A Place for Us; Eleni's Children in America

Gage, Nicholas

ISBN 10: 0395455170 / ISBN 13: 9780395455173

Published by Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, MA, 1989

About this Item

[12], 419, [1] pages. Illustrations. Slight wear and soiling to DJ. Inscribed by the author. Nicholas Gage (born Nikolaos Gatzoyiannis; July 23, 1939) is a Greek-born American author and investigative journalist. He is most known for two books of autobiographical memoirs, the best-selling Eleni (1983) and A Place for Us (1989). Eleni describes the life of his family in Greece during the Second World War and Greek Civil War. Gage's mother, Eleni, was executed for arranging the escape of her children from their Communist-occupied village. Decades later, as an adult, Gage sought out those responsible for her death. A Place for Us relates the Gage family's experiences as immigrants in 1950s America in the city of Worcester, Massachusetts. In 1964, Gage earned a master's degree from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. In 1985, Eleni was made into a feature film starring John Malkovich as Gage. In 1987, Eleni was cited by Ronald Reagan as an inspiration for his summit meetings to end the arms race with the Soviet Union. Gage was an Executive Producer of The Godfather Part III, co-writing an early draft of the script with Mario Puzo. The movie was nominated for seven Golden Globe Awards and seven Academy Awards. His book Eleni, which has been translated into 32 languages, was awarded first prize by the Royal Society of Literature of Great Britain and was nominated in the category of best biography by the National Book Critics Circle. The successor to the international bestseller Eleni, this is the story of a Greek immigrant family with a tragic past, of their trials, joys, and achievements growing up in America. Gage was nine in 1949 when he and three sisters set sail from Greece for the United States. Their mother had just been murdered by Greek communists who tried forcibly to conscript the family into guerrilla training. In Worcester, Mass., the children met their immigrant father Christos Gatzoyiannis, separated for years from the clan. Expecting a tycoon, they found instead an out-of-work short-order cook, a proud, touchy, gruff autocrat whom Gage, resentfully, blamed for not getting the family out of Greece sooner. A Place for Us begins as nine-year-old Nicholas Gage and three of his sisters escape from their war-torn Greek village and board a ship to America to meet the father they have never known. Eleni's children must adjust not only to a startling new American lifestyle, but also to a 56-year-old man who suddenly finds himself a single father.

Seller Inventory # 51019

Bibliographic Details

• Title: A Place for Us; Eleni's Children in America
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, MA
• Publication Date: 1989
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0395455170
• ISBN 13: 9780395455173
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: First Edition. First Printing.
• Condition: Very good
• Dust Jacket Condition: Very good
• Signed: Signed by Author(s)
• Seller catalogs:
  • Cold War

About this title

Synopsis

Gage, Nicholas, Place For Us, A: Eleni's Children In America

Reviews

Gage was nine in 1949 when he and three sisters set sail from Greece for the U.S. Their mother had just been murdered by Greek communists who tried forcibly to conscript the family into guerrilla training. In Worcester, Mass., the children met their immigrant father Christos Gatzoyiannis, separated for years from the clan. Expecting a tycoon, they found instead an out-of-work short-order cook, a proud, touchy, gruff autocrat whom Gage, resentfully, blamed for not getting the family out of Greece sooner. A fourth sister joined them three months later. The story of Gage's reconciliation with his father is the keynote of this wonderfully vivid autobiographical sequel to Eleni. Full of humorous, ironic, sad touches, this extraordinary, moving saga reflects one family's attempt to balance assimilation with the preservation of Old-World traditions. Halfway to becoming a petty teenaged hood, the author pulled himself together and became instead a distinguished journalist who returned to Greece in an effort to trace his mother's killers (as told in Eleni ). Photos.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Seldom has the immigrant experience been captured more emotionally than in this memoir. The "place" is America, and the "us" is the family of author Gage, who in March 1949 sailed for freedom with three of his sisters from a Greece riddled with civil war to be reunited with their father in Worcester, Massachusetts, where the family joined a large Greek contingent. Gage's story is moving and humorous, a tale of adjustment to an unknown culture, and is best characterized by a love which transcends not only the Atlantic but years of strife and trying assimilation. The narrative is excellent. Gage is a former New York Times reporter whose earlier successes include Eleni ( LJ 6/15/83), the touching story of the murder of his mother by Greek communists. The author approaches, if not exceeds, his earlier effort: this is one of the year's best books. It should be widely read; it crystallizes our sense of liberty. Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 6/1/89.
- Boyd Childress, Auburn Univ. Lib., Ala.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.