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A review by mxhermit
Evanthia's Gift by Effie Kammenou
3.0
Rating: 3.5 Stars
I've come to realize that family sagas are one of the most interesting types of books that I read this year. There is, of course, my favorite: A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith; too there was Pachinko by Min Jin Lee. As the year draws to a close, I was able to read/listen to Evanthia's Gift, a story of Greek immigrants and their family as they move back and forth between Greece and America and, finally, raise their children as Greek-Americans in a time when identity is something hard to pinpoint, particularly one that has dual countries contributing to who they are.
The book opens with betrayal, but even in that Anastacia, the first main character, finds some hope: her daughter, Sophia. As the story progresses there is still much doubt and pain. Anastacia struggles with what to tell Sophia about her father and, with her friends old and new, the lingering effects of World War II in their homeland, Greece.
The movement from her earliest feelings of betrayal to the slow effort of healing, delayed as it was by self-doubt and trouble from the past, was a tender experience for Anastacia and her readers. There were moments of beauty, such as when she is walking through her hometown and by the sea during her later honeymoon. There were almost moments of personal pain, such as recovering from a late-term miscarriage and hysterectomy. Anastacia was a strong character, even at rock bottom moments, and her and Alex were a wonderful couple to read about.
There were reminiscences throughout that were painful and saddening. Anastacia remembering rationing and the black market. Alex recalling trying to find a beloved merchant and searching the place he knew him most likely to be: boarding a train, guarded by Nazis. Not to compare the heartache to these previous examples, but even the love of the young, the desperation in the relationship between Sophia and Dean, was hard to bear because of their young age, the intensity of such feelings, and the knowledge that there is heartbreak in their past and probably their future as well.
I wasn't a fan when the story turned from Anastacia and Alex and their generation to that of their children because it felt like two separate stories that were only loosely connected. Sophia was a bit difficult to like half of the time because of her infatuation with Dean. Her determination was almost admirable in that she knew what she wanted and held on to that, but I think it hurt her in some ways because she was pinning so much hope and almost her entire future on this one guy when she was still so young. There's an entire future ahead of her, but from the age of twelve onward she's sure that she would go through anything, wait forever even, if only Dean could be hers.
Anastacia and Alex's relationship was much more emotionally rich than that of Sophia and Dean. When things go wrong between them, primarily Dean's fault through some lies with Sophia, much weight is loaded upon her. Her melancholy is exaggerated, too intense, and yet Dean puts the burden on her, refusing to accept responsibility for his part. A textbook teen romance, something of Lifetime movies, once Sophia and Dean started dating, their relationship and the dissolution of it, was a serious downswing in readability.
Sophia states at one point that she has grown as a dancer and as a person; while I might accept her dancing ability, her growth as a person is debatable because of her pining for Dean, her insistence that he will be the only man for her ever, despite their separation and the pain he's put her through by keeping their relationship a secret.
Dean continued to be a disgusting character that I disliked more and more as time went on. His possessiveness of Sophia, even years later, was creepy as hell, especially since he kept insisting he'd evolved and moved on with a woman named Elizabeth. Sophia wasn't much better, frustrating as she was clinging to Dean, to the past, almost as much as he was. The callbacks to Romeo & Juliet were cringe worthy in their accuracy.
The way the secondary female characters Irini (Anastacia's sister) and Elizabeth (Dean's wife) were treated as "developed" characters was disgusting. They were set up as shrewish if only to bolster the primary ladies in their generation. Loading them down in favor of other women felt extreme and a bit hostile. While Elizabeth admittedly had some traits, some snobbishness, that made her unlikable, I think I understood some of her aversion to Dean's family. Considering how they treated her, his parents because she wasn't Greek and his sister because she wasn't Sophia, I don't blame her for sticking to the people she knew and was comfortable with.
The second generation in this family saga was full of people that couldn't figure out their own minds and kept making bad decisions regarding personal relationships. The silent treatment doesn't work and as much as the reader is meant to like Sophia, I kept rolling my eyes at her childish behavior. From seventeen to the end of the book, she in particular felt immature; at 41, her voice, her presence in the book, doesn't feel like she's grown from where she started.
Emily Lawrence was a very good narrator. The quality of her voice made the epic story a pleasant experience and that's essential, particularly when the book was so long. Her accent for the first generation of the story was, as far as I could tell, accurate and it set them apart from their children, who know Greek but have grown up primarily in the United States and thus have more exposure to American sounding voices.
The beginning of this book was far superior to the later two-thirds and while I disliked Sophia, Dean, and others of that time period, Anastacia and Alex's story is worth the read. The interludes of Greek recipes and of excerpts from poems and philosophy texts, while not always making sense in context, were a nice way to break up the monotony of the drier moments. I would not count this among my favorite family sagas, but I think it might reach others that enjoy lighter novel atmospheres, wanting to branch out.
