Apartment in Athens

by Glenway Wescott, David Leavitt (Introduction)

Apartment in Athens concerns an unusual triangular relationship. In this story about a Greek couple in Nazi-occupied Athens who are forced to share their quarters with a German officer, Wescott stages a drama of accommodation and rejection, resistance and compulsion. Apartment in Athens depicts a great and terrible war through the lens of everyday existence. It is a tale of spiritual struggle in which triumph and defeat are next to impossible to tell apart.

Genres: Fiction, Greece, Historical Fiction, War, Classics, 20th Century, American

268 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1945

About the author

Glenway Wescott grew up in Wisconsin and briefly attended the University of Chicago where he met in 1919 his longtime partner Monroe Wheeler.

In 1925 he and Wheeler moved to France, where they mingled with Gertrude Stein and other American expatriates, notably Ernest Hemingway, who created an unflattering portrait of Wescott in the character of Robert Prentiss in The Sun Also Rises.

Eventually, Wescott and Wheeler returned to America and lived in New York City, and later on a large farm in Rosemont, New Jersey owned by his brother, the philanthropist Lloyd Wescott, along with other family members.

Wescott's early fiction, the novels The Apple of the Eye (1924) and the Harper Prize winning The Grandmothers (1927) and the story collection Goodbye, Wisconsin (1928) were set in his native Midwest.

Later work included essays on political, literary, and spiritual subjects, as well as the novels The Pilgrim Hawk (1940), which shared a narrator in Alwyn Towers with The Grandmothers, and Apartment in Athens (1945). Wescott's journals, recording his many literary and artistic friendships, offering an intimate view of his life as a gay man, were published posthumously under the title Continual Lessons.

Reviews

[Orsodimondo · Rating 4 out of 5]

PADRONI A CASA D’ALTRI



1942. Una famiglia greca che ha conosciuto giorni migliori, padre, che ha perso il lavoro per la chiusura della casa editrice, moglie, figlio maschio dodicenne e femmina di dieci, vivono nel loro appartamento nel centro di Atene.
La Grecia viene occupata anche dai tedeschi che arrivano in aiuto degli italiani.
Un capitano nazista, Kalter, sceglie questa casa come suo alloggio perché molto vicina al comando germanico.
Inizia una convivenza problematica.
Nella prima parte, il tedesco è dominatore, severo, intransigente. Poi, dopo una licenza a casa, ritorna più umano: qui Wescott sembra attingere dalla tradizione letteraria che identifica l’animo tedesco con aspetti di tragedia, crepuscolari (i Nibelunghi, what else?).



Ovviamente in questo microcosmo tra quattro mura si riflette la situazione internazionale: la Germania dominatrice che calpesta tutti i popoli che invade, schiaccia, umilia. Viene da chiedersi, prescindendo dall’orrore dei campi di concentramento, della soluzione finale, delle rappresaglie anti resistenza, se il nazismo fosse davvero lucido, e con un progetto concreto, fattibile. Kalter definisce utopia la mostruosità dei piani nazisti. Ma poi aggiunge anche:
Per noi tedeschi tutto ha un senso. Ogni cosa è solo un nuovo inizio. Ci sarà sempre un’altra guerra, ci diciamo; una guerra o un’altra. Da un punto di vista storico è innegabile; la storia ci offrirà nei secoli nuove occasioni.
Più che utopico, questo senso delle cose alla nazista appare zoppicante fin da subito, destinato al fallimento.



Anche perché i nazisti dominavano, non si integravano, spogliavano, non coinvolgevano, sottomettevano, senza spazio per dialogo o parvenze di trattative. Solo dominare, solo aggredire, solo ordinare, solo sottomettere, solo disprezzare… Quanto si può durare?

Colpisce molto il fatto che il romanzo sia scritto da un americano, per quanto vissuto a lungo in Europa, e pubblicato già nel 1945, a ridosso della situazione che racconta. Quasi un instant book.



Sul film si potrebbe sorvolare. Se non che sbandierare d’aver collezionato 27 premi spinge a notare che la pellicola è stata presentata a oltre 50 festival solo nel nostro paese (quindi, presumibilmente, un premio anche alla Sagra dell’uovo sodo di Bastardo, se per caso esistesse). E spinge a notare che s’è realizzato il solito pastrocchio all’italiana: cast internazionale che parla in un esperanto chiamato inglese, ognuno col proprio accento che sicuramente nel caso della donna, Laura Morante, non corrisponde alle necessità – la versione internazionale è finita tutta doppiata. È segno di inciviltà questo culto italico del doppiaggio: un po’ come se in una mostra, tutti i quadri esposti fossero dietro un velo, con spessore variabile. Togliere a un attore la sua voce è privarlo di una parte molto consistente del suo talento. Tra l’altro, occorre notare che la leggenda che vede i doppiatori nostrani i migliori del mondo è sfatata: con la corsa al risparmio in atto ormai da oltre un decennio, anche i nostri doppiaggi sono penosi.

