Dinner With Persephone

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Summary: A lyrical evocation of modern Greece and its roots
Review: I was moved by this book. Ms. Storace has described with gentle but honest eloquence many facets of modern Greece. I highly recommend this book.

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Summary: Not as crazy about this books as others
Review: I was rather disappointed and underwhelmed by this book. Patricia Storadge writes more about her daily interaction with Greeks than about Greek life or culture, but her tone is often snide and condescending. There may be truths in her observations and even valid criticisms, yet I was disturbed by her attitude. The best part of the book was her description of the Benakis family history. A much more affectionate and refreshing look at Greek culture and life is a book published in Greece called "The Unwritten Places," by Tim Salmon, an Englishman who lived and traveled with the Vlachs shepherds in the Pindos Mountains. Also Corelli's Mandolin, which, though a novel, really captures Greek culture with humor, love and enchantment

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Summary: A detailed knowledge of Greece and the Greeks
Review: It is rare to read a book about Greece in which the author displays such a deep knowledge of the people, their history, customs and the everyday occurences which are only gained by living in that country - even if she regards the people with a certain amount of contempt. It is in parts beautifully written, though it does meander rather sluggishly in places. I too found the Benaki history very absorbing. Overall, an enjoyable read and highly recommended.

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Summary: A complete disappointment
Review: It's tough to give this otherwise-just-mediocre book 1 star, but here's why: Storace's distaste for the modern Greek people is really obvious. She's a skilled writer, but the experiences she describes are unexciting and her "insights" on Greeks border on offensive. She obviously got nothing positive from the country where she spent a year. Too bad for her.

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Summary: Information, Perception, Humor
Review: Lacking any sense of self criticism, a small sector of the English speaking Greek diaspora has found this book objectionable, at least in part. That is unfortunate, because I happen to love Greece and the Greek people and I found this account of the author's year in Greece to be great fun, truthful, thoughtful,insightful, and all the other fulls one expects from an American woman who goes to live for a while in any foreign country, and especially a Mediterranean country. The author gets involved in nearly every aspect of everyday Greek life and her descriptions of family interactions are great. She even includes a description of the MANGAS in his various rescensions. Public utilites companies come in for their share of criticism and scorn, all rightfully deserved. There is a discussion of transvestites and a famous novelist who gets murdered by one of his tricks. Holding the whole thing together is the Greek DREAM BOOK, which one consults to find out what dreams really mean. Their only problem is that they wear out quickly and a new one must be bought. Stamatis is a fascinating character who appears now and then throughout the book and helps the narrator to get a hold on things, to understand better what she sees and hears. He is like an all-knowing spiritual presence who provides meaning when it seems to be lacking. His only problem is that he is usually leaving for somewhere the next day. Toward the end of the book there is a long chapter on Penelope Delta that bothered me at first because I thought it was a senseless excursus, but by the time I finished I was very glad to have read it. Sometimes the book's tone is stridently feminist, but all in all it is great fun and quite poetic.

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Summary: Perfect! Ms. Storace captures the true Greek heart.
Review: Like author Storace, I too lived in Greece for one year. Ms. Storace has captured the true feel of Greece; the Greek people and the Greek spirit in her unique, poetic style. The Greek mentality can be confusing for westerners. Ms. Storace explains the "whys" of the Greek mentality. I wish I would have read "Dinner with Persephone" before my year in Greece. It would have explained so much I didn't understand. I highly recommend!!! Two thumbs up!!!

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Summary: Contemporary Greece explained from her deepest roots.
Review: Ms. Storace has done an excellent job of capturing 20th century Greece and providing meaning and history for modern Greece's language and mores. For a greek american who has experienced the language and its people first hand, every page provided a new insight. Why did my relatives spit at me as a child direclty after having complimented me? Why is the evil eye, often worn by babies not yet baptized, blue in color where brown eyes are by far the norm for greeks? Questions I never even thought of asking are addressed with scholarly thoroughness and often with good humor as well. Ms. Storace and I have even had a shared experience in enjoying the the loud chaos provided by greek ship and dock workers that always accompanies the loading of greek ferries around the islands and on the mainland. Dinner with Persephone was a feast

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Summary: Spoiling the ship
Review: Ms. Storace's writing is vivid, frequently excellent. Her opportunity to spend a significant length of time in Greece is to be envied. Her extensive travels reflect a serious attempt to look at the landscape. The recurring theme of the dream-book is imaginative and very useful in linking an episodic book. Unfortunately, she condescends towards the Greeks, and sees them as dysfunctional -- largely because they aren't American. This imperialist attitude is more common to British writers, and always a little galling. Perhaps taking her lead from Rebecca West, Ms. Storace sees every event, object, or person in relation to herself. For example, it may be true, as she suggests, that every man in Greece lusted after her, but it's extremely improbable and of no interest to the reader. Less of this self-centeredness and more of landscape (which she handles so much better than people) would have made this a classic.

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Summary: Rich and evocative!
Review: Patricia Storace has written a richly nuanced account of contemporary Greece, as it struggles to reconcile with its past. No telling detail escapes Storace's eye. I was so lost in this book that I couldn't let it go. As soon as I finished, I started reading it all over again.

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Summary: Exquisitly insightful vignettes of modern Greece.
Review: Patricia Storace writes accurately and beautifully about life in modern Greece. Arranged in chronological order, the author amuses and engages us with her itinerary, insights, and, at times, wonderful historical research. A section on the Benaki family is especially satisfying and very little known I think. At the start of the book, I was awed by the depth of her understanding; by the end I found myself disappointed that the promise of those first hundred pages seemed to fall flat, weighed down as the author goes on and on recording what begin to feel like irrelevant details of her travels in long meandering sentences.