Harlot’s Sauce: A Memoir of Food, Family, Love, Loss and Greece by Patricia V. Davis | Non-Fiction, Romance | DONNE TEMPO
Harlot’s Sauce: A Memoir of Food, Family, Love, Loss and Greece by Patricia V. Davis
July/22/09 11:06 AM Filed in: Non-Fiction
| Romance
review by Christian
Toto
Patricia Volonakis Davis makes no bones about the precarious state of her marriage in a memoir that shares the name of her e-zine and radio podcast.
“Harlot’s Sauce: A Memoir of Food, Family,
Love, Loss and Greece(Harper Publishing: ISBN
0981915302) details how Davis met a mercurial
Greek man and spent more than a dozen years
trying to make their union work.
Her spouse is boorish, old fashioned in all the worst ways and more stubborn than a pack of political ideologues.
Yet Davis is no victim, and “Harlot’s Sauce” is no generic love story.
The author’s tale may be about her tempestuous relationship, but it’s hardly content to focus on romantic exploits. It works equally well as a cultural dissection of both New York City and Greek life, with the latter coming into extreme focus as the memoir unfolds.
Davis, a first generation Italian-American, starts her story as a single woman unsatisfied with the men who keep crossing her path. Along comes Gregori, a handsome Greek who seemed like the perfect match for her, and her path seems suddenly set.
They both hold strong cultural ties and feel alienated from many of their peers. But signs quickly appear that should convince the author to end the romance.
She forges ahead all the same, ignoring the warning cries of her parents and some in her inner friend circle.
“Harlot’s Sauce” tracks their marriage with an uncompromising attitude. Gregori’s family ties, which seemed so attractive at first, become a major impediment to their relationship. Davis’s stormy feuds with Gregori’s noisy ma are the stuff of mother-in-law nightmares.
And Davis’s family’s disdain for her new husband is so strong it creates a gulf between them that takes years to undo.
All the while the author plunges ahead with her teaching career and, later, life as the parent of a beautiful young boy.
The couple’s marriage seems headed for disaster time and again, culminating in a last chance dash to Gregori’s homeland to see if their relationship can be saved.
“Harlot’s Sauce” teems with terrific supporting players and the kind of crisp details which make the narrative pop off the page. Davis skillfully builds her bustling array of characters, but it’s how she describes her own relationship to not just Gregori but to Greece which sets the book apart from other memoirs.
She’s a stranger in an often unwelcoming land, stuck amongst Greeks who view her with suspicion - or worse - for hailing from the United States.
But Davis pushes past those early impressions to find other Greeks, warm and welcoming people eager to share their beautiful homeland with others. The country itself is a character in the memoir, a land with a rich history and uncertain present.
It’s that tension, typified in their child’s slow acclimation to life in Greece, which may resonate the most with readers.
“Harlot’s Sauce” occasionally reads like it’s one edit away from a finished manuscript. But the occasional linguistic hiccup can’t distract from a compelling story told with heart and more than a little insight.
Davis emerges all the stronger by the memoir’s end, and the reader will have a similar reaction after sharing the author’s emotionally charged life.
--
The Summer movie season is here! Get the latest news on "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince," "The Proposal" and more at WhatWouldTotoWatch.com
I'm on Twitter, too -- twitter.com/totomovies
Patricia Volonakis Davis makes no bones about the precarious state of her marriage in a memoir that shares the name of her e-zine and radio podcast.
Her spouse is boorish, old fashioned in all the worst ways and more stubborn than a pack of political ideologues.
Yet Davis is no victim, and “Harlot’s Sauce” is no generic love story.
The author’s tale may be about her tempestuous relationship, but it’s hardly content to focus on romantic exploits. It works equally well as a cultural dissection of both New York City and Greek life, with the latter coming into extreme focus as the memoir unfolds.
Davis, a first generation Italian-American, starts her story as a single woman unsatisfied with the men who keep crossing her path. Along comes Gregori, a handsome Greek who seemed like the perfect match for her, and her path seems suddenly set.
They both hold strong cultural ties and feel alienated from many of their peers. But signs quickly appear that should convince the author to end the romance.
She forges ahead all the same, ignoring the warning cries of her parents and some in her inner friend circle.
“Harlot’s Sauce” tracks their marriage with an uncompromising attitude. Gregori’s family ties, which seemed so attractive at first, become a major impediment to their relationship. Davis’s stormy feuds with Gregori’s noisy ma are the stuff of mother-in-law nightmares.
And Davis’s family’s disdain for her new husband is so strong it creates a gulf between them that takes years to undo.
All the while the author plunges ahead with her teaching career and, later, life as the parent of a beautiful young boy.
The couple’s marriage seems headed for disaster time and again, culminating in a last chance dash to Gregori’s homeland to see if their relationship can be saved.
“Harlot’s Sauce” teems with terrific supporting players and the kind of crisp details which make the narrative pop off the page. Davis skillfully builds her bustling array of characters, but it’s how she describes her own relationship to not just Gregori but to Greece which sets the book apart from other memoirs.
She’s a stranger in an often unwelcoming land, stuck amongst Greeks who view her with suspicion - or worse - for hailing from the United States.
But Davis pushes past those early impressions to find other Greeks, warm and welcoming people eager to share their beautiful homeland with others. The country itself is a character in the memoir, a land with a rich history and uncertain present.
It’s that tension, typified in their child’s slow acclimation to life in Greece, which may resonate the most with readers.
“Harlot’s Sauce” occasionally reads like it’s one edit away from a finished manuscript. But the occasional linguistic hiccup can’t distract from a compelling story told with heart and more than a little insight.
Davis emerges all the stronger by the memoir’s end, and the reader will have a similar reaction after sharing the author’s emotionally charged life.
--
The Summer movie season is here! Get the latest news on "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince," "The Proposal" and more at WhatWouldTotoWatch.com
I'm on Twitter, too -- twitter.com/totomovies