Dinner with Persephone: Travels in Greece

An enjoyable read - interesting mix of travel, history, politics and culture.

A fascinating book about the year the author spent in Greece

Just like last time I read it, got bored three quarters through.

Started it... didn't finish within library limits. It's non-fiction so I only like to read a few pages at a time and then set it aside. I may check it out again later.

quite hard going

It's obvious Storace is a poet. Her prose has a lyrical, dreamy quality. I also found myself really liking some of the observations she made about Greek culture and Greek/American cultural differences. Her discussion of the types of Greek mothers was interesting, as were her observations about what I like to jokingly refer to as the "passport face." I also enjoyed the chapter on Penelope...more

It's obvious Storace is a poet. Her prose has a lyrical, dreamy quality. I also found myself really liking some of the observations she made about Greek culture and Greek/American cultural differences. Her discussion of the types of Greek mothers was interesting, as were her observations about what I like to jokingly refer to as the "passport face." I also enjoyed the chapter on Penelope Benaki, although it read like a kind of mini-biography that was somewhat out of place with the rest of the book. On the other hand, this book was not my favorite type of travel memoir. The author seemed to be recording more observations than experiences. She was like a detached poet-observer, describing Greek history and Greek culture as she saw it, from the outside looking in. As travelers in a foreign country, we all have an outsider's perspective, but Storace's narrative was far less personal than, say, a book by Elizabeth Gilbert. Put another way, this was not an internal adventure story. I know what Storace thinks about Greece, but even after reading the book I still don't know why she went there in the first place (was it only to write a book?), who her closest friends were (some were mentioned, but it seems their only purpose was to give long monologues on Greek culture), and how she was personally changed by her experience of living in Greece for a year. She may not have been setting out to write a personal travel memoir in the first place, but I suspect that I would have found that type of story more engaging than the one she did end up writing. All in all, this book was decent, but for a look at life in modern Greece I prefer the less dated Facing Athens: Encounters with the Modern City, and for stories of women's travels in Greece, Greece: A Love Story was a more fun read.   hide

If I could give it a zero, I probably would. The actual bits of Greek life you get are sometimes interesting and are the only reason I want to finish the book. The writing is terrible, though. Clunky, overly descriptive (and not in a good way), and full of useless, confusing commas (I found a single sentence that had 11 commas, 2 semicolons, a colon, and a dash!). Totally not recommended.