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Giorgi's Greek Tragedy (Giorgis Greek Tragedy)
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by:
ISBN:
0-7414-6034-3
©2010
Price:
$17.95
Book Size:
5.5'' x 8.5''
, 317 pages
Category/Subject:
FICTION / Historical
A tale of Giorgi’s tragic quest for revenge ensues when secret agents of the Ottoman Turkish Sultan’s elite Janissary Corps murder Giorgi’s parents. Set in Greece prior to the Greek War of Independence, 1821-1829.
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Abstract:
The Ottoman Turkish Empire occupied Greece from 1453 to 1829. Agents of the sultan’s elite Janissary Corps murder Giorgi’s parents. Seeking revenge, he joins the outlawed Greek freedom fighters. A tragic tale of his revenge ensues. The setting for this historical novel, 1790-1829, takes place in the rugged mountains of the Peloponnese region of Greece. Ensconced in deep caves, the fighters live and train to battle the Turks. Far below in the valleys, overtaxed and overworked peasants toil in the fields. The story comprises the lives of three generations of a family and of the cruel treatment inflicted upon them by the Turks.
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Customer Reviews
 
A good introduction to Greece's struggle for independence.
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08/24/2010
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Reviewer:
Ellen Feld Feathered Quill Book Reviews
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Giorgi's Greek Tragedy is an historical novel recounting the events leading up to, and including, Greece 's fight for independence from the suffocating rule of the Ottoman Turks. Seen through the eyes of several family members, the reader is carried along as the family struggles at the hands of their Turkish rulers.
The author opens her story with a look at life in a quaint Greek village in 1790. We see how hard the men work to provide for their families, what the women must do to keep home life running smoothly, and how children contribute. The reader is given a glimpse of wedding customs and how tradition determined so much in the lives of Greek peasants.
The idyllic village life is first interrupted by Turkish tax collectors, then later in the same chapter by the Sultan's Janissary Corps. The Corps were known for making infamous "child gatherings" trips where they would select healthy Greek children and take them away to be raised to fight for the Sultan. On one such trip, the Corps selects young Panos Papakalos for this "privilege." When his parents try to stop the kidnapping, they are ruthlessly killed by the Turkish scouts. Fortunately, the other two sons, Giorgi and Yianni, are off playing and avoided the terror that visited the house that day. But when they returned later and discovered the bloodshed, their lives are forever changed. Young Giorgi is soon obsessed with punishing the murderers and vows to one day get revenge.
The bulk of Giorgi's Greek Tragedy follows Giorgi and Yianni as they run off and join the kleftes (Freedom Fighters), hoping to join up with Kapetan Zaharias Barbitsiotis, the leader of the rebels, and avenge their parents' murder. After a brief stint in a training camp, the boys are soon in the middle of the fight for freedom. Giorgi quickly learns to relish the killing of Turks, but Yianni prefers the quiet of reading and writing poetry.
Life is hard for the young fighters and many Greek rebels die from both the harsh living conditions and the Turk's swords. But the overbearing rule of the Turks has hardened the young men's hearts and they willingly fight on.
It is apparent that the author did her research and is fascinated by the Greek fight for independence. She has included many details about the Freedom Fighters' lives, and has even included a glimpse of the hardships military animals, such as pack mules, faced. For those who get squeamish reading detailed fighting scenes, take note, this book focuses much more on the daily lives of soldiers and their families, and avoids gory battle scenes.
Although the history is central to the narrative, the characters' stories sometimes get lost as the historical events take over. For example, the boys' search for the Freedom Fighters is interrupted by an old man's tale about brave Kapetan Zaharias and later a priest tells them about a castle at Mystras in 1259. At these points, the reader may feel like they are attending a lecture on Greek history rather than reading an account of two boys growing to manhood as they fight for their country's freedom. But when the story gets back on track, the action quickly picks up.
Quill says: This tale is a good introduction to the events surrounding Greece 's struggle for independence seen mainly through the eyes of two brothers.
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Giorgi's Greek Tragedy is history and fiction at its finest.
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04/08/2011
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Reviewer:
Cindy Taylor
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To take a period in history and weave it into a fictional account of the survival of a family through three generations of their struggles and successes and still create an interesting and exciting page- turner is not an easy feat. However, to Pauline Hager it is like second nature in Giorgi’s Greek Tragedy as she tells us the story of Giorgi Papakalos and his family and their lives in the beautiful mountains of the Peloponnese region of Greece during the final years of the Ottoman Turks’ occupation of Greece .
So many periods in history such as World War I, World War II, the Holocaust, Slavery, and the Russian Revolution, to name just a few, have been written about in abundance and depicted in movies, but I found this riveting account of Greece’s struggle for independence to be very refreshing because it was a period in history that I was not at all familiar with. It became not only a pleasurable read but also a history lesson that kept me engrossed in the story from start to finish and left me fascinated and yet deeply disturbed and thoughtful. However, the historical aspect of the story was not overwhelming because it was chronicled in an easy to understand manner with a nice mixture of the history lessons and the personal stories of the characters.
The story centres on the Papakalos and Leonidis families as they struggle to raise their families by strict Greek tradition during turbulent times. They all work incredibly long hours in the fields to be able to save a little money even after paying heavy taxes to the Turks. Even when Mother Nature wreaks havoc on their crops or Turkish officials kill one of their own, they still endure and carry on through their intense pain and suffering and find some measure of contentment in their everyday lives. After finding his parents murdered by Turkish scouts who take his older brother away to be trained for the Janissary Corps, Giorgi Papakalos vows to join the freedom fighters, known as Kleftes, to fight for the freedom of his people and to avenge his parents’ deaths. Giorgi’s brother, Yianni, joins Giorgi on his adventures, and we follow them as they endure severe hardships training as Klefts and grow into two very different personalities, but still with the common dream of freedom and an intense dedication to and love for each other.
Hager takes the themes of struggle and survival and challenges us to consider the struggles that all groups of people go through to differing degrees and to ponder where human beings get the undying will to survive. What keeps people fighting even when up against the greatest adversities? It also gave me great admiration and respect for the tenacity of these strong, resilient and yet impoverished and downtrodden Greek people who toiled and endured every day in the fields just for basic survival and gained great satisfaction from their accomplishments, no matter how small. Through it all they never gave up on their dream of independence and still managed to live by ancient Greek traditions and raise loving and moral families.
Hager is a very gifted writer, creating rich and memorable characters who we never stop rooting for throughout the story. We watch their patience and dedication to their traditions and their cause and want them to achieve their goal of freedom from the Turks. Hager is skilled at making the reader experience the whole gamut of emotions from anger when the Turks kill innocent Greek peasants, frustration when everything seems futile, happiness when something goes right, guilt, shock, heartbreak and anticipation of freedom near the end. When the great powers of Europe finally pressure the Sultan into recognizing Greece as an independent nation and the Treaty of Adrianople is signed, it is heart-warming to see how the years of struggle, loss and persistence did eventually lead to the fulfillment of a family’s dreams.
Another aspect of this book that I found invaluable considering the vast cast of characters was the list of characters grouped by family, the map of Peloponnese , and the bibliography of books and websites consulted for anyone who wishes to learn more about this incredibly important time in history. Hager definitely leaves no stone unturned in her research and her finished masterpiece.
I am extremely impressed by this first novel from Pauline Hager, and I would highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys epic historical novels. You will not be disappointed, and I personally look forward to Hager’s future work.
Reviewer: Cindy Taylor, Allbooks Review.www.allbooksreviewint.com
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