Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2499920 in Books
• Published on: 1996-09-15
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 256 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Papanikolas's second collection (following Small Bird, Tell Me) examines the tensions in several immigrant Greek families and how their new generations gradually assimilate into American culture. Although dutifully true to life, these six stories suffer acutely from the lack of any narrative. For instance, the opening piece, "County Hospital 1939," depicts a young lab technician's gloomy life as she plods along, tolerating her oppressive mother, racist boss, spoiled brother and dismal romantic prospects. The author goes to great lengths to detail day-to-day minutia, ultimately ending up with an elaborate backdrop with very little going on center stage. The protagonist never actively seeks a better existence, and her life of resignation makes for extremely dull reading. Although not much of a story per se, "The People Garden," nonetheless works as a lovely extended metaphor. Nina, now an old woman, draws comparisons between the different flowers in her garden and her various friends and relatives. "As the nicotanea scent floated off, she thought it was like those who had come into her life, been important and then were gone because she had been too busy and there was not the time, the energy to keep up with them." The best short by far, "If I Don't Praise My House," portrays a snobby widow revisiting her former parish out of sheer loneliness. She briefly enjoys the illusion of belonging before she accidentally overhears some crushing gossip in the ladies room. Here, with a simple, interesting plot Papanikolas fares much better.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews
A second collection from Papanikolas (Small Bird, Tell Me, not reviewed) that movingly details the struggles of Greek immigrants in America and their descendants, torn between the consolations and the constrictions of the old ways. These are quiet, domestic stories of a people shaped by a past and by religious rituals so ingrained that even the young can never entirely ignore them. Papanikolas's Greeks live in small towns, where they form close-knit communities. The lives of parents and grandparents revolve around family, church, and social clubs, but the younger generation seems eager to embrace a new identity as Americans. The title piece (the collection's best) is an affecting account of one woman's struggle both to shape and retain her identity. Athena, the youngest child of Greek immigrants, has (unlike her older sisters) gone to college and married outside the community; she suffers a severe breakdown when her eldest son, Paul, a zealous Mormon, pressures her to renounce the old faith and become a full-fledged Mormon. In other notable stories, Kallie, a young woman working in a hospital during the Depression, is stunned by the prejudice she encounters and fears that she'll have no choice but to marry within the suffocating confines of the local Greek community (``Country Hospital, 1939''); the acutely observed jealousies that are provoked by success cause two sisters and their husbands, once best friends, to grow apart (``Neither Nose Nor Ass''); and the differences between the old ways of doing things, and the often shocking new, are noted as women prepare for a church celebration (``Getting Ready for the Festival''). ``If I Don't Praise My House'' deals with a widow's encounter with old grievances; in ``The People Garden,'' an old woman finds that her garden stirs vivid memories of vanished family members. Evocative portraits of a people on the cusp, and of a culture caught in its dying but still resonant last moments. -- Copyright ©1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.