Εικονοστάσιο Ανωνύμων Αγίων

by Yiannis Ritsos, Γιάννης Ρίτσος

This work of Ritsos, is it a novel with an emphatic question-mark added by the poet himself? Is it a roman fleuve in the sense of Proust's Remembrance of Things Past? Is it a wild prose-poetic fling in a "sarcastic climate"? Or is it an autobiography of Greece’s most human poet, whom Aragon hailed as the "greatest poet of his time"? And what about the strange title? How are the established Orthodox saints, traditionally decorating the panels near the altar, how are they replaced by anonymous human beings? - everyday people from Ritsos' neighbourhood; members of his large family and simple inhabitants of Monemvasia; unassuming fellow-prisoners on exile islands and a closely-knit band of friends. All these "anonymities" are skillfully counterpointed with the hero-Ion, and Ion's alter ego, Ariostos, and woven into a fascinating tapestry of reminiscences and reflections, vivid memories from childhood and adolescence, speculatios on Greece’s recent history, confessions bordering on psycho-analytical introspection, and, occasionally, surrealistic dreams. Ritsos's Iconostasis is embellished with an almost Joycean richness of words, including outrageous puns, unprecedented, though ineffably "poetic", erotica and miraculous flights of language. In the other two volumes, still to appear in English, Ritsos adds the finishing touches to his vast mosaic bringing his visionary cycle full circle.

173 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1985

About the author

Yiannis Ritsos (Greek: Γιάννης Ρίτσος) is considered to be one of the five great Greek poets of the twentieth century, together with Konstantinos Kavafis, Kostas Kariotakis, Giorgos Seferis, and Odysseus Elytis. The French poet Louis Aragon once said that Ritsos was "the greatest poet of our age."

Yannis Ritsos was born in Monemvassia (Greece), on May 1st, 1909 as cadet of a noble family of landowners. Born to a well-to-do landowning family in Monemvasia, Ritsos suffered great losses as a child. The early deaths of his mother and his eldest brother from tuberculosis, the commitment of his father who suffered with mental disease and the economic ruin of losing his family marked Ritsos and affected his poetry. Ritsos, himself, was confined in a sanatorium for tuberculosis from 1927–1931.

These tragic events mark him and obsess his œuvre. In 1931, Ritsos joined the Communist Party of Greece (KKE). During the Axis occupation of Greece (1941–1945) he became a member of the EAM (National Liberation Front), and authored several poems for the Greek Resistance. These include a booklet of poems dedicated to the resistance leader Ares Velouchiotis, written immediately upon the latter's death on 16 June 1945. Ritsos also supported the left in the subsequent Civil War (1946-1949); in 1948 he was arrested and spent four years in prison camps.

Reviews

[Crazytourists_books · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ένα ιδιαίτερο βιβλίο, stream of consciousness θα το χαρακτήριζα, γεμάτο αναμνήσεις του Ρίτσου από διάφορες φάσης της ζωής του, ανάκατες, όπως είναι συχνά οι αναμνήσεις. Ένιωθα πως διαβάζω κάτι πολύ προσωπικό, σα να κοιτάω από την κλειδαρότρυπα ή να διαβάζω στα κρυφά ένα ημερολόγιο...