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24 of 26 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Greece experienced., 26 Oct 1998
By A Customer
Patricia Storace's book is a best-seller in Greece. I tried to buy some copies of it for a few friends and I could only find one at the biggest foreign language bookstore in Athens.It is shocking that... Who reads it? Is it foreigners that live in Greece or Greeks themselves? I like to think it is Greeks that read it... I myself am Greek, born and raised. It is incredible to read about how an outsider perceives your culture and your country. And what a perceptive outsider she is. Nothing escapes her. I am in awe of the material she has read and the amount of research she has done on the country and the culture. When she traces sayings and attitudes to antiquity I am shocked by the clarity of the connection and wonder how it came to be that I have never heard of some of the stories she relates. Most of the Greeks I know will be offended by this book. But I think they should read it and read it carefully. Because it will offend some Greeks and because she often treads on politically delicate territory, it upsets me when her prose becomes too complex for a clear meaning. I need the meaning, I want to understand what she feels perceived things mean, but she doesn't always give it to me. Often I feel I have to decipher whole paragraphs only to come to the conclusion that she is holding something back. And it also upsets me when she does leaps of reasoning. I guess it is inevitable when one tries to describe a culture that he/she will be forced to generalisations but I want this book to be good and those leaps undermine her credibility. It is a very intellectual book overall. The author does not concern herself with the landscape so much as with the stories she is told and with the connections she makes in her own head. There are paragraphs that are hilarious, they make me laugh out loud, but, the way she tends to over-analyse everything, the way she conveys a feeling that she is "on a mission" to rip the signs to whatever made them be, makes me feel she misses the joke sometimes. Keep these things in mind and read the book. It will prepare you for your trip to Greece better than any tourist guide. If you have been here already, still I suggest you read it. I'm sure you will remember some of the troubles you have encountered here and will thoroughly enjoy the meaning that the author dresses them with. But be an adult about it. When something doesn't stick, don't take her word for it.
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