Novels set in foreign countries sometimes turn into American stories set in an exotic locale. The reader ends up wondering why they had to travel around the world to read a story that could have happened in Small Town, U.S.A. Mrs. Papadakis and Aspasia, two novels set in Greece by Hoboken resident Florence Wetzel, are different.The two stories are infused with Greek culture and characters, but each story also employs the character of an American woman living in Greece, allowing the reader to feel more connected to the stories without losing the Greek aura.
Mrs. Papadakis is the more light-hearted of the two. "Carolyn," or "Caroleena" to all her Greek friends, has been living in Greece for five years with her fisherman husband. Mrs. Papadakis is a story about Carolyn’s experiences day-to-day in the Cretan fishing village, but it is much more exciting than that. Carolyn falls into hanging around with two tourists who have traveled the world and have decided to settle in her village for a rest. Her contact with them accidentally moves her into a career in drugs and trouble with her husband.
The characters and the village in Mrs. Papadakis are really the most intriguing aspects of the story. The plot is an interesting one to follow, but without the array of Greek villagers inhabiting Carolyn’s world, it wouldn’t be as pleasurable to read.
Aspasia is more serious. It is the story of Katherine Lakaloukanakis, an American woman married to a Greek, and the terrible crime that affects her daughter, "Aspasia." The story has strong central female characters who develop the story and pull the reader into their world.
Both novels, despite their serious nature at times, are also very comical. Part of the humor is the relationship between the Americans and the Greeks. Wetzel lived in Greece for five years, and her knowledge of the culture and dialogue is evident in the particulars and nuances she presents in the stories.
Wetzel is able to capture differences in culture not only by giving the reader an American’s perspective of Greek life, but by presenting the weirdness of American culture and influences through the thoughts and comments of the Greek characters. This makes the stories more balanced, and stronger, in that Wetzel avoids the stigma of the American writer contemplating the strangeness of a culture not her own. Instead, the novels are more stories of characters living their life in a culture different, yet just as acceptable as the American way of life.
Mrs. Papadakis is more directly in this realm, in that Carolyn begins to feel depressed about her slow and relaxing life in Greece when her new world-traveler friends recount their adventures and invite her along. Things get worse when a Type-A American friend shows up in the village, begging Carolyn to give up village life and take control of a new entrepreneurial adventure in England.
When her traveler friend visits one afternoon, Carolyn contemplates that "I had never been east of Greece, and all her names and stories tantalized me; she made me it seem possible to live an adventurous life." I felt the same way while reading Wetzel’s two novels.
Mrs. Papadakis and Aspasia is available for $19.95 at local Hudson County bookstores and at www.iuniverse.com, www.amazon.com and www.bn.com. For more information on the author email florencewetzel@aol.com. q