[TBV (on hiatus) · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Helianos couple had already lost one son during the war, at the battle of Mount Olympos in 1941, and now a German officer was to be billeted with them in their small apartment. Twelve-year-old Alex was very excitable and he day-dreamed of avenging his adored brother’s death. His younger sister Leda was slightly retarded. Into this unhappy mix comes the upsetting news that a German officer, Captain Kalter, was to live with them. Not only that, but he would have exclusive use of the best rooms in the house plus the bathroom.

Anger and further resentment are fuelled when he makes excessive demands with regard to all aspects of housekeeping, thereby making the exhausted Mrs Helianos who suffered from a heart complaint even more exhausted. The children had to be carefully monitored, but oddly enough Kalter showed some tolerance towards Leda. However, he perpetrated petty spiteful acts against Alex. Fortunately Helianos and his wife spoke German as the captain only knew a few peremptory Greek expressions. But there were a couple of traits that they unwillingly admired in him.

By this time the local population were starving or struggling to survive. Because Kalter lived with them they were able to obtain larger rations, but these were carefully monitored by Kalter and what he didn’t consume himself were sent to a colleague to feed to his dog. Kalter soon found that the way to upset Helianos was to be abusive to his family, and he took great delight in doing so.

After some period, Kalter is given home leave and away he goes to Germany. On his return he is Major Kalter, but he now seems to be a changed man. In fact he is quite affable. Why has he changed? Can they avert further tragedy in their family?

###
There is excellent character development in this novel. During Kalter’s stay in the apartment in Athens the Helianos family learn a great deal about themselves. Kalter changes, but so do the family members and the dynamics of the relationship between the various characters are in constant flux. There are twists and shocks in the interesting story.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

Glenway Wescott is one of those high quality writers that few people know about, I think. This might be his best novel. I tried another one, "Grandmothers", which I did not appreciate much, but "Apartment in Athens", I thought, is a masterpiece about the Nazi occupation of Athens. When I lived in Athens in the 1960s-70s and until now whenever I visit there, I am reminded of the German occupation.

The Germans looted and robbed Athenians as well as much of the rest of Greece and sent what they could to Germany on trains and trucks. Hitler had praised the bravery and fighting ability of Greeks, but when his invasion of Russia started to cause reversals in his plans and the possibility, even probability, of an Allied attack on his southern flank, he decided to take Albania and Greece with the weak support of Mussolini, who had already invaded Greece.

The Occupation is what this novel is about and it really gives you what life for an Athenian family was like during those cruel years. Before you visit Athens next time, you might want to read "Apartment in Athens".

[AC · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sublime... large portions of this book are sheer brilliance.... Esp. fascinating to me was the meditation on the lyrical aspects of the Nazi self-consciousness in Ch. 9.

Though often criticized for having written so little, a life that produced this book and Pilgram Hawk surely was not wasted. Wescott was a craftsman of the highest order, and the effort may simply have tired him out....

At any rate, a real gem.

[unnarrator · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't know why I read this book from midnight until 2 am last night, at every chapter break thinking with cold nausea about everything I have to get done before Friday and then resolutely plunging into another chapter. But it's an astonishing little exercise, deceptively expository and actually scary as hell. Nelson Algren is in here, also Paul Bowles. I liked it a lot. What happened to Glenway Wescott's literary reputation? It is a mystery.

ETA: Oh, so here's what happened:

http://www.cercles.com/review/r29/ros...

[Dan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Imagine a family of four stuck in a small Athens apartment during World War Two, catering to the needs and desires of a German officer billeted with them, an officer who’s a committed Nazi, humorless, self-important, and slightly sadistic. Imagine the German as a pseudo-intellectual who spouts off about the wonders of German culture and the German spirit, matched with a Greek paterfamilias who’s also pseudo-intellectual and equally enamored with the wonders of Greek culture and the Greek spirit. Toss into the mix a wife understandably overcome with fear about their unsustainable living situation, a mysteriously off younger daughter, a strange older son, and familial memories of a favorite older son already sacrificed in WW2. Sounds grim? Perhaps claustrophobic? Yes and yes again, and those explain the cheery parts of Apartment in Athens. It’s a well written, well-structured novel, but somehow a novel in which Glenway Wescott succeeds in making an inherently, unimaginably tense situation boring, and in which he succeeds in making this reader wonder how the German characters seem only a bit more unsympathetic than the Greek characters. Reading Apartment in Athens, I kept wondering if Wescott somehow wanted to write this story as a play instead of as a novel. 3.5 stars

[George Ilsley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Apartment in Athens is "a fine study in humiliation and nobility" according to Eudora Welty. The action in this novel takes place almost entirely within the apartment, and in effect the text is an extended meditation on the "Stockholm syndrome" where prisoners begin to sympathize with their captors. Here, Athens is occupied by the Germans in World War II, and a German officer lodged with a Greek family exerts a complicated influence. The occupation becomes personal—a matter of personalities.

In the introduction to the NYRB edition, David Leavitt says that Wescott's fiction was typically set "amidst a circle of wealthy American expatriates much like the one in which Wescott himself travelled." Leavitt also says Apartment in Athens "is a swiftly paced novel" (which I did not find to be true), and that it is "not as fine a novel as The Pilgrim Hawk" (which I have not read).

