Customer Reviews

The Summer of My Greek Taverna: A Memoir

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As a Greek-American who was born, and lives in the US, but also lived in Greece for 12 years, I am always very interested in reading the experiences of expatriates, especially those from the US. I took some time to read through the other reviews here, especially focusing on the ones with negative things to say. I must say this, because I like to keep my reviews brief: Tom Stone did not produce the perfect book here, nor do I think we should expect that from him---what he did do was absolutely capture both the Greek mentality and spirit, the beauty of the land and its culture, and the very difficult divide in which foreigners who live in Greece full-time find themselves. I highly recommend this book not just for Greek diaspora who want to wax nostalgic of the mother country, but for ANY American heading over for a visit, if not a longer stay. I recently recommended this book to two proteges of mine who were headed to Greece for a short stay, and a semester abroad respectively, and both told me upon their returns that it was a priceless learning tool which enhanced their visits, as well as a very enjoyable read. I cant think of any higher recommendation than that of didacticism and real world, in-country experience. Well done, Mr Stone!

As a Philhellene hungry for true accounts of expat lives in Greece, and an expat myself living in Greece, I really wanted to like this book. Unfortunately, I struggled many times with its irrelevant details and sometimes boring passages, which caused me to put it down frequently.

Unless you know or like Patmos already, it's difficult to envision some landscapes because either the details provided were too limp or simply tried too hard to paint a picture in my head where my imagination might have done better with fewer but vivid descriptions.

I was also disappointed with simple editing/writing mistakes that Stone and his editor made such as using too many Greek words (spelled phonetically, not true to Greek) and then giving the English translation afterward. A person, like myself and many others, who know both Greek and English can find it annoying to have the same thing repeated twice. It's a beginner's mistake from Strunk and White's rules.

If I could get over the poor editing and lifeless passages, I found a gem of a story that could have shined brilliantly with the right organization, concise adjectives and characters that came more to life. I do admire Thoma for his motivation, intention and courage to make his dreams come true. I do believe he is a good storyteller, as the author says he is in the book. I do believe this could have been a great memoir.

Please don't hate me for writing this review, but I'm being honest by presenting the good and the bad. A better memoir is "The Sailor's Wife" by Helen Benedict or Katherine Kizlos' "The Olive Grove."

I approached this book on a travel writing level where you would read Lawrense Durrell and Henry Miller books about Greece. I did experience this in addition to a great story about finding (and losing) your life-long dreams.

As recorded in the brief summary above, the book follows the author's adventure one summer trying to run a Greek taverna on the Agean island of Patmos. The book recounts how the author set up shop, ran it daily with his dubious Greek partner, and finally discovered what his dream really meant to him. The narrative seems to take place before Patmos become a hot tourist location (before 1990), yet Tom Stone doesn't reveal any dates. The author's page revelas that Tom no longer lives in Greece, but in Southern California.

The book is light reading (probably take 2 hours of reading...after all it is only 199 pages) -- it includes with some folklore about the island (much revolving around St. John's visit in the first century). The recipies printed in the appendix are a nice touch, especially for those wanting to indulge in the culinary experience.

Stone's love story of running a Greek Taverna over the course of one summer is a gem. Rarely have I read a book that has engulfed me in its essence and put me in the middle of the narrative. I particularly took to the book because reading Stone's words I became completely engrossed with the many similarities I myself have encountered when spending my summers in Greece.

Stone's lush descriptions of the island of Patmos allow you to travel there instantly, him supplying you with the sights, sounds, and the smell of each moment in time. Paragraphs such as "There are places that seem to be waiting for you out there somewhere, like unmet lovers, and when (and if) you come upon them, you know, instantly and unquestioningly, that they are the ones. It is as if, far back in time, there had been an intimate connection to that very spot or person. So it was with Livadi. Even from as far away as the deck of the Mimeka, it had been love at first sight. I knew that there I would find not simply a house to rent but a place to belong to. Like Odysseus, I felt as if I were coming home to Ithaca after a long voyage through the troubled waters of foreign lands (including my birthplace) whose languages I had never really understood. [...] And it still amazes me to think that at that very moment, on another part of Patmos, in a little house on a cove that I had passed on the road to Livadi, the future mother of my children was sittting on her terrace pondering, as I was, what she was really going to do with her life now that she had finally gotten here."

