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MORE CRITICAL PRAISE FOR ARCADIA, MY ARCADIA
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ARCADIA, MY ARCADIA: THE EMBODIMENT OF GREEK VALUES
By HARRY C. TRIANDIS, Professor of Psychology Emeritus, University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana.
Arcadia, My Arcadia describes Arcadia accurately, realistically and insightfully. The descriptions of the trials and tribulations of Angelos is authentic, absorbing, fascinating. The reader identifies with Angelos who embodies many of the Greek virtues: the extreme importance of education, hard work, openness to new experiences, curiosity and self-improvement.
I was moved to tears a number of times, as Angelos encountered a banana for the first time, the tenderness of interaction within the in-group, as well as the harshness of interaction with out-groups. The divisions of city-village and social class are portrayed accurately. There are vivid and precise description of Greek traditions, with the whole range from superstition to modeling the ancient Greeks well represented. | 
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Arcadia, My Arcadia is not a nostalgic look at the fatherland. Rather it is an authentic account that includes the stark reality of village life, the grinding poverty, the corruption of the priest, the exploitation of the villagers by the educated classes, the clash of norms as one social class interacts with another, the conflict between the users of language (demotic vs. katharevousa), the accusation of a person as a communist when the authorities do not want to have their actions questioned.
There is even a good deal to learn about vertical collectivism and how an idiocentric young man battles with the authoritarian state establishment, asking for his rights, guided by Socrates. The authorities demand respectful action even though they are narrow minded and misunderstand him. The young man dreams of America to escape from all this, and he finally manages to get there.
In Arcadia, My Arcadia there are also realistic scenes of the young mans first encounter with girls, and women. Even a realistic scene when Zises Palamides, his high school teacher, who was arrested by the authorities as a subversive and returned to school after some months, and starts his lecture with, 'As I was saying yesterday'. The same phrase was supposedly used at the University of Salamanca in Spain by a professor who was arrested by the inquisition, upon returning to the university after one year. The true story and the fact that the novel includes the same story suggests that the novel includes many elements of everyday reality."
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