Glenway Wescott is a personage who was very much on the scene and pops up in connection with others, often disguised or lampooned— as in Hemingway's "The Sun Also Rises." Gertrude Stein was dismissive of Wescott: "He has a certain syrup but it does not pour." Then again, Stein was jealous of the popularity of others, and Wescott was one of those popular writers who then became almost forgotten.

There are some beautiful passages in this novel, and much philosophizing about the nature of Germans and Greeks, men and women, and the ongoing relevance of the outlandish mythology of the Greeks. The War itself is largely offstage yet still horrendous; the details of famine in a large city like Athens are casually presented and almost unbearable. How quickly the barbaric becomes normalized.

I didn't love this book, but considering the subject matter, how could you? There are transcendent moments, some poetic flourishes, one of which I quoted in an update. Here's another, where Mr. Helianos experiences a rush of impotent anger at the German officer who has taken over his home, then "voided his indignation":

As a rule the soul cannot relax by halves; one way of yielding gradually induces another. It is a kind of goodness that may act as a weakness. If you forgive more than you can afford, you may find yourself impoverished in emotion afterward, with a lowered resistance to whatever happens after that.

Forgiveness, humiliation, and nobility are indeed very complicated, and create their own strains of outlandish mythology.

[diario_de_um_leitor_pjv · Rating 5 out of 5]

COMENTÁRIO
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
"Um apartamento em Atenas"
Glenway Wescott
Tradução de José Miguel Silva
Posfácio de David Leavitt

Numa guerra, o teu pais foi ocupado. Mas, e quando o teu apartamento é requisitado para servir de residência de um oficial da força militar que ocupa o teu país?

Quando isso acontece que efeito tem esta ocupação do lar de uma família junto dos membros da mesma? Que significado tem a quebra da intimidade no seio da residência e da família?

O apartamento em Atenas onde Senhor Helianos, a esposa e os dois filhos vivem é parcialmente ocupada um oficial alemão. Wescott descreve ao longo deste romance o crescendo de tensão e de violência simbólica e psicológica que se instala neste lar, captando a atenção do leitor com um estilo seco e sóbrio. Estilo esse que não deixa no entanto de captar a tensão psicológica e emocional que se vive no espaço - por vezes claustrofóbico - do apartamento e nas relações entre os membros da família.

Ao longo do processo de leitura sentimoa a pressão psicológica da ausência de intimidade e de partilha numa família, que tendo perdido tanto na guerra, sente a necessidade de momentos de micro-resistência à situação em que se encontra, culminando num jogo de sombras e de violência final.

Conclusão pessoal: que grande história. Bem contada.

[Patrizia · Rating 4 out of 5]

La storia è ambientata nella Grecia del 1943, prostrata dalla guerra e dall’occupazione nazista. Miseria, fame, morte invadono il paese, come nel resto d’Europa. La nostra attenzione è focalizzata su una famiglia, gli Helianos, costretta a cedere parte dell’appartamento a un ufficiale tedesco, che dovranno servire nei modi più umilianti. Una scrittura asciutta ci conduce nell’inferno di una convivenza forzata, tra paura e disperazione, cui nemmeno la notte riesce a dare sollievo.
Ridotti a dormire su una branda in cucina, marito e moglie ritroveranno, o forse troveranno per la prima volta, un’intesa profonda, che darà loro la forza di affrontare la situazione.
È un romanzo duro, claustrofobico, quasi sgradevole, che mette a nudo la psicologia dei protagonisti, evocando nel lettore l’orrore di una prigione mentale e fisica. Il mondo resta fuori dall’appartamento, la guerra si subisce dentro quelle mura, tra dolore, rabbia, paura e angoscia. Ma perfino là dove ogni speranza sembra illusoria, da quello stesso senso di impotenza e da un rigurgito di orgoglio, quando vengono toccati gli affetti più cari, può nascere una forma di resistenza.

Questo romanzo mi ha ricordato una situazione analoga, descritta ne Il silenzio del mare di Vercors, un bellissimo racconto, simbolo della resistenza muta di un popolo sconfitto, che oppone all’invasore il silenzio, il rifiuto di qualunque dialogo.

[Massimiliano · Rating 3 out of 5]

Per quanto il soggetto sia interessante e appassionante, il libro, seppur scritto benissimo, ha finito per risultare noioso.

Il contesto storico (Grecia 1943) e la situazione dell'epoca (i nazisti occupano il paese e la capitale, Atene) avrebbero il potenziale per essere esplorati in lungo e in largo; il romanzo di Wescott invece si svolge quasi tutto all'interno dell'appartamento del titolo, mancando, letteralmente, di respiro universale.

L'unico modo che abbiamo per conoscere il contesto è attraverso le parole ed i pensieri della famiglia Helianos (per parte greca), e del capitano Kalter (per quanto riguarda i tedeschi). Non ho potuto però, chiedermi se alla base di certi pensieri non vi fossero alcuni stereotipi, dal momento che il romanzo è scritto da un americano.

