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THE BOOK AS TRIBUTE
AND HOMAGE
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Arcadia, My Arcadia is a tribute to
the indigent mothers and fathers of the world who, like Angelos Vlahos'
parents, endure and sacrifice daily to raise and educate their children
with scarce resources and limited outside support. It is my ardent hope
that through my story's pages my intent will echo the admiration I felt
towards my own people, as intense as the reverence Jean Francois Millet
must have felt towards the common people of Barbizon, ennobled not by
an imaginary Arcadia but by their heroic redemptive toil on the harsh
land.
With
Arcadia, My Arcadia I wanted to express my love and concern for all
the low-born and the poor of the world, the pushed around, and the
scorned and those condemned to unschooled toil; for the mother whose
cross is heavy and the father whose touch is ashes. With this story I
wanted to shout to all these people, You are the salt of the earth.
With your benefits, we lived on. Arcadia, My Arcadia is my
memorial to you.
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Tillers of the Earth
"You
are the salt of the earth. With your benefits we lived on."
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Last but not least, with Arcadia, My
Arcadia I wished pay homage to those dedicated teachers who
patiently and compassionately mentor the disenfranchised new
generations in one-room schoolhouses in every poverty-stricken corner
of the earth. A fortunate beneficiary of such a mentor's influence, I
always thought I should write a story as a paean honoring him and those
who make teaching the best profession there is. To paraphrase Henry
Adams, a teacher affects eternity; one can never tell where his or her
influence stops.
 "I always wanted to read a good book about my ancestors.
In every page of ARCADIA, MY ARCADIA, I discover more and more things about they way they lived and why they came to America. I love it. You will, too!"
-Kalliope Phipps |
"Richly detailed and
well-crafted. It
taught me a great deal about the social and educational realities that
prevailed in Greece during the 1950s."
ALEX KARANIKAS,
Hellenes and Helions
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THE SPECIALNESS OF
THE BOOK
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In a special sort of way, Arcadia, My
Arcadia stands alone. To my knowledge, no novelist has dealt with
my theme from the particular perspective I have. And so I find myself
enjoying a clear and unique advantage over other writers. For it has
been said that authors are like cattle going to a fair; those of the
same field can never move on without butting one another. Luckily, that
is the last thing I should fear to happen to me now.
"You
remind
me a lot of a Greek Steinbeck."
BETTY ST. JOHN
"Kudos
to you!"
V.
MARINAKOS, PA
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Writing this story was no easy undertaking.
There was no royal path to my goal, and such paths as existed did not
lead through neat meadows, various as they were, but through the
mountains of self exploration and the conundrum of the writing craft.
William Wordsworth observed that every good and original writer, in
proportion as he is good and original, must himself create the taste by
which he is to be relished. How utterly delighted would I feel knowing
that you, my reader, discovered in Arcadia, My Arcadia a
delectable savor!
Nicholas D. Kokonis
P.O. Box, 1155
Deerfield, IL 60015, USA
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"Its been
years since
Ive read David Copperfield but this book (Arcadia, My Arcadia)
reminds
me of
it. It is absorbing."
S. L. WISENBERG
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2004, 466pp
ISBN 0-9754032-0-6 |
"Quite
honestly, I
could not put it down. So well-written and
compelling."
MARY
PAPOUTSY
"You
remind me a lot of Mark Twain."
CHRISTOPHER
HANLEY
"I
gobbled up and digested Arcadia, My Arcadia in 24 hours, quite often
with wet eyes. It is of terrific interest... It touched me deeply."
VIRGIL
S. BENAKIS, ATHENS, GREECE
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