Beyond the Aegean

The pulverization of Anatolian Greeks by Turks just after WW I provides the historical context for Kazan's sprawling but dense new novel, a sequel to America, America and The Anatolian. Brimming with scenes of concentrated dramatic power but somewhat awkwardly plotted, Kazan's vibrant tapestry teems with family passions, political intrigue, war, carnage, betrayal, lust and love. Ebullient, dapper New York City rug merchant Stavros Topouzoglou, protagonist of the earlier novels, here returns to his homeland of Greek Anatolia, which Greece hopes to reclaim from the Turks with the backing of Britain and the U.S., both thirsty for Near East oil. Stavros is an ambiguous figure. Performing acts of selfless heroism while the fickle Allies withdraw military support from the Greeks, he nonetheless leaves behind his fiancee, Thomna, incarcerated somewhere in the Turkish prison system. Irony caps the narrative as Stavros, having reestablished himself in Athens, and later in New York, almost takes a snobbish new wife but forsakes her, only to lose pregnant Thomna to his brother. Kazan illuminates a little-known part of history with calm objectivity. But he seems to have relied on cultural stereotypes of mythic heroism, robbing this novel of the raw power and immediacy that distinguished America, America . (May)