Gli eventi narrativi scorrono senza lasciare chissà quali emozioni, risultando persino un po' sconclusionati: l'attenzione viene spostata da un personaggio all'altro senza che vi sia un approfondimento psicologico.

[Zachary · Rating 5 out of 5]

Apartment in Athens is extraordinary. Glenway Wescott narrates the story of a Greek family forced to billet a dictatorial German quartermaster officer and pseudo-intellectual after the Nazi occupation of Greece. Compelled to dote on this ostentatious German named Kalter, the once-respectable family–Nikolas Helianos, his wife, and their two children–find themselves enslaved in their own small apartment in the middle of Athens, which quickly becomes the only world they can identify with and understand. With its heady treatment of the complicated dynamic between Kalter, Helianos, and his wife, the expressive prose of Glenway Wescott at once both stifles you like thick, noxious smoke and touches you kindly with its keen sense of human emotion. Wescott is a masterful writer with a remarkable ability to convey the pressures and anxieties of absolute physical and emotional domination, complete with the utter humiliation and sense of brokenness suffered by those who are forced to endure it. He never shrinks from the horrific realities of life in Athens under the Nazis, with vivid scenes of emaciated children, mass-murder, and starvation peppered in between the everyday stressors and fears suffered by the Helianos family. Still, despite brief yet provocative references to the German occupation of Greece in broad, historical terms, Wescott is primarily concerned with the small, unimportant lives of the tormented Helianoses and their uncertain relationship with Captain Kalter, who casts “a spell and a snare” onto his Greek hosts. The Helianoses are at times morbidly fascinated with the man and, after his metamorphosis into a relatively kind and even-tempered fellow after his return from a two-week leave in Germany, he and Helianos even converse as amicable acquaintances for a short time before Helianos’ fatal conversational error.

Still, while Wescott zooms in on this unlikely quintet in an overcrowded apartment, Athens as the backdrop for his drama is not unimportant. Mrs. Helianos’ relationship with the Parthenon in particular plays a critical role in her comprehension of her own fortitude and resilience in response to Kalter in her home. The Parthenon, “with no nerves, and no flesh on its bones, no soft venerable bosom, and no veins or arteries . . . the worst having happened to it for centuries, still there it stood! It was a small comfort, but Mrs. Helianos took comfort in it.” Later, toward the very end of the novel, and with Kalter gone for good, the archaeological remains evoke a different response. “Then if she had cared to, she might have taken another look at the Acropolis, the temple in a blur, the hill in a black veil, her great reminder, her worst keepsake. She consciously kept her back turned to the window.”

Despite Helianos’ dominant role in the first half of the novel, by the end of Apartment in Athens his wife has become its real heroine evident by her transformation from a passive, unreflective housewife into an introspective, self-confident head of the family who refuses to kowtow to the severe demands of the men in her life. While her evolution is by no means complete–we leave her with unrealized, romantic notions about her son Alex and hopeful for a far-fetched encounter with her cousin-in-law Petros–she has nevertheless endured what even she herself never thought possible. “Thus she saw herself, lifted up above who she was and what she was, in the increase of drama in her life . . . and it was as proud as a mystic vision.” In the words of David Leavitt in his introduction to the book, Wescott created “one of literature’s most unlikely heroines” in Mrs. Helianos, “possessed of a resilience, a resourcefulness, and a courage that surprise even her.” She completes Apartment in Athens, making it one of the most thought provoking–and disturbing–war novels ever to have been written.

[Misha · Rating 4 out of 5]

Apartment in Athens (originally published in 1945) by Glenway Wescott focuses on one Athenian family during the German Occupation, as they are forced to share their home with a Nazi officer.

This is an incredible book, one that will haunt me, but also quite mentally draining. Throughout the pages, within a constantly paranoid and suffocating atmosphere, there is an interplay of fear, rage, hatred, hopelessness and humiliation. With barely any plot, it's more an exploration of the interior lives of its characters - their spiritual death amidst so much cruelty; secret, almost delusional hopes; and mostly, a sort of discovery of that part of self that is unveiled only during the harshest of sufferings.

Wescott's sentences are matter-of-fact, often brutal in their sparseness, and brimming with insights about human nature. It's perhaps because of the 'cleanliness' of the prose that the characters' emotions and the atmosphere shine through.

I loved it so much, and savoured and re-read so many paragraphs, yet I have to admit this book made me feel so anxious at times, I had to put it down often for a relatively short book. And now that I am done, I feel that I cannot start anything else, anytime soon.

