- Paperback: 272 pages
- Publisher: Simon & Schuster; Reprint edition (Jun 3 2003)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 074324771X
- ISBN-13: 978-0743247719
- Product Dimensions: 21.4 x 14 x 1.8 cm
- Shipping Weight: 249 g
- Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #425,110 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- See Complete Table of Contents
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Publishers Weekly
In this feast for all senses, Stone brings readers into the tiny Greek island world of Patmos in a prose that feels as languid as the pace of the Patmian people. At 33, Stone, a Broadway stage manager, puts $10,000 of an inheritance in the stock market and leaves New York for what he intends to be a five-month stay in Greece, where he would fulfill his dream of writing a novel. But five months quickly turns into love, marriage, two children and several years when he meets Danielle, a 23-year-old French painter. After moving to Rethymnon, Stone teaches English as a second language while Danielle continues to paint until an old Patmian friend, Theologos, phones and invites Stone to become his partner for the summer in his beach taverna, The Beautiful Helen. Leaping at the opportunity, Stone, and a very reluctant Danielle, pack up their two children, a Cuisinart and Stone's many recipes, and return to the island where they fell in love and where they would soon learn the hard lessons that come with Greek traditions, bargaining, the ever-present Evil Eye, and their naive trust in Theologos, known to all as O Lados, "the oily one." This nicely told memoir and travelogue is interspersed with Stone's recipes, sensual descriptions of food and place, and the love of his wife and children.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Library Journal
Patmos, the small Greek island where St. John lived and wrote, is the setting of this brief but charming autobiographical travelog with recipes. Stone (Greece: An Illustrated History) is in love with Patmos, most of the people who live there, and especially his French-born wife, Danielle, whom he met and married there. One summer, when asked to take over a friend's restaurant at the height of the summer tourist season, Stone was able to turn his cooking avocation into a real job. In this bittersweet memoir, he recounts the reality of working from early in the morning to late at night, with almost no time for friends and family which ultimately forced him to reconsider the allure of his dream island and start thinking about how to live his life in the future. Stone also relates the seesawing friendship between himself and the taverna owner, an old friend who cheated him of thousands of dollars. Although written in the genre of Peter Mayle and Frances Mayes, this down-to-earth travelog certainly does not present a vacation world viewed through rose-colored glasses. Recommended for larger travel as well as cooking collections. Olga B. Wise, Compaq Computer Corp., Austin, TX
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Inside This Book
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First Sentence
The phone rang just as I was about to leave home and trudge through the raw Cretan winter to my tutoring job. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
The phone rang just as I was about to leave home and trudge through the raw Cretan winter to my tutoring job. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Most helpful customer reviews
2.0 out of 5 stars
Very light Fare,
By
This review is from: The Summer of My Greek Taverna: A Memoir (Paperback)
I found this book very unsatisfying. The author seems to be a man of little sophistication or world experience. It struck me as strange that he would be able to afford a subscription to Gourmet Magazine for years while apparently living on the edge of starvation in his tutoring job.Having spent many wonderful summers eating in tavernas on Greek Islands I found most of his recipes ridiculous and uninventive.His characters were very limited and there seemed to be no reason to read the book or recommend it to anyone else.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Summer of my Greek Taverna,
By
This review is from: The Summer of My Greek Taverna: A Memoir (Hardcover)
Very enjoyable ! Tom Stone is a breath of fresh air in the travel writing world. There is a sensual undercurrent in his writing! Loved this book!
4.0 out of 5 stars
Enthusiastic about Patmos,
By Alekos (Cancun, Quintana Roo Mexico) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Summer of My Greek Taverna: A Memoir (Hardcover)
Since I have spent a lot of time on the Island of Patmos, I was glad to learn that this book had been published and I ordered it immediately. I have a few negative observations to make about the book, so I'd better start out with the positive stuff. The book is a pleasant read. In general the author captures the flavor and beauty of the island and its inhabitants. It is also a fast read. But my own experience on the island makes me believe that its people are rather un-Greek in the sense that they are kinda sneaky. They are also generally unhappy people, quite grim. This may be caused by being dominated by the church. One young Patmian I met said he wanted to go away and live in Athens because he couldn't stand the idea of living his whole life in a cemetery. Too much religion makes Demitrios a dull boy.Now, the book is about how an American gets duped by a Patmian when he agrees to become his partner in a beachside restaurant. This isn't really enough of a story to make a whole book, but as it turns out, it is rather successful because the author has flair and a knack for characterization that he uses effectively. There may be a problem in the possiblility that readers will get the notion that all Greeks behave in the same underhanded way as the author's alleged partner. They do not. Patmians are a special kind of Greek, which may have something to do with the island's being dominated by the monastery up on the hill. The abbot of the monastery actually functions as the local bishop, and he isn't even a bishop. Most of the monks at the monastery are a pretty sour lot, too. The local priests, on the other hand, are a nice bunch of people who try to make outsiders feel welcome even in church. Strange, isn't it? The author is also the narrator, and little attempt is made to separate the two. This means there is little literary distance in the work...the author gives the impression of writing in the white heat of his emotional letdown when the whole situation at the restaurant comes to a head and he has to confront his thieving partner. The other characters are portrayed quite well, even the minor ones. Summing up, this is an interesting story, but is only a story, even though it is probably based on real life experience. But there of not enough of it for a full length book.
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