Economic anxiety. I now thirst for tsipouro.

also, very nice book construction. ( )

Sopravvivere alla crisi, alle bollette, agli sfratti. Vivere nonostante la fatica di vivere. La Grecia, adesso. Non le isole nell'azzurro del mare ma quelle dell'arcipelago della depressione. E noi? Potremmo essere noi? Lo siamo già, probabilmente.
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The longest running British radio soap opera, The Archers, used to bill itself as “An every day story of country folk”. Christos Ikonomous latest collection of short stories might easily be subtitled “Every day stories of Greek people” so representative is it.

There is a vibrancy to much current Greek literature that should serve as an example to British writers. There is a focus and a sharpness of observation and an aptness of subject that all writers would do well to ape. That all of this can come across in translation is little short of miraculous for great translation is a service seldom rendered to writers in their own lifetime (tip of the hat to the always great Karen Emmerich).

Much modern Greek literature is the product of difficulty and struggle in Greek society and right now ordinary Greeks have hardships and deprivations that fuel the engines of creativity like little else. I sometimes wonder whether the contentment and ease that most Europeans and North Americans enjoy in their daily lives results in a flabby and somewhat unfocussed writing.

As to form, the Greek writers that I am privileged to read: Ersi Sotiropoulos, Amanda Michalopoulos, and now Cristos Ikonomou all seem to favour the linked short story collection and I think that they have chosen a form with more legs amongst the new generation of readers than the long form novel.

Ikonomou’s characters are without exception good, ordinary people trying to cope in extraordinarily difficult circumstances. Their lives have been completely reconfigured by the crash of 2008 and yet despite their impotence and their financial despair they remain fundamentally human and mostly optimistic in the face of what appear to be overwhelming odds. Ikonomou portrays their incredible resolve and toughness in intimate detail and with an insight that, rather than turning into a polemic, is tuned to the true nature of working people who can no longer work or cope financially for no fault of their own. Their loves, their fears, their doubts and their strengths, to Ikonomou’s credit, become our own as we devour these wonderful stories and reread them.

In capturing these ordinary people through their inner lives and their intimate relationships, with other people and with society and with life in general the writer shows an understanding and sympathy with the wide diversity of Greeks in Greece - the Cretans, the urban Greeks, trades unionists and the underclass.

This is important writing. This is writing that needs to be read outside of Greece. The rest of Europe and the capital classes of the world need to read this to truly understand what they have wrought. This is writing at its very very best. My hat is off to Ikonomou.

I am not one for the cult of the author but this recent interview with Ikonomou steers clear of that idiom and examines the work more than the writer - http://nasslit.mycpanel.princeton.edu/wp/2015/11/dont-be-afraid-an-interview-wit... ( )