[Jan · Rating 3 out of 5]

This novel by the American author Glenway Wescott gives the reader a view of a Greek part of the Second World War in 1943, which the average Western European reader like myself is not familiar with. Through the Athen Helianos family we experience their hardship caused by the German occupation. Wescott has made this concrete in the person of the German officer Kalter, who is billeted with this family – they are almost slaves, to service him. In this period it was hard to get food. And yet, Kalter ordered that the remainders of his meals should be brought to feed the dog of a fellow-officer. The relations develop slowly as in a Stockholm syndrom situation, conversations between Kalter and Helianos get extended and dig deep into Nazi ideology. Mrs. Helianos however, although having a weak health, in her mind turns away from that line of thinking and gets to lean towards the resistance points of view of some relatives.
There’s more thinking than speaking in this novel. But I never got distracted. These are delicately constructed, nuanced arguments to which the writer treats us. Wescott is a great stylist. Some dramatic twists cause an almost constantly high level tension in the story. (3,5*) JM

[Bhaskar Thakuria · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had mixed feelings about this novel about the Greek resistance during WWII. NYRB has published two titles with Glenway Westcott as the writer: the first one was The Pilgrim Hawk which, in my opinion, is a masterpiece and one of the perfect examples of the American novella. Even though, this one was quite enjoyable, it seemed to me that some of the writing styles that had dazzled the readers of the other book had fallen short of expectations in this one.

The story tells of the plight of the Greeks during the German occupation of Athens and is in particular about the trials and tribulations of the Helianos family who were actively involved in the resistance. The first part of the story deals with the family living together with the enemy as a part of their house was let out to a German major who later on commits suicide owing to personal tragedy. It depicts the small family and the enemy spending their lives together under the same roof. The latter half, especially after the major's suicide, is about the persecution of the family as they come under the radar of German suspicion as traitors to Nazi propaganda. After the husband's conviction and later, after he is shot by Nazis, the novel concludes with the unfinished agenda of the brave Greek nation continuing their undying war against the Nazi tyrants and usurpers.

[Daniel Polansky]

A brooding German martinet occupies a room in the eponymous apartment of a bourgeois Greek family, to ensuing misfortune. A thoughtful and engaging depiction of a peculiarly parasitic relationship, the national characters of the two nations, and the (generally though not exclusively) miserable effects of war and deprivation on the human spirit.

[Kevin Adams · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 ⭐️

[Lobstergirl · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is well written...it's Glenway Wescott, who is fairly incapable of writing poorly. But everything about the story made me uncomfortable, anxious, agitated, disturbed, and depressed and I couldn't wait for it to end. I'm sure I was just reading it at the wrong moment for me. I heartily recommend it to others.

[Margarida Galante · Rating 5 out of 5]

Em plena ocupação nazi, em Atenas, um casal com dois filhos vê-se forçado a receber, em sua casa, um oficial alemão. Com a prepotência dos invasores, este fica com o uso exclusivo da sala, do melhor quarto e do wc, ficando disponível para a família, um quarto e a cozinha. Passam a ser serviçais do oficial, tendo que lhe tratar da roupa, da comida e estar disponíveis sempre que este solicite.

Num crescendo de tensão, vamos assistindo à adaptação desta família a esta nova realidade. Às carências provocadas pela guerra, junta-se a invasão do seu espaço, que deixa de ser seguro, a falta de privacidade e o medo, mas também a aversão e rejeição perante o invasor.

A atitude do militar é a do senhor superior perante os escravos mas, em determinada altura, existe algo que vai modificar essa atitude. Será que afinal o capitão, depois major, passou a ser mais humano?

A construção das personagens é sublime. São personagens reais, com várias camadas e que, ao longo do tempo, se vão revelando. O sofrimento e os acontecimentos a que vão estar sujeitos, provocam alterações nos comportamentos e na personalidade dos membros desta família. Perante a adversidade, surge muitas vezes a superação.

Gostei muito deste livro. Muito bem escrito, publicado em 1945, é uma história intensa e de grande tensão psicológica, que terá sido inspirada em factos reais.

[Xenja · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bellissimo romanzo. Molto originale il soggetto, strepitosa la tecnica narrativa (tutto avviene dentro un appartamento, dal quale non usciamo mai; e dalle finestre si vede l’Acropoli), interessante l’ambientazione storica, autentici e indimenticabili i personaggi, raffinatissima l’introspezione psicologica, splendido e prezioso lo stile; e un finale perfetto, tragicamente grandioso eppure senza la minima enfasi.
Nel risvolto di copertina l’Adelphi fornisce un laconico cenno biografico: “Scrittore illustre e poi dimenticato, Glenway Wescott viene oggi riscoperto come uno dei più grandi narratori americani del Novecento”. Credo valga la pena di seguire questa riscoperta: ho subito messo in wish list l’altro suo romanzo (Il falco pellegrino) e, inoltre, ho scoperto che questo Appartamento ad Atene deve essere messo a confronto anche con il Silenzio del mare di Vercors, che ha un soggetto analogo. Ogni romanzo apprezzato genera ulteriori desideri da aggiungere alla lista, per non parlare dei film!