I received a copy of this book from the Audiobookworm Promotions in exchange for an honest review.
I've come to realize that family sagas are one of the most interesting types of books that I read this year. There is, of course, my favorite: A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith; too there was Pachinko by Min Jin Lee. As the year draws to a close, I was able to read/listen to Evanthia's Gift, a story of Greek immigrants and their family as they move back and forth between Greece and America and, finally, raise their children as Greek-Americans in a time when identity is something hard to pinpoint, particularly one that has dual countries contributing to who they are.
The book opens with betrayal, but even in that Anastacia, the first main character, finds some hope: her daughter, Sophia. As the story progresses there is still much doubt and pain. Anastacia struggles with what to tell Sophia about her father and, with her friends old and new, the lingering effects of World War II in their homeland, Greece.
The movement from her earliest feelings of betrayal to the slow effort of healing, delayed as it was by self-doubt and trouble from the past, was a tender experience for Anastacia and her readers. There were moments of beauty, such as when she is walking through her hometown and by the sea during her later honeymoon. There were almost moments of personal pain, such as recovering from a late-term miscarriage and hysterectomy. Anastacia was a strong character, even at rock bottom moments, and her and Alex were a wonderful couple to read about.
There were reminiscences throughout that were painful and saddening. Anastacia remembering rationing and the black market. Alex recalling trying to find a beloved merchant and searching the place he knew him most likely to be: boarding a train, guarded by Nazis. Not to compare the heartache to these previous examples, but even the love of the young, the desperation in the relationship between Sophia and Dean, was hard to bear because of their young age, the intensity of such feelings, and the knowledge that there is heartbreak in their past and probably their future as well.
I wasn't a fan when the story turned from Anastacia and Alex and their generation to that of their children because it felt like two separate stories that were only loosely connected. Sophia was a bit difficult to like half of the time because of her infatuation with Dean. Her determination was almost admirable in that she knew what she wanted and held on to that, but I think it hurt her in some ways because she was pinning so much hope and almost her entire future on this one guy when she was still so young. There's an entire future ahead of her, but from the age of twelve onward she's sure that she would go through anything, wait forever even, if only Dean could be hers.
Anastacia and Alex's relationship was much more emotionally rich than that of Sophia and Dean. When things go wrong between them, primarily Dean's fault through some lies with Sophia, much weight is loaded upon her. Her melancholy is exaggerated, too intense, and yet Dean puts the burden on her, refusing to accept responsibility for his part. A textbook teen romance, something of Lifetime movies, once Sophia and Dean started dating, their relationship and the dissolution of it, was a serious downswing in readability.
Sophia states at one point that she has grown as a dancer and as a person; while I might accept her dancing ability, her growth as a person is debatable because of her pining for Dean, her insistence that he will be the only man for her ever, despite their separation and the pain he's put her through by keeping their relationship a secret.
Dean continued to be a disgusting character that I disliked more and more as time went on. His possessiveness of Sophia, even years later, was creepy as hell, especially since he kept insisting he'd evolved and moved on with a woman named Elizabeth. Sophia wasn't much better, frustrating as she was clinging to Dean, to the past, almost as much as he was. The callbacks to Romeo & Juliet were cringe worthy in their accuracy.
The way the secondary female characters Irini (Anastacia's sister) and Elizabeth (Dean's wife) were treated as "developed" characters was disgusting. They were set up as shrewish if only to bolster the primary ladies in their generation. Loading them down in favor of other women felt extreme and a bit hostile. While Elizabeth admittedly had some traits, some snobbishness, that made her unlikable, I think I understood some of her aversion to Dean's family. Considering how they treated her, his parents because she wasn't Greek and his sister because she wasn't Sophia, I don't blame her for sticking to the people she knew and was comfortable with.
The second generation in this family saga was full of people that couldn't figure out their own minds and kept making bad decisions regarding personal relationships. The silent treatment doesn't work and as much as the reader is meant to like Sophia, I kept rolling my eyes at her childish behavior. From seventeen to the end of the book, she in particular felt immature; at 41, her voice, her presence in the book, doesn't feel like she's grown from where she started.
Emily Lawrence was a very good narrator. The quality of her voice made the epic story a pleasant experience and that's essential, particularly when the book was so long. Her accent for the first generation of the story was, as far as I could tell, accurate and it set them apart from their children, who know Greek but have grown up primarily in the United States and thus have more exposure to American sounding voices.
The beginning of this book was far superior to the later two-thirds and while I disliked Sophia, Dean, and others of that time period, Anastacia and Alex's story is worth the read. The interludes of Greek recipes and of excerpts from poems and philosophy texts, while not always making sense in context, were a nice way to break up the monotony of the drier moments. I would not count this among my favorite family sagas, but I think it might reach others that enjoy lighter novel atmospheres, wanting to branch out.
I received a copy of this book from the Audiobookworm Promotions in exchange for an honest review.