tells the story, with its focus on the relationship between a young Nicola and his father, Christos, a man suffering deep guilt for having left his wife to suffer in Greece.

The story is wonderful--a bit leisurely, but full of wonder and suspicion as the Gatzoyiannis girls (and boy) encounter America with all its strangeness and potential. There's enough humor to counter the grief and anger the family carried over the loss of Eleni, but it's Gage's account of his mistrust and resentment of his father that is the focus of this story. Long before Gage can seek justice for his mother's killing, he has to forgive his father, who turns out to be a better man than his son expects.

If this story is gentler in tone and pace than "Eleni"--albeit just as well-written, and spare in its language--it is because this is a story of healing rather than revenge. This is Christos's story rather than Nicholas's; the son's grief found a release in the search for those responsible for his mother's death, while the father devoted his life to the care of their children. Through that devotion, the Gatzoyiannis children came to thrive in their new country, finding purpose and strength.

In the end Christos and Eleni are reunited--their graves are side by side, and the epitaph speaks simply of the lifelong love between the two. A lesson for the family is made a lesson for all of us.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Greek Immigrant Family Story, March 31, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: A Place for Us: Eleni's Children in America (Paperback)

"A Place for Us" is the successor to the best-seller "Eleni". If you haven't read Eleni, read that first; it is by far the better of the two, though both are fascinating true accounts about a Greek family and its journey through war, immigration, and assimilation. Nicholas Gage was the son of a Greek woman who was executed for protecting her children during the Greek civil war. Her story is told in "Eleni". "A Place for Us" is the story of her children who come to live with their father in America. It's a fascinating story of rich culture, hardship, and forgiveness.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful Biography, February 28, 2002

By 

Marsha McFadden (Southwestern U.S.) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Place for Us: Eleni's Children in America (Hardcover)

This is a wonderful, moving story of immigrant children who came to join their father in America after their mother was murdered by fellow Greeks during the Greek Civil War. It tells of their struggles to assimilate into American culture while attempting to deal with the betrayal they feel over the loss of their mother and the instant family they have with the long-absentee father. It's anything but slow moving and is a rich portrait of the life of an extraordinary family.