A rambling book about Fermor's exploration of various parts of Greece.
While there are some interesting sections - like the first part about a nomadic shepherd group called the Sarakatsans - he spends far too much time on arcane history of Orthodox monastic orders, the merits of Romios vs Hellene as a word for Greeks, and other topics. While there may be interesting ideas buried in some of these meanderings (for example, a history of the idea of Greece post-Turk), they are too deeply buried for me.
There is also a lot of the turn of the century English educated public school gentleman's idealized vision of Greece and the Greeks (and Byron) lurking behind his writing. And that annoying habit of making sweeping generalizations about races, nationalities, etc.
The section on Crete reminds me of some of Hemingway's writing on Spaniards during the Civil War. The natural peasant man seen as some kind of counter or embodiment of virtue in the face of western civilized man. It is embarrassing to turn the world into some kind of shadow play of your own mind (again that idea of being trapped in stories and mythologies).
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