The Feasts of Memory

The Feasts of Memory is a book that inspires all those who left their homeland behind as well as those in search of new realms. Elias Kulukundis traces the course of a family’s emigration from Kasos island to Syros, the formerly commercial capital of Greece, and then from Syros to London and New York. He is equally at home describing expatriates around a dinner table in exile or delving into the motivating passions of the Aegean islands, some of them, in the words of The New Yorker Magazine, as savage as Homer's. Elias felt he needed to write The Feasts of Memory in order to learn about himself. At the age of 29, he dramatized how a young Greek-American growing up on the edge of a golf-course in Westchester County could discover a spiritual connection to a barren island in the south Aegean Sea. The Feasts of Memory is Elias’ narrative recreation on life on the island of Kasos, when both his grandfathers were sea-captains, and both his grandmothers were knobbly-handed island women who held house and home together while the men were away at sea. The book captures the vivid and often eccentric characters and customs that ran through the family’s history, while it dramatizes the role of two of its most dominant women. The book is a stimulating combination of Mediterranean travelogue and the author’s autobiography as a ship owner and writer, seen through a collection of stories with wider historic and anthropological overtones. It creates a living picture of life in a Greek shipping family as it existed in the early twentieth century. The book brings to life a world of ancient traditions and colorful customs that will inspire anyone wishing to discover Greece. It captures the nostalgia and excitement that accompany one’s search for origins as a key to one’s identity and meaning in life. This edition includes a preface by the author and an expanded chapter with material about his late beloved cousin Michael Kulukundis, both written in 2013 specifically for this edition.