A valuable book for Greek Americans: Stavro Nashi's memoir "Ithaka on the Horizon"

Ithaka on the Horizon: a Greek-American Journey, by Stavro Nashi (2013). Available on Amazon.

I just finished Stavro Nashi's wonderful family memoir, "Ithaka on the Horizon". I think it's a valuable book, particularly for Greek Americans and their families. Many of us will read our own family histories in the book. It's particularly interesting to read about Nashi's having been born and grown up in Constantinople/Istanbul. The episodes of the anti-Christian pogroms in the 50s, and his family's sad decision to leave their home are timely and worth reading.

My own parents brought me to America when I was two years old, in 1957, from Thessaloniki. Both sets of grandparents came to Thessaloniki via the refugee route from Smyrna and Asia Minor. I thought Nashi's book affectionately presented those refugees and their plight, and their resilience. It's a bit sentimental at times, but that's okay. He captures an important sadness for us that's hard to describe -- as Greek Americans, if we are aware of the sacrifices made by our parents' generation, how will we ever live up to their expectations? You can't repay a mother or father for having abandoned the village or neighborhood that they loved so they could emigrate to America to raise a family.

I thought it was a good thing that Nashi went on at length about current Greek realities, since even many Greek Americans (most) are unaware of what Greece is going through. But it's hard to summarize those realities in a few chapters. There's a lot to love in Greece, but frankly, there's also a lot to dislike.

Regarding some of what Nashi says on Greek political life, I thought he got a lot of that right. I would note that many Greeks learn Left-leaning and often anti-American ideas from their youth. At times in Greece, even among friendly Greeks and family, it seems everybody believes America is behind everything bad or destructive. Greek culture values rebellion and independence, the Left has been very strong in Greek life for a long time, and the Right wing dictatorships there left a corrosive legacy. It'll take a long time for new attitudes to take hold.

I think Nashi is a bit hard on modern American life (that kids are overprotected, that we're essentially selfish, that we've forgotten our core values). Yes, I can agree with him on a lot of it (kids are overprotected, and we are often pretty selfish, a ton of other stuff), but the society children grow up in now is not the one we grew up in fifty years ago. There are also big improvements in our society that are easy to forget (the greater visibility of racial minorities in all walks of life, the greater freedom afforded to handicapped people, the technological advances). True, the changes can drive you crazy, but a lot of people have benefitted.

I enjoyed reading this book. I'm grateful to Stavro Nashi for making the effort to write and publish it.