THE GREEN SHORE

The Green Shore by Natalie Bakopoulos - The story takes place in Greece from 1967 to 1973, which were the years that a military dictatorship of colonels and generals (the junta) were in power.  It's about the individual members of a politically conscious family, but it was rather slow reading for me.  I liked all the characters well enough, which is amazing considering the stereotypical portrayals of some of the men.  (Not saying the author intended them to be stereotypical - more that I found them to be but didn't mind them after all).  And the women in the novel are so progressive!  This is wild because I remember visiting Greece for the first time in July and August 1971, and I remember knowing that the junta was in power, but not having it affect our visit except for the fact that the country was not a crowded place.  I don't remember crowds of people anywhere - I have a picture of me standing against a corner column of the Parthenon, and you only see a few scattered people in the photo.  Maybe the lack of people was a sign of the junta?  I don't know.  The signs we saw constantly were graffiti commemorating a date.  And back to the women, I remember thinking how repressed they seemed to be in myriad different ways.  And back to the book.  I'm still not sure about The Green Shore - what is The Green Shore?  If the author told us, I missed it.  The cover is lovely with Greek Easter Eggs - one cracked - which I suppose symbolizes the cracked nature of Greek society during the Junta years.  Read it if you have an interest in Modern Greek History and don't mind a quiet-reading wordy story.  Or if you read everything Greek and want to learn more about what it would be like to live in a politically repressed country - I'm glad to have learned more about it.  Here's an interview with the author that I enjoyed:  Natalie Bakopoulos YouTube

Twelve Years A Slave - Narrative of a Citizen of New-York, Solomon Northup Kidnapped in Washington City in 1941, Rescued in 1953, From a Cotton Plantation Near the Red River, in Louisiana. by Solomon Northup - The title of the Penguin Classic says a lot, but it doesn't say it all.  If you saw the movie, you don't necessarily have to read the book.  For me, the visual story-telling was more emotional than the written word.  I think it's because it's beautifully written in that musical and formal 1800's style, and because Solomon's patience was so astounding, and his storytelling so straightforward.  He was more intelligent than his captors and than his owners, and that intelligence showed itself in the way he finally figured out a way to regain his freedom.