Beyond the Aegean

April 4, 1994
The pulverization of Anatolian Greeks by Turks just after WW I provides the historical context for Kazan's sprawling but dense new novel, a sequel to America, America and The Anatolian. Brimming with scenes of concentrated dramatic power but somewhat awkwardly plotted, Kazan's vibrant tapestry teems with family passions, political intrigue, war, carnage, betrayal, lust and love. Ebullient, dapper New York City rug merchant Stavros Topouzoglou, protagonist of the earlier novels, here returns to his homeland of Greek Anatolia, which Greece hopes to reclaim from the Turks with the backing of Britain and the U.S., both thirsty for Near East oil. Stavros is an ambiguous figure. Performing acts of selfless heroism while the fickle Allies withdraw military support from the Greeks, he nonetheless leaves behind his fiancee, Thomna, incarcerated somewhere in the Turkish prison system. Irony caps the narrative as Stavros, having reestablished himself in Athens, and later in New York, almost takes a snobbish new wife but forsakes her, only to lose pregnant Thomna to his brother. Kazan illuminates a little-known part of history with calm objectivity. But he seems to have relied on cultural stereotypes of mythic heroism, robbing this novel of the raw power and immediacy that distinguished America, America .

May 1, 1994
Kazan completes the trilogy he started with America, America (LJ 11/1/62), bringing protagonist Stavros Topouzoglou back to his Anatolian homeland in 1919. Stavros believes the promises of the British and Americans, who would like to see this oil-rich area of Turkey become part of greater Greece in order to assure oil rights to the West. Acting from altruistic motives, Stavros supports the newly liberated country with American money, trying to bring the prosperity of his adopted homeland to the land of his birth. Unfortunately, Kazan writes novels as if they were film treatments. There is little or no description or character development, and the novel stumbles from episode to episode with virtually no transition. In addition, the main characters are uniformly unlikable. The Greeks hate the Turks. The Turks hate the Greeks. And everyone is eager to humiliate his or her enemies. Purchase wherever the author's previous books have been popular.-Andrea Caron Kempf, Johnson Cty. Community Coll. Lib., Overland Park, Kan.