[Jeff Takacs · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[Arquivo de leituras · Rating 4 out of 5]

*4,5

[Fernando Pestana da Costa · Rating 4 out of 5]

During the Nazi occupation of Greece, the Helianos family, a middle class Athenian family of four, is forced to house a German officer in their midst. After a year and a half of an humiliating, and at times brutal, relationship, the officer has a two weeks' license in Germany and returns (apparently) changed. That the change was not as through as Mr. Helianos came to believe, he found out at his peril in a rather unexpected way. I found this book to be an extremely beautiful work, where the violence and inhumanity of war (not exactly the battles, but the humiliation that comes with occupation by foreign forces with unchecked power) is treated with an utmost restrain but, maybe exactly because of that, with an incredible effectiveness. The claustrophobic and difficult life of the Helianos couple, and the way Mrs. Helianos reacts to the disgrace that befalls upon her after her husband arrest, is a moving portrait of the extraordinary ways people can surpass their limitations and fears when faced with extraordinary circumstances. Originally published in 1945, "An Apartment in Athens" is a book that stood the test of time, and has become a minor classic that should be much more widely read.

[Nathan · Rating 5 out of 5]

"I am a religious woman, I pray, every day, for my little children doomed to die," she had said, turning around and addressing Mrs. Helianos. "I pray for them to die faster."

Westcott's writing is stark, urgent, and brutal. The inhumanity of the circumstance of the novel -- the Nazi occupation of Greece -- is reflected in his economy of language.

"It is true that in all our human attachments based on nothing but blood-relationship there are strict limitations, inherent disappointments."

I found myself underlining passages on almost every other page -- a sentence construction or articulated consideration that I wanted to return to and marvel over again and again.

"For he felt that it was a great decision, this forgiveness, not at all forced or against his will, but simply against his every instinct. It is a grave decision, when you take the good will for the deed; when you yield to the mistaken inhuman brain or the harmful tongue because there is a kind heart behind it -- accepting things that you hate, with nothing to make them acceptable except that riddle of the spirit which has prompted them, contenting yourself with good intentions whether they are according to your mortality or not, whether they are to your advantage or not."

There is so much within an Apartment in Athens that is stirring. It is a quiet horror story, claustrophobic, doomed, devastating. Yet, at the same time, Westcott has imbued his tale with a fearless optimism that carries the reader through the foreboding, to each fresh injury, to each clear and striking observation:

"I do not suppose that the Americans are indifferent to their fate and danger. I think that their worst mistake must lie in their hope of getting peace established for all time, as if it were a natural law needing no enforcement, so that they can relax and be frivolous and forget it. When they see that this is not possible then they lose hope altogether. They give it all up as a bad job and yield to their cynicism and fatalism. It is what happened after the other war. . . . What on earth do they mean when they speak of peace forever? Naturally it can only be a little at a time, with good luck, and with an effort and great vigilance and good management, day by day, year after year. Life is like that; everything on earth is like that; have the Americans and the British forgotten? Tell Petros, whenever he hears foolish political men babbling about permanent peace, to ask them: what about permanent life? Do they believe in that too? What about permanent love, permanent health, permanent talent? When we are sick and we go to see a doctor, do we expect him to promise us immortality? When he prescribes some medicine, do we have to be persuaded that it is a panacea, an elixir, before we take any of it?"

[George Petrellis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Μία δραματική ιστορία, αλλά όχι ένα δράμα, με πρωταγωνιστές αρχαιοελληνικής τραγωδίας χωρίς όμως να αισθάνονται ανάλογα. Στο Β' ΠΠ κατά τη γερμανική κατοχή της Αθήνας, το σπίτι της οικογένειας Ηλιανού επιτάσσεται και πέρα από τον κο. και την κα. Ηλιανού με τα δύο τους παιδιά, τη Λύδα και τον Αλέξη, τώρα πρέπει να φιλοξενήσει και το λοχαγό Κάρτερ. Η συμβίωση τους στην αρχή διακρίνεται από την ταπείνωση και την εξαθλίωση που επιβάλλει ο Ναζί αξιωματικός στην οικογένεια. Απαιτεί να συμπεριφέρονται ως δούλοι, ικανοποιώντας κάθε του ανάγκη. Χτυπάει τον Αλέξη, χρησιμοποιεί τη συζυγική κλίνη ως δική του, τους αφήνει να λιμοκτονούν και το πλεονάζων φαγητό από τα δικά του γεύματα το δίνει σε ένα σκύλο. Η οικογένεια, όμως, δεν τον μισεί, τον ανέχεται. Ο κύριος Ηλιανός προσπαθεί να καταλάβει τη συμπεριφορά του ενώ η σύζυγος του δεν τολμά να αντιδράσει μπροστά στον λοχαγό Κάλτερ. Η Λύδα έχει αδυναμία στον ξένο ενώ ο Αλέξης αποτελεί εξαίρεση και θέλει να σκοτώσει οποιοδήποτε Γερμανό.
Η συμπεριφορά του Κάλτερ αλλάζει όταν μετά από μερικούς μήνες επιστρέφει στην Ελλάδα από το ταξίδι του στη Γερμανία. Η αλλαγή του αποτελεί μυστήριο για την οικογένεια Ηλιανού. Ο γερμανός κρατά καλά το μυστικό του γιατί η αποκάλυψη του είναι η αρχή του τέλους για τη ζωή της οικογένειας όπως την είχαν συνηθίσει. Η απώλεια ενός μέλους της ωθεί τα υπόλοιπα να ανακαλύψουν πτυχές του εαυτού τους και κρυμμένη ψυχική δύναμη που κανείς δεν φανταζόταν ότι είχαν.
Αν και η ιστορία θα μπορούσε να είναι μελοδραματική ή και τραγική ο συγγραφέας με μαεστρία και δεξιοτεχνία αποφεύγει αυτές τις παγίδες των πολύ εμπορικών μυθιστορημάτων. Με μέτρο στο λόγο του και δίχως περιττές περιγραφές και συναισθηματισμούς, που ταιριάζουν στο ελληνικό ιδεώδες του μέτρου, περιγράφει μια φρίκη που δεν δείχνει να έχει τέλος, ανθρώπινες σχέσεις υπό δοκιμασία αλλά και ευγενικά συναισθήματα όπως η συζυγική αγάπη σε αντιδιαστολή με τη φρικαλεότητα της απόγνωσης.

