Crowded Heart

by Nick Papandreou and Nikos Papandreou

Book Overview

Papandreou narrates the story of a family uprooted from its home in the United States to live in Greece in pursuit of the father's political ambition. "Sensuous and sharp."--Gore Vidal. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0312204000
• ISBN13: 9780312204006
• Release Date: March 1999
• Publisher: Picador USA
• Length: 192 Pages
• Weight: 0.48 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.5" x 8.2"

Customer Reviews

Close to my heart

"To know my Greece I would share with you a tomato on the sandy beaches of Skorpellos, open a sea urchin with my penknife and serve you the scarlet eggs inside while the salt stretches the skin on our backs." Aren't those words just beautiful? This is the opening paragraph of Nicholas Papandreou's spare, elegant "novel" about his tumultuous childhood as a son of Greece's socialist prime minister of the 1980s, Andreas Papandreou. The Papandreou family's political pedigree stretches back generations to Nicholas's revered grandfather, George Papandreou. Nicholas and his siblings grew up both privileged and burdened by their legacy. Their lives were in constant crisis through political upheaval and their world was very public, almost claustrophobic. Witness Nicholas's revulsion for the endless cheek-pinching and being constantly kissed by strangers. A child often feels powerless in the face of adults and this lack of respect for physical boundaries exacerbated his powerlessness. Being constantly accessible is a Greek trait, but it's exhausting too. As Nicholas reminds us, there is no Greek word for privacy. Andreas Papandreou was fiercely charismatic, commanding Greeks at home and in the diaspora. No matter how much they loved or hated him, everyone wanted a piece of this human dynamo whose mission was to restore democracy in Greece, where a right-wing dictatorship festered for nearly seven years from 1967. Nicholas just wanted to be loved and cherished by his father who could never find time to do it. (And from the book it appears the famous socialist could be a bit of a dictator in private life.) Andreas, it seems, found it easier to be a parental figure to democratic Greece. I lived in Greece during the Papandreou years, an era of tumultuous social and economic change, sometimes tainted by scandal. This is a vivid portrait of a leader whose life was constantly under scrutiny. Nicholas is also writing about exile, his father's during the dictatorship and his own exile. Andreas was always totally focused on Greece, but for Nicholas, born outside Greece to an American mother and spending years of his childhood in Toronto, much of his early life was spent struggling with where he belonged. Greece was both familiar and strange, loved and reviled, home and exile. A person who has lived in exile often remains an outsider and a keen observer, which is an asset for a writer. Nicholas has put his exile to good use. His writing style is restrained, spartan yet luxuriously sensual, poetic in the finest tradition. Every single word counts. The ancient Greeks elevated poetry to an art form. The very modern Greeks are doing pretty well too. I am donating this book to the library of my daughters' private Greek school. The poetic skills are to be admired and the theme of a tug of war between cultures will touch the hearts of many young Greek-Australians.

Poetic autobiography

Being born in Greece, or being touched by the Greek culture, experiencing life under the Aegean light, can be dangerous, wonderful, wild, serene and devastating, all at the same time. This book revived this experience in my memory form the first pages until its closure. Having myself lived through the era and dramatic events that are described, I was brought back to my childhood years and the nation's adolescent attempts to shape its destiny. I could hear again the roar of the military tanks, through the streets of Athens, crushing the student's demonstrations. This is a very authentic and different portrait of the Greek spirit, culture, and experience, with the eyes of an "alien". A lonely boy, even amidst endless crowds, calling his name, yet not calling him. Looking to meet and know the father that everybody knew. But of course, Nikos is not an alien to Greece. He proved again, through his novel this time, that he is a true native. This novel should be called a poem.

A book that transports you into a fascinating childhood....

I first read this book last year after having heard the author read selected passages. His writing style is enchanting. I felt myself become a child, fully transported into his childhood stories. The mixture of politics, passion, Greek culture and American influences is a mesmerizing blend. I have just reread the book after a year...once you pick it up and start reading, it's hard to put down. I highly recommend it.

Beautiful and moving intimate account of childhood.

A very moving account of a childhood, torn between 2 cultures and between private and public passions.

A poignant account of what it felt like to be "his" son

Although the gist of the book may be elsewhere, I found the insights on "the father" exceedingly interesting. Personalities like the father have been boggling my mind forever. They are too complex to characterize--evasive characters ladden with ambiguity and contradictions ("A capitalist by day and a rebel by night, that's what I am alright!" said the father on his way to a socialist rally where he was to deliver a speech.)Whole doctoral dissertations can be written on a character as arcane as the father's and still fail to grasp the essense of it. And Nicholas captures it in a single stroke: "My father was important enough to be on ["harassment"] computer lists all across North America and yet he seemed quite harmless, unless you really knew him."A required read for anybody who is "in" on the subject.