92 Acharnon Street: A Year in Athens

by John Charles Lucas

Greece has always had its admirers, though none seems to have cherished the Athenian tavernas, the murderous traffic and the jaded prostitutes, the petty bureaucratic tyrannies, the street noise and the heroic individualists with the irony and detachment of John Lucas. Lucas' love for the realities of Greece finally banishes the banality of a half-century of tourism in this collection of memoirs and stories.

Genres: Travel, Greece, Nonfiction

219 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2008

About the author

John Lucas is a poet, critic, biographer, translator and literary historian. He was born in Devon in 1937. He was a Professor English at universities throughout the world, and a Professor Emeritus at the Universities of Loughborough and Nottingham Trent.
He has written over 40 books and has been the editor/publisher of Shoestring Press since 1994.

Reviews

[Kostas Sarlis · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I came across this book in the used book section I had to get it just for the reason that I moved across the same street - at number 75 - a year after the author did and lived there for 19 years. So it all was so familiar and just that sense made it a great read for me. I went to the same taverna, shopped at the same shops and tried to sleep through the same noise like the author did and also went to the same university halls and student cafes. For the general reader however I should say that it's main attraction is that it gets us right, as much as it is possible to put a "national character" in words. Good and bad is all there. A note on the editing though. Most of the Greek words are not correctly transliterated - the cheating sheet for example is a "skonaki" and not a "skournaki" and many other examples like that which of course are a bother to a Greek reader only.

[Sairam Krishnan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gorgeous narrative of the poet and critic's time in Greece. The poems in between are beautiful too, really enjoyed reading it.

Edit: Was thinking about this book later, and have to point out what a lovely life the author built, one of literature, travel, and truth. That is also why this book is beautiful: It's honest, and in that honesty lies its value.

[Mark Pedlar · Rating 4 out of 5]

John Lucas arrives in Greece in August 1984, a few months after my own first visit, at Easter 1984. He gets to know ordinary Greek people, in the city, in the countryside and on the islands. He takes a special interest in the poets, such as the imprisoned Yannis Ritsos, whose house in Monemvasia I visited this year.
He understands the politics of Greece. He knows that Greece was brutally occupied in the war, afterwards suffered a civil war and more recently a military dictatorship. So his sympathies are with the Left, and he doesn't hide it. He rightly brings politics into the book in my opinion. He can't escape taking a political stand in the highly-charged early 1980s, when Greece got its first socialist government, and benefited from long overdue changes, such as the introduction of a country wide National Health Service. This is a gutsy, commited memoire of John Lucas's exciting time in Greece.

[Andrew Collins · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book is subtitled 'A year in Athens' which accurately describes the majority of the work. John Lucas has an acute power of observation and many of the real life characters come to life again on his pages. He is also extremely well read but some of the quotations did not add much to the dialogue or feel of the book. His frustration with Greek officialdom/malpractice, which were beautifully narrated, cannot but make the reader sympathetic with the author. There are sympathetic character studies studies throughout.
There is much in the book which gives affectionate insight into the character of Greeks and their life during the 1980s which makes interesting and credible reading. Having read the book for that particular aspect, it was annoying to be subjected, at regular intervals, with the author's political views which added nothing to the story. Also the editing was not 100% perfect.

[Ruth Siddall · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this gentle book, an account of the author’s first stay in Athens working at the university for a years sabbatical teaching English literature and how he easily slips into Athenian life with all it’s bureaucracy, tavernas, local characters, protests and intrigues and of course, trips to Aegina. Having spent many summers and Easters working in this city myself, I really related to these experiences and felt totally at home in the topography Lucas describes.

[Le · Rating 4 out of 5]

Completed on my third attempt. Each time my attention waned and died at the same chapter: Meeting Poets

If you have travelled or live with Greeks your sure to love this. I'm now desperate to eat Greek food and travel the Islands all over again.