[Carl · Rating 5 out of 5]

First of all, an absolutely elegant writer. The book was (somehow) published in 1944. It concerns a family in Athens subjected to all the humiliations of the Nazi occupation. Helianos and his wife and two children are forced to billet Captain Kalter (later Major Kalter). He starts out a tyrant; then "softens." The "softening" is due to the death of his two sons and his wife in the war. Helianos, who has also lost a son in the war, in a late night heart-to-heart with the stricken Kalter, states his hatred of Hitler and Mussolini for bringing such misery on the world. Our "softened" Kalter immediately has him arrested. Kalter then kills himself, but even in death he does all he can to bring misery on Helianos and his family. Never trust Greeks bearing gifts is translated to Never trust Germans, ever.

Helianos is executed. His wife then works to get Alex, her small and somewhat defective child, into the resistance. There is no compromise, no half measures with Nazi Germany.

One of the best books I've read in years. I plan to read more by Wescott

[Laila Hernandez · Rating 3 out of 5]

It is a kind of goodness that may act as a weakness. If you forgive more than you can afford you may find yourself impoverished In emotion afterward, with a lowered resistance to whatever happens after that.

The secret of a good old marriage like theirs, symbolized, he said to himself. His fanciful humor.

Superiority in warfare itself is not everything. It is only one side of the greatness of the nation, one aspect of the problem of rising above other nations. It is not always possible to win a war; there are overwhelming odds, there are circumstances, turns of the tide

Of course it is not the want for the common people, I must admit. They have so much to bear in a defeat naturally they want to win. But you know they are such a good people with stout hearts and peaceful minds; they are naturally so happy to follow leaders.

It is not a mere question of how we fight or how we live; it is why we fight and what we live for. Victory yes very well, all in due time!

This her optimistic imagination arose once more then merged into a dream then woke again with a start; but waking or sleeping, thinking or dreaming told her what she wanted to think, for one more night

The past was his hobby and his weakness she thought half spitefully with nervousness increasing and increasing and apart from his dear sentimentality and pretension to scholarships what did it amount to? Tumbledown temples, dead religion, obscure dramaturgy, foolishness, and cruelty of myths. The myths of today, as she remembered were worse.

Beauty is not only sentiment. It is mathematics and psychology.

Only we Germans can help it; we have something else, to take heavens place. Yes, the German also sacrifices himself and he loses heart, like everyone else; but it is only personal: the nation does not lose heart. If the German fails, he gives up and goes quietly and stoically, having wound up his affairs in good order as it may be expected of him in circumstances, whatever they are.

Today religion is almost out of date. So few modern people have any sense of ultimate future, of life after they die. Still, in this life, hardships have to be endured, and virtue has to be exercised. And for all of this, in the way of unearthly reward, we look forward to nothing, nothing. Self sacrifice is good, in fact it is necessary, anyway it can not be avoided; and what’s the recompense? What is there, leaving out immortal things, to make it worth while?

Naturally there are 2 sides to everything, 2 ways about everything; that’s fate. But everything can be fixed so that it’s effective for us either way, and that’s art!

I happen to know Americans very well, because my own brother is an American. What a frivolous people, it astounds me us. Always on the go, getting nowhere, drinking and drinking and making merry, talking and talking and, in the end, doing very little.

You must get results. For whether you amount to anything or not downed on it. Results of nothing. You must win, or your war is meaningless.

Nothing is meaningless for us. Everything is just a new beginning a fresh starts. There will be another war, always, we say to ourselves; some war or other. It stands to reason, historically. Forever and forever history will always give us another chance.

Naturally everything in reality has its up and and downs and for you, your destiny goes up and down accordingly; but ours does not. You judge everything by results, whereas we judge by the greatness of the ambition and the undertaking. If you fail it is nothing, nothing. Whether we fail or not, it is a great thing.

My dear, a women’s love is never very respectful, naturally not. She sees too much of her man’s weakness, his incompetence and importance, and how life has worn him down. Please forgive me for all that, now that I am absent, and forget it as much as you can.