Words like these are simply candy for the eyes and the heart. It allows you to be captured by the warmth, and the true essence of the author's passion for life. Sending chills down my spine I could picture Stone's arrival at that place, identifying many instances where I myself had the same feelings, be it Santorini or Egypt.

Tom Stone's journey to Greece started out quite "harmless" as an incentive to finish a novel he'd been writing for some time but just needed a place with the appropriate inspiration to fire off his last few chapters. Secluding himself like a monk for a month, he actually finished his novel, achieving what he came to Patmos for to do. As fate would have it, within weeks, another novel, his first, got sold. With his new-found "wealth" he thought "Why not stay for another month?" and another, and another... resulting in Tom Stone spending some 20 years in Greece. Patmos served as the stage for his life's play where he met his wife, and experienced his kids' growing up. In the 20 years, one of his most memorable experiences was running a Greek Taverna, The Beautiful Helen, for one summer, which, besides serving the traditonal Greek fare, he supplied with unique dishes he's concocted himself. For cooking afiocionadoes, Stone supplies you with detailed recipes of each of the dishes served at The Beautiful Helen that summer.

I could sense that even though Theologos (Stone's restaurant partner) royally cheated Stone over, he has not lost his love for Greece. Being Greek myself, it is good to know that by way of Stone's writing, deep in his heart he knows that not every Greek is a Theologos. There still are Greeks who hold honor and integrity very dear. Still, Stone's take on the life and culture of Greeks is as close as anyone's ever written.

The book's masterfully written with great wit and humor, full of adventure and comical situations, and a great way to experience Greece from home. You'll undoubtedly feel like you're at The Beautiful Helen and an integral part of the action.

Reading these little expat memoirs used to be a pleasure, but now there are so many self-congratulatory accounts that they've long since begun to pall. Greek Taverna is a welcome exception. Stone manages to convey the essence of Greek island life, geography, and ambience without attempting to convince the reader that life in those parts is idyllic and carefree. Indeed, Tom and his family encounter as many problems and stumbling blocks as they might have in NYC, as well as enjoying the beauty and simplicity (all is relative). Reading his experiences is as refreshing as a dip in the Aegean. Bravo to Tom Stone for his honesty, sense of humor, and willingness to remain in Greece despite the bursting of the bubble of his dream.

You laugh and then you cry when you read this bittersweet memoir. The Summer of my Greek Taverna is a funny, poignant saga of a naive American, whose Greek friend, Theologos, offers him a "summer partnership" in The Beautiful Helen Taverna, located on the small Aegean Island of Patmos. Although his wife and Greek friends caution him to be aware of "Greeks bearing gifts," Stone jumps at the offer. His life is never the same, arriving home at night, at three or four in the morning, completely spent, with no time for sex or even a cuddle, and up at dawn to start another day at the restaurant, only to have his partner swindle him of the profits.
Stone captures the essense of the Greek people and writes lovingly of them, the good ones and the not-so-good ones. My Taverna is reminiscent of many excellent books of American expatriates living in foreign countries, all with their own unique experiences. Memoirs of an American Housewife in Japan is one of many. In spite of his trials and tribulations, Tom Stone survives his ordeal and returns to the states. He opens his own successful restaurant in Southern California. At the end the book, Stone lists "The Menu of the Beautiful Helen," with 20 recipes of his favorite Greek dishes in full detail. If the story doesn't stimulate you, the recipes will. A good read, bon appetit. Yassou.

Since I have spent a lot of time on the Island of Patmos, I was glad to learn that this book had been published and I ordered it immediately. I have a few negative observations to make about the book, so I'd better start out with the positive stuff. The book is a pleasant read. In general the author captures the flavor and beauty of the island and its inhabitants. It is also a fast read. But my own experience on the island makes me believe that its people are rather un-Greek in the sense that they are kinda sneaky. They are also generally unhappy people, quite grim. This may be caused by being dominated by the church. One young Patmian I met said he wanted to go away and live in Athens because he couldn't stand the idea of living his whole life in a cemetery. Too much religion makes Demitrios a dull boy.

