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September 29, 2002
REVIEWS: Realizing the American dream
Odysseus arrives in America as many illegal immigrants do: sans money, sans family, and sans connections; a naked Hellenic peasant with a crown of expectations. (To copy the style of the book I should here explain that by ‘naked Hellenic’ I mean that he is a Greek and has no assets. He cannot even speak the English language, poor devil!)
Odysseus finds himself living in an immigrant community, among first generation Greeks who have not yet realized the American dream. Despised by their own countrymen who had the luck to arrive earlier and are well established, they affirm the propensity of human beings to create class wherever there is a danger of sharing success. Their feet not yet placed firmly on the blinkered straight path of unalloyed capitalism, they are still disturbed by the breaking of ties with their ancient home and civilization. Odysseus who had come to America to earn and send money back to his impoverished mother and sister, finds himself surrounded by street politics and other forms of street violence.
Among the individuals who befriend him are Nikos, the painter with the fantastic plans, who provides him with his first job in the US, and Penny, a Greek American beauty, who is generous and egalitarian in dispensing sexual favours. The torrid atmosphere of the immigrant undergrowth facilitates radical politics, mafia connections, and drug trafficking. Most immigrants, coming from military and other repressive regimes are grateful for the famous American freedom, and Greeks, Cypriots, Arabs and Jews all air their views. However Michalis the Jew, a more seasoned inhabitant, on being told by an Arab that he would like to kill the Zionists, makes the following observation:
“I am willing to listen to your utterances because you have every right to utter them, since we live in a democracy. But we will have to document what you are saying, and if these words pollute the subconscious to think in terms alien to the American constitution, we might take you to the Supreme Court to declare you unconstitutional.”
Odysseus takes English classes. He marries Penny and is given an old truck by his father-in-law. He works hard to make money, using the truck to buy and sell vegetables. He keeps long hours at work. ‘Living to work’ is a phrase used by one of his compatriots to define life in America; Odysseus lives that phrase.
One day, on an unscheduled visit to his home, he finds that his wife is going out with another man. Odysseus leaves her and goes away. Soon he finds himself with a group of university students. He decides to join business school, which trains him for middle management.
Armed with a business degree, Odysseus is ready to mount the corporate ladder. He has sent for his mother and sister, but beyond that his ties with the Greek way of life have loosened. The corporate world with its own code of values is another galaxy. But surprisingly, it too has trails running to the headquarters of narcotics and other underworld activities, as did the ghetto and street culture at the lowest rung of American society. Unknowingly, Odysseus finds himself on one of those trails.
However, not only does he escape and survive, he even enriches himself in the process, and finds his way back, as an enormously wealthy business tycoon. He reaches the pinnacle of success, he has banished scruples, is surprised and touched by nothing, and speaks English sans an accent. All traces of his peasant Greek heritage are dissolved in his new, pragmatic way of life, and his Americanization is complete.
The book is interesting, though a bit crowded. It is an insightful account of an environment and a process of transformation. It could however have benefited from proper editing of both language and material.
Although written in English, its cadences are sometimes unEnglish; perhaps they are Greek. This of course happens frequently when the writer is a non native speaker of a language, but in this case the effect is strong enough to be somewhat distracting. It does not however constitute a major drawback in the story, it remains only a discomfort. It even creates an air of ingenuousness, which in small doses is not unpleasing. On the other hand, it is interesting to reflect that the merest touch of insincerity or a small amount of self consciousness can damage a book far more.
Odysseus, his Americanization
By Nickos Jean Lambros (Nikos Yiannis Lambrou)
Writers’ Club Press, iUniverse Inc, 5220 S 16the Street, Suite 200, Lincoln, NE 68512.
Website: www.iuniverse.com
ISBN 0-595-22530-6
224pp. US$16.95
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