Tom Stone

This is a book on Greek mythology, but it's also a biography and a history. So Tom Stone retells the myths, as you might expect, but he limits himself to the ones featuring Zeus, and the retelling is shaped to tell us about Zeus as a character (or person or god, whichever works best); this is the biography. And while he's telling readers about Zeus, he's also telling us about the Greeks—and this is the history. So he starts, not in Greece, but on the Russian steppes, where the people who show more would eventually migrate to Greece first imagined him as a disembodied sky god. The story follows the god and the people to Greece, and traces Zeus's development through what the Greeks wanted and needed from their gods. They begin to see Zeus as less of a force of nature and more as a god with a personality, Zeus reinforces their spread through Greece by his liaisons/rapes in myth, and as their sense of themselves strengthens, human heroes become more prominent in myth and Zeus and the other gods become more remote.

This could have been a dry, academic treatise, but Stone is a good storyteller as well, so I enjoyed rereading the book. (Happy to find out I liked it just as much the second time around: not all books hold up to a rereading.) The subtitle makes it sound like you'll be reading a travelogue, and there are bits of one: Stone and his wife traveled through Greece to various sites important in Zeus's mythology, and he talks about that trip as well. But the focus is mainly on the historical Zeus and how the Greeks influenced his development, which is a different approach than many books on mythology, and I found it really interesting. show less

The Summer of My Greek Taverna was told with just the right mix of pride and self deprecation. It should also serve as a warning tale for all who think running a restaurant anywhere, much less a tiny Greek island, is a good idea. The cover advertised Stone as like Anthony Bourdain but I'm not sure I agree. He doesn't have quite the cynical sting of Bourdain. But I enjoyed it, especially dreaming of sun drenched Mediterranean beaches in the midst of a pretty miserable February.

A perfect book to read in anticipation of a trip to Greece. This memoir is set on the island of Patmos, where one man opened a restaurant in partnership with a local Greek. He learned so much about the culture, including their hospitality and clear lines between locals and foreigners. His naïveté and openness is blatantly American, but so is his enthusiasm for cooking and the island. I can’t wait to visit the shores he describes.

“There are places that seem to be waiting for you out show more there somewhere, like unmet lovers, and when (and if) you come upon them, you know, instantly and unquestioningly, that they are the ones.”

“She was full of vim and vigor, and when she spoke, she barked out her words, slapping you on the back with them.” show less

My aunt gave me this book some years ago, but generally she gives me books I hate so I avoided this. Then At christmas I was searching her bookshelves for books of mine she and my uncle hadn't returned and I saw this and thought I had better give it a read. Probably I should have read it before I bought Cookie out. Though it is about a very different island and takes place about 30 years ago, its cutting dissection of some ugly Greek traits rings very true.
The author goes into partnership show more with an old Greek friend in a beachside Taverna on the island of Patmos. I figure this tale comes from around the early 80's, just around the time Greece entered the EU and money was starting to come in to develop places long left to fend themselves. The money involved is minimal compared to the amount I have invested over the years, but the troubles are not. And everyone telling him his partner is a thief- I can certainly attest to the truth of that. The problem in Greece, one that has come back to bite the entire country, is that no-one who can does pay tax. Everything is done on the sly, tills are hardly ever used as they were designed to be and only the family owning the business has any idea how much is being made. But far from being the born businessmen they think they are, a lot of the Greeks on the islands had no gift for book-keeping and so there developed the desire to be full, no matter if it meant that you sold at a loss. The whole idea is to go to the square or down the port and tell your friends how many people were rammed into your taverna/restaurant/bar/club. And Greeks being intensely jealous of each others success, this meant that said mates would then undercut their friend/rival so THEY cold then brag how full they now were. This becomes a vicious cycle. On the island I am on, this is compounded by the fact that they don't actually realise that their clientele has changed financially if not by nationality. Instead of the young people who flock to it to enjoy the night life being poor backpackers from Australia or Canada or Scandinavia, a lot of them are in fact lawyers, accountants. teachers with lots of money who are prepared to pay for good food, drink and service. These same people got Santorini or Mykonos and pay three times what we charge. Yet the local Greeks don't get this, instead every year its the same. May is quiet, so lets cut our prices! and so it goes, panic sets in and in the end a lot of bars are basically paying their customers to come in!
In the book the author realises he is being scammed when some locals who own much smaller premises than him announce how much they had made at a big feast. This draws down the curtain on the island dream he had, and which many of us who get drawn to Greece year after year have. I know that back in 2007 when i was looking for a place to invest in there were other people who were doing the same, but few do. Some are just big noting, others are too nervous, while the majority are just too clever to get involved in an economy that is so opaque.
After reading this book a few more butterflies have taken residence in my own stomach, lets hope they are just the product of an over active imagination. The business is now mine, so at least most of the problems are fully in my hands to shape and manage and control.
As for the book itself, I personally found it poorly written. It was only my own experiences and how I could identify with the author's problems that made me finish it. The recipes are a bonus but I think that the average person needs to actually visit the Greek islands. Maybe one day a poorly written memoir might emerge from my pen/keyboard! show less