Now, the book is about how an American gets duped by a Patmian when he agrees to become his partner in a beachside restaurant. This isn't really enough of a story to make a whole book, but as it turns out, it is rather successful because the author has flair and a knack for characterization that he uses effectively.

There may be a problem in the possiblility that readers will get the notion that all Greeks behave in the same underhanded way as the author's alleged partner. They do not. Patmians are a special kind of Greek, which may have something to do with the island's being dominated by the monastery up on the hill. The abbot of the monastery actually functions as the local bishop, and he isn't even a bishop. Most of the monks at the monastery are a pretty sour lot, too. The local priests, on the other hand, are a nice bunch of people who try to make outsiders feel welcome even in church. Strange, isn't it?

The author is also the narrator, and little attempt is made to separate the two. This means there is little literary distance in the work...the author gives the impression of writing in the white heat of his emotional letdown when the whole situation at the restaurant comes to a head and he has to confront his thieving partner. The other characters are portrayed quite well, even the minor ones.

Summing up, this is an interesting story, but is only a story, even though it is probably based on real life experience. But there of not enough of it for a full length book.

Like other books of this genre---rich-enough-upper/middle classer eschews conformist corporate lifestyle for simple labor-intensive technologically sparse villa/farm lifestyle in foreign settin---the pure escapist notion of removing oneself from the rat race of traffic jams, cell phones, voice mail and other so-called conveniences of 21st century life somehow acts as a welcome tranquilizer for my overactive and overextended braincells.
Rather than choosing Provence or Tuscany, the author, Tom Stone, decides on the Greek Island of Patmos where John the Evangelist penned his gospel and the feared book of Revelations, as his halycon destination. Tom's reasoning is both nostalgic and capitalistic: it was on Patmos that he met and wooed his wife and wrote his first novel and it is on Patmos that he will accrue enough cash to see himself financially clear for an entire year. All he needs do is rent 'The Beautiful Helen' Taverna for the four hectic months of the summer season, incorporate his multi-national repetoire of delicious menu entrees to the typical Greek fare and through hard work and determination rack in a sizeable fortune.
Unfortunately, Tom overplays his hand with an overindulgence of American optimism. Amidst a silent, embarrassed chorus of less-than-encouraging island characters, Tom learns what the islanders already know: Fresh produce, fine recipes and hard work are not the only ingredients needed in maintaining a successful restaurant,a watchful eye is first and foremost when one is dealing with an unscrupulous partner like the taverna's owner, Theologos.
Soon, Tom's dreamscape of blue water and Greek light are obliviated by the all consuming operation of the taverna. As the Beautiful Helen's popularity increases, Tom's clearly drawn time allocations are blurred into a huge block of toil and varicose veins that barely afford him the time to sleep.
However throughout the Sisyphian tasks of running the taverna, Stone's writing style remains chatty and enthusiastic. Happily, in spite of his bouts with jealous friends, thieving partners, and evil-eye removing witches, Tom remains pleasantly breezy, refusing to let his misjudgement dampen his spirits. Above all, the reader gets the sense that even as he is cast out of his Eden by economic necessity, he is not soured by the presense of the serpent in the garden---his omnipresent need to breath the air of Hellas remains pure and untainted. His exuberance forces us to understand why he undertook the proposition in the first place while his charitable highlighting of the high points of taverna life rather than his humiliations results in a pleasant true-to-life portrayal of the Greek's resolve in business as seasoned by the resource-isolated island life.
One Note: I was saddened that the author's marriage to 'Danielle' ended in divorce no matter how amicable--his love for her was palpable even through the worst of his ordeal.

The writer has a very straightforward style that I truly enjoyed. The fact that this was a true story kept my interest and made me put the Greek Isles high on the list of places to visit in the next few years.
The author's sense of adventure and risk taking appeals to me.
At the end of this book, I felt that i had acquired a good bit of knowledge of the physical aspects of the islands and even more so about the culture.

Tom Stone captures the look, feel, sound and taste of Greece and serves it up in a bittersweet recipe of broken dreams. It's the real thing says someone who's been there, done that and is still there. Well done.