Greek New Yorker Gives Meaning to His Survival by Facing Athens

Facing Athens: Encounters With the Modern City (North Point Press) is a book George Sarrinikolaou, a New York environmental-policy worker and former journalist, had been wanting to write for years.

"I thought that there were aspects of Athens that I knew that I never heard anybody talk about, or saw anywhere in writing," said Sarrinikolaou, who was born in Athens in 1970, came to America when he was 10, and visits family and friends in Greece once or twice each year.

But Sarrinikolaou (who'd been a writer, producer, and editor for public radio, television, and at a Greek-American newspaper) had never written a book. He wasn't sure he could summon the discipline, strength, and skills to do the one he had in mind.

It was the events of September 11, 2001, that caused the would-be author to commit himself to his task of writing about the forces shaping modern Athens.

Sarrinikolaou reported to work that morning at a job he'd had for a month in an office in one of the World Trade Center towers. He arrived shortly after the first plane struck, and left the ground-floor plaza moments before the second one hit.

"Being alive," he realized in the wake of this dreadful day, "is a fairly precarious thing. I began to think about doing something that would be meaningful to me … to give some meaning to my survival. For a long time, I'd thought that I had this book in me. And as I thought about what I could do, to honor my experience, I thought that mustering the courage to try to write the book would be a way to do that."

The novice author took inspiration from a diversity of sources, he said, one being Joseph Campbell's The Hero With a Thousand Faces. "Joseph Campbell was somebody I read in those months after September 11, and in particular his description of the hero's journey. I thought I would emulate the hero as Campbell describes him or her," explained Sarrinikolaou. "Surprisingly, things turned out a lot, I think, like that journey: there were obstacles to overcome; and if one does, then one gets help along the way; and ultimately, there is a reward."

Other influences were Jamaica Kincaid's book A Small Place ("It showed me what travel writing could be: It didn't have to be about food, or wine, or 'An American in Paris.' It could be social criticism; it could be something stronger, more substantive"); and the movies of director Theo Angelopoulos [Landscape in the Mist], which Sarrinikolaou said run counter to "the typical sunny image" of Greece ("I thought, Okay, here's a person who has the courage to write about this other side of the country, and to go with his vision)."

Sarrinikolaou divided his task into three parts: first, going to Athens for three months to do research ("walking around the city, talking to people"); second, the actual writing of the book; and third, trying to get it published.

"I told myself that accomplishing any of those parts, and stopping, would be enough," said Sