The latest book by Zofka Zinovieff, The House on Paradise Street (Short Books, London 2012) focuses on the wounds of the Greek Civil War, the German Occupation and Greek Resistance which are still open and continue to haunt Greece, even today, and especially some of its people like an ancestral curse.

The novel traces the history of Modern Greece, from the turbulent December 1944 events through to the Junta period (1967-74) up to December 2008 with the riots that followed Alexandros Grigoropoulos’ death. Specifically, it is about the sufferings and the great rift in the Perifanis family which the German Occupation and the Greek Civil war caused, as the two former loving sisters, Antigone and Alexandra, were forced to split into two ideologically and politically warring camps.

On the face of it, Zinovieff’s novel is a well written and interesting work but not entirely free of a number of shortcomings, most serious of which, I think, is some extremely ambitious thematology. From her very first novel the writer set some very ambitious targets which she proved unable to meet. On finishing reading the book, the reader asks oneself what exactly the writer aimed to achieve with it? The book is supposedly a historical and political novel – with the first person confessional story of Antigone.

At the same time, it is also a parallel tour to the history, the life and times of post-war Greece – with the other narration conducted by the phlegmatic English Maud, Nikitas’ wife and Antigone’s daughter in law. Maud narrates not only her personal life- story but also that of the Perifanis family, raking up the muddled past of her husband, in order to track down the secrets of his family’s drama, after Nikitas’ unexpected death.

In between these two parallel stories – which tend to diverge rather than converge, alternating from chapter to chapter – various other elements are interposed, such as love affairs, passions, hate, betrayals, reconciliation, various incidents from Greek current affairs and, of course, Nikitas’ mysterious death. All these elements, however, are not combined harmoniously so as to form a functional sequence and effective synthetic totality. Thus, the parallel stories of the two heroines seem to constitute separate native entities, independent of each other.

They do not interrelate to or feed each other, nor do they converge anywhere, except only at the end of the book, and even then in an artificial manner. This discord could be ascribed to the heterogeneous character of the aforementioned elements which the writer attempts to “marry” by force – because they obviously present some sociological or other similar interest to her, even though they are not necessarily related to the plot of the novel or the fictional act itself. Some other indicative issues that remain unresolved are for example: (a) Nikitas’ mysterious death; (b) the nebulous relationship of Nikitas and Maud and (c) the strange file containing Antigone’s letters.

All these, interesting as they may be, contribute only as “bait” to a pseudo-suspense, without being utilized properly, since the reader hardly finds out anything concrete about the supposed “secrets” of the upright traditional Perifanis family. In conclusion: It is a pity that this work by Zinovieff does not meet some of the basic prerequisites of a successful novel, even though it is, otherwise, an exciting book, as it presents a multitude of interests – historical, political, sociological, folkloric, etc – due to its rich thematic gamut.

If anything, it shows convincingly how the historic adventures of a nation influence the fates of individuals and how the consequences of a civil war can permanently mark even the most innocent future generations. For all the above reasons I would recommend this book, especially to British readers, who might like to update themselves with the serious but also the facetious sides of Modern Greek reality, as well as the perpetually fascinating but, at the same time, problematic Greek – British “love-hate” relationship…

* Dr John Vasilakakos is a Melbourne academic, fiction and essay writer and literary translator. He has published 15 books and hundreds of articles in Australia, Greece, America and Canada. He has received numerous awards.