T. Styppas

Disclaimer: I received a free copy from a LibraryThing giveaway.

You know it's a bad sign when you're dragging your feet about marking a book "finished" because you dread writing the review. I hate writing bad reviews but it's justified here.

I entered the giveaway for this book because I'm married to Greek and want to continue learning about Greece. At family gatherings, I've heard stories from relatives who lived through the Occupation and the difficult years afterwards. So I thought this show more book would be a nice addition to what I've learned over the years about modern Greek history. Sadly, this book not only didn't live up to expectations, it's downright terrible.

This book was clearly a labor of love by the author, which I appreciate. That's not enough, though. It's very hard to read because it's poorly organized and badly edited. Some examples:

* The narrative is all over the place. I can't make heads or tails of the book's structure. It has chapters but I can't see that they're doing anything, as there doesn't seem to be anything tying together what's in a given chapter.
* Inconsistent romanization of Greek words. Sometimes a grandmother is 'giagia' and sometimes 'yiayia' - even on the same page! It makes it harder to read.
* Lots of rambling digressions that don't drive the story or setting. Often the author forgets to get back on topic. One of the strangest for me was when the author decided to tell the reader about the difference between two Greek words but apparently got distracted. You never do learn what the difference is.
* Conversations between author as a child and author at other ages - so confusing! Perhaps with better structure these scenes would make more sense, but they pop up with no explanation and it takes a while to realize what's going on.
* In the appendix full of old letters, he says at the beginning he only included English translations for 2 of the 19 letters, yet there are 19 English translations anyway. Bad writing & editing strike again!

I could go on and on, but it feels like kicking a dog when it's already down. There are some touching stories in this book, they're just scattered through a mess of a book. You're better off finding another memoir about the German occupation of Greece during WWII. show less

Disclaimer: I received a free copy from a LibraryThing giveaway.

You know it's a bad sign when you're dragging your feet about marking a book "finished" because you dread writing the review. I hate writing bad reviews but it's justified here.

I entered the giveaway for this book because I'm married to Greek and want to continue learning about Greece. At family gatherings, I've heard stories from relatives who lived through the Occupation and the difficult years afterwards. So I thought this show more book would be a nice addition to what I've learned over the years about modern Greek history. Sadly, this book not only didn't live up to expectations, it's downright terrible.

This book was clearly a labor of love by the author, which I appreciate. That's not enough, though. It's very hard to read because it's poorly organized and badly edited. Some examples:

* The narrative is all over the place. I can't make heads or tails of the book's structure. It has chapters but I can't see that they're doing anything, as there doesn't seem to be anything tying together what's in a given chapter.
* Inconsistent romanization of Greek words. Sometimes a grandmother is 'giagia' and sometimes 'yiayia' - even on the same page! It makes it harder to read.
* Lots of rambling digressions that don't drive the story or setting. Often the author forgets to get back on topic. One of the strangest for me was when the author decided to tell the reader about the difference between two Greek words but apparently got distracted. You never do learn what the difference is.
* Conversations between author as a child and author at other ages - so confusing! Perhaps with better structure these scenes would make more sense, but they pop up with no explanation and it takes a while to realize what's going on.
* In the appendix full of old letters, he says at the beginning he only included English translations for 2 of the 19 letters, yet there are 19 English translations anyway. Bad writing & editing strike again!

I could go on and on, but it feels like kicking a dog when it's already down. There are some touching stories in this book, they're just scattered through a mess of a book. You're better off finding another memoir about the German occupation of Greece during WWII. show less

This is an important book partly because of the history it covers and partly because it uses the point of view of a child. The German occupation and the subsequent civil war in Greece have been covered from an historical perspective and sometimes form a hero's perspective but this work tells us how one child experienced those brutal, fraught and treacherous times.

I have already recommended it to a lot of British ex-pats living in Greece because it highlights so many insights into Greek show more family life and modern Greek history - simple things like the use of the familiar and diminutive forms within families are explained entirely within a gripping story of a young boy growing up and coming to understand both the world and adults and their flaws and failings.

Essentially warm and human Mr Styppas takes an interesting approach to his storytelling that comforts and captivates and, in my opinion, had he had a good editor this could have been - and still could be - a very good book.

It is often said that everybody has one book in them and mostly I disagree but Mr Styppas had a book in him and he has shared it with us and for that I am grateful show less

First off, let me say that my comments on this book may sound derogatory, but that is not at all my intent, nor should it deter anyone from reading the book. They are simply my opinions and should be taken as such.

I went into this book hoping for a story of a young boy's experiences during the Nazi occupation of Greece. What I got was an apparent attempt to describe the entire world around the boy.

It's as if the author is trying (and almost succeeds, in fact!) to chronicle every minuscule show more occurrence, situation, thought and emotion of his childhood, along with the general atmosphere of the Greek society.

This overabundance of information detracted from what should be a very human story, and made me feel as if I were reading some documentary treatise instead of a personal memoir.

It's as much the fault of a lack of competent editing as it is the lack of experience on the part of the author. Also if the book had been better formatted it might have made it a bit easier to read - The lack of adequate paragraph separation added to the reading discomfort by making the already-long passages seem even more arduous to take.

I also found that it was sometimes very difficult to distinguish the narrator's voice, as it would often switch from the very child-like views and outlooks of the boy in the story, to the now-adult (and elderly adult at that) thoughts and feelings of the author. It could be said that this gives one a more complete sense of it all, but it rather had the effect of confusing me and thereby throwing off the flow of the story.

I did not finish the book. I got about 150 pages in and could take no more. I may at some point in the future pick it back up again and try to finish it, as I feel somewhat apologetic toward the author's childhood self by not listening to his entire story, but we shall see.

The reason for my three star rating is because I was uncomfortable giving it only two. The author evidently poured his heart and soul into the work and it deserves at least three stars. show less