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| Photo by Jayson Byrd |
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When I first published The Feasts of Memory, people used to ask me, "Is it a novel? A travel book? An autobiography?" In American Literary History ("The Other Space of Greek America," Winter 1998), Professor Yiorgios Kalogeras writes that the book "stands out as an autobiography, a family memoir, a history and cartography of the island of Kasos, a book of short stories, and a travel narrative all in one." That settles the question. The answer is all of the above. For this new edition, I have added a considerable amount of new material, much of it contained in the chapter "Vacations Afloat" about my grandfather's successful navigation from the age of sail to the age of steam and a portrait of my uncle Manuel Kulukundis, who was perhaps overshadowed in the original by his older brother George. By far the most gratifying aspect of the life of the book has been the interest the younger members of my extended family have shown in it. Recently, I heard that a young nephew gave it to his fiancée on their engagement, presumably because he wanted to let her know his origins. "This is our book," he said. The gesture filled me with satisfaction and gratitude. When I wrote the book at age twenty-eight, I was concerned only with understanding my life. Now, the passage of time and another generation has given the book a dimension I did not anticipate.
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