I have tried never to be pretentious in the intellectual way. It is not good for a man to show off his worldly wisdom and culture in the bosom of his family.

I suppose this is one reason I want you to talk to my cousins. I shall be happier, and it will help me to bear things with good grace and patience, if I know that they are aware of my little adventure, how it came about, and what my opinion of it is. You need not try to make a good story of it; just the facts. No matter if they feel no great admiration for the way we have behaved; no matter if there is no inspiration in it for them, no particular moral — so long as we are not forgotten! While there is memory there is hope.

It is in the nature of Germans to change every so often to appear to change at the end of a war, where it might be as in the case of our culture before the end. Suddenly they grow tired of war. They love culture, they feel sorry for those whom they have made miserable. It is all sincere that is what makes it so dangerous for us, we have been taught to care more for sincerity than it is worth, in time of peace, they are so likable. Their emotions are so warm and their mind so cultivated they are so comfortable and friendship they take pleasure and doing little kindness, and they are so absolutely convinced of every kind of idealism. There is great charm and knowing them.

Naturally, there will be forgiveness after the war it is the natural thing people will like them again at least the angle Saxons will it is their prediction, somehow, but I tell you liking or not liking doesn’t matter doesn’t matter. The important thing is never to trust them with a mature, mine, one can like people, or even love them without a blind confidence, and then cannot one, but sometimes it seems to me, having been childish myself, all my life, that all the good hearted, men and woman on earth, our children, and only the evil ones have mature minds, and then I despair.

I do not altogether despair as I hear others despairing. I suppose the loss of life and abuse of children, and the ravages of feminine disease have been worse here than anywhere else, but a nation can recover from all this in time I think, if it is given time.

What on earth do they mean when they speak of peace forever? naturally it can only be a little at a time with good luck, and with an effort, great vigilance, good management. Day by day year after year life is like that everything on earth is like that. Have the Americans in the British forgotten tell? Whenever he hears foolish political men babbling about permanent peace to ask them. What about permanent life they believe in that too? What about permanent love, permanent health, permanent talent?

[Iva · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wescott gives his readers a story with twists and surprises. And characters, all unsympathetic, trapped physically and spiritually, but truly believable. And his city, Athens, has been captured by the Nazis, as we learn how one family is coping. This apartment is a sad, sad place. The strength of the novel is the exploration of family life during World War II. The experience is revealed by Wescott--he is an American writer more known for his novella, The Pilgrim Hawk, but this is a stellar achievement.

[Terra · Rating 4 out of 5]

il nemico in casa, un argomento che ho già trovato in vercors e steinbeck - che come termini di paragone sono impegnativi. la novità è che qui siamo in grecia, questo nazi è proprio fetente e la famiglia potrebbe essersela inventata pennac. nel complesso non mi ha entusiasmata.

[Lucas Foster]

Minor, but still recommending it basically... “pilgrim hawk” is the author’s finest by all accounts and I’ll try to get to it cause of the all plaudits, but this one I think it’s fair to call a superfluity, mostly getting by on spotlighting a rich space/time in recent history: Athens under Nazi occupation. Insultingly overlong for a novel under 300 pages, Wescott dares you to speed read the way he luxuriates in certain ideas and images—he should’ve married form and content, an economy of words to match the wartime rationing. You’ll have a good laugh at the anti Greek racism, swell with a phantom Hellenic pride (unless it’s actually ur background, in which case congrats) at the Parthenon ekphrasis. The neutered intellectual father and his defective, starving children whom he struggles to feel love for, I mean these are promising ingredients for a story and westcott kinda has the finesse to cook it up real nice just like mama used to, never quite gets to that BAM! roiling boil tho, sorry Emeril—is Emeril a dirty Greek? I should say we’re cooped up in the titular apartment btw, don’t want to mislead u that we get the grand tour of Athens. At once unsentimental and melodramatic, the high drama feeling, idk, unearned in part. The lean, tough-minded approach to horrors of war, Westcott deserves credit, yeah. Problem might be issues of the day, urgent then, a bit flat in the year of our lord 2020

[Raime · Rating 2 out of 5]

A wartime drama about greek family forced to billet a German nazi officer. Was considered for 1946 pulitzer. Interesting scene with German characters talking how they don't mind losing the war, because there's always the next one — "last war I was a captain, this war I'm a major, in the next one I'll be a general.



“You know, it’s a nuisance when I have luck, when I find something fit to eat,” she had said, “because then I have to feed my Red Cross son separately, because he is so much stronger than his elder brother and sister; he takes more than his share.”
With that dread of the future which is peculiar to mothers, which is sometimes the only imagination they have, Mrs. Helianos asked herself: what will they be like as mature men and women, these tough ones, the milk-drinkers and vitamin-eaters, whom a terrible favoritism and fratricidal appetite have kept from starving? It was the survival of the fittest in the worst way in the world. But they had no choice in the matter, the Red Cross had no choice, Greece had no choice. A little new generation had to be brought up like this, a minority of little murderous pigs at the Red Cross trough, little wolves fattened upon carcass of wolf—or else there would be no new generation at all, no more Greeks."