The year is 1964 when Christo, the protagonist of this novel, leaves his native Greece and arrives in Sweden. He is twenty-five years old and feels that in his country no future awaits him. The political situation was violent and corrupt, unemployment did not bode well for job opportunities, and personally, he did not find stability either. As his father and his grandfather did before, the young Greek embarks on a journey that will mark his life.
Theodor Kallifatides (Molaoi, 1938) has concocted in his latest work, Amor y homesickness, an autobiographical youth novel. Readers of his previous books published in Spain will have little trouble recognizing the young featherweight, pipe-smoking Christo as the veteran Hellenic author. His sense of humor and Greek proverbs, his feelings and reflections reappear here.
The great theme of the testimonial literature of Kallifatides is based on his condition as a foreigner, as a migrant, as a being who must overcome linguistic and cultural barriers to fit in (“it is not enough to learn a language. You also have to learn your guts”). In this work he returns to preside. It prevails over the love plot that runs through these pages. Christo compares over and over again his country of origin with the host country, he knows that Greece will always be with him but also that there is no going back.
There is thus a retroactive flow, an echo, from the octogenarian author towards the young Christo, whom he grants reflective maturity. The projection towards the future also appears, announcing that what has been lived will become a story, the student a writer. The twentysomething protagonist acts as such but his thoughts go further. The rain of maternal phrases, sayings, language or the weight of culture returns – catharsis will be the theme of his university work.
The specificity of this volume comes from the love experience, from the exploration of desire and pleasure; the youthful impulse that weighs the limits but that escapes rational control. The story shows how, in these issues, one also has to adapt to the environment (from the sexualized society of origin to the more rational Scandinavian society). The young Hellenic student admires, listens and respects women. They raise their voices (Rania, Emelie, Paola) and refuse to accept imposed roles – a scenario more typical of today than of the sixties.
Christo explores his feelings and desires and goes through complex situations with a certain temperance, both in relationships and in friendship with his compatriot Thanasis. The author offers us another beautiful chapter of that autobiographical literature that he has been brewing in recent years. A novel of personal growth that offers the reader a double experience: complicity with what is known and surprise with what is new. We don’t get tired of him telling us about it again.
