Appointment with Yesterday

Neniu kovrilo — Appointment with Yesterday (2017, Christ Stratakis)

Eldonita je 31-a de januaro 2017 de Christ Stratakis.

ISBN:: 978-0-9977212-1-8

(1 recenzo)

A poignant and compelling first novel, Appointment with Yesterday tells the story of Yanni, a cheeky and delightful Greek boy growing up in a small town on an island in the eastern Aegean.

Left in the care of his loving grandparents, Yanni endures the deprivation and terror of the German occupation during World War II and finally leaves his beloved homeland and family to rejoin the parents who had left him behind to make a better life for themselves in America.

Filled with heartbreaking and heartwarming stories of love, devotion, disenchantment, and dashed dreams, Appointment with Yesterday is, ultimately, the story of hardships overcome and a determined boy’s journey toward finding his destiny.

1 eldono

Stephanie Jane recenzis Appointment with Yesterday de Christopher Stratakis

Interesting

3 steloj

Appointment With Yesterday was written by Greek-born lawyer and author Christopher Stratakis who himself emigrated to America and this novel draws heavily on the author's own life for its essential narrative. I found this realism to be a double-edged sword - good in that the events depicted have a strong sense of authenticity about them, but I was disappointed by the book's structure which sees too many happenings crammed in one after another so, for me, the American chapters especially felt more like diary notes than a fully realised novel.

I did enjoy reading about Yanni's childhood in Greece. Island life is nicely evoked in its frugal simplicity and I thought Stratakis captured the characters of Yanni and his grandmother well. The horrors of the wartime years were difficult to read about and obviously harrowing to the villagers and islanders themselves. I hadn't previously known much about Greece during World …

Appointment With Yesterday was written by Greek-born lawyer and author Christopher Stratakis who himself emigrated to America and this novel draws heavily on the author's own life for its essential narrative. I found this realism to be a double-edged sword - good in that the events depicted have a strong sense of authenticity about them, but I was disappointed by the book's structure which sees too many happenings crammed in one after another so, for me, the American chapters especially felt more like diary notes than a fully realised novel.

I did enjoy reading about Yanni's childhood in Greece. Island life is nicely evoked in its frugal simplicity and I thought Stratakis captured the characters of Yanni and his grandmother well. The horrors of the wartime years were difficult to read about and obviously harrowing to the villagers and islanders themselves. I hadn't previously known much about Greece during World War Two so was interested to learn.

Overall though I struggled to empathise with Yanni and, once in America, with his mother's actions because I didn't feel I had enough to go on in order to understand why they behaved as they did. As an autobiographical piece, Appointment With Yesterday is interesting, but I think it needs to more deeply explore its themes of immigration and personal isolation to be satisfying as historical fiction.