|
|
|
The
Feasts of Memory
- Stories of a Greek Family
by Elias Kulukundis
Published by Peter E. Randall, Portsmouth, NH. (This book
was first published by Holt, Rhinehart & Winston. This revised
edition includes a new chapter.)
236 pages. 5" x 7-7/8", paperback
List Price: US$20.00 - order it from the publisher at Deidre@PERPublisher.com
Contact Elias Kulukundis
|
 |
The
new and revised edition of The Feasts of Memory,
subtitled “Stories of a Greek Family” presents
an exciting combination of a Mediterranean travelogue and
the author's autobiography as a ship owner and writer.
The author has added new material about his grandfather's
successful navigation from the age of sail to steam and
a portrait of his uncle Manuel Kulukundis, who was overshadowed
in the original by his brother George.
The Feasts of Memory brings alive a world of ancient traditions
and colorful customs that will touch the life of anyone
wishing to discover Greece. The famous Greek shipping family
of Kulukundis is the source of inspiration for a clever
combination of travel book, Kulukundis' autobiography, and
a collection of the family's stories. The tales told around
the dinner tables of his family in exile recreate the ancestors'
life on the island of Kasos.
Through a collection of family stories, it vividly captures
the nostalgia and excitement that accompany one's search
for origins as a key to one's identity and meaning in life.
The Feasts of Memory is a book that inspires all
those who left their homeland behind as well as those in
search of new realms.
More
about the book & the author: thefeastsofmemory.com
|
|
| About
the author |
|
Grandson
of two Kasiot sea captains and son of a Kasiot shipowner,
Elias Kulukundis was born in London in 1937. Three years
later his family moved to America and he grew up in Rye,
New York. Nevertheless, he feels that he grew up in a Greek
world.
Educated
at Phillips Exeter and Harvard, he became a versatile linguist
as well as a writer. Mr. Kulukundis translated Viktor Nekrasov's
Both Sides of the Ocean from the Russian.
A
shipping financier as well as a writer, he spends his leisure
time singing musical comedy and opera. He has combined these
interests in his latest work, a libretto for an opera entitled
Three Brides For Kasos, based on his story The Hollow Crown.”
Mr.
Kulukundis currently lives in New York.
|
 |
| Photo
by Jayson Byrd |
|
|
| |
| Quotes |
“The
Feasts of Memory by Elias Kulukundis is a rich literary banquet.
It's a fascinating travel memoir that echoes the writings on Greece
of Henry Miller and Lawrence Durrell, a revealing family chronicle
of one of the great Greek shipping dynasties, and a sharply etched
portrait of Aegean island life as it was lived for centuries but
is now rapidly fading away.” -- Nicholas Gage, author of Eleni
“Elias Kulukundis is a born story-teller, one of those rare
and enchanting people who instinctively disentangle the essential
story from the confusion of past reminiscences ... and give it a
new lease of life.” -- Helen Vlachos, The Spectator
“I read it with delight and recognition and could hardly put
it down. It captures wonderfully not only the long, dark-rooted
traditions of island Greece with its pride, humor, irony and tragedy;
it gives also the especial flavor of the Dodecanese.” -- Mary
Renault
“An excellent anecdotal account of Kasiot history, lore, and
customs, some of them as savage as Homer's; and beyond that, (the
book) is a beautiful and imaginative exploration of a writer's relationship
to his origins.”-- The New Yorker
“Kulukundis is the last of the big spenders - what a beautiful
job. It's fantasy and yet it's not fantasy. It's a personal history,
which forces the present to have importance through the past. ...
Mr. Kulukundis has searched out his roots and has tied them to the
present - this act alone is commendable in an age of 'kill me or
kiss me, Johnny, but do it quick'.” -- John Cassavetes
“Good and original and solid, a marvelous piece of work for
a young writer (or an old writer) to have done.” -- Laura Z.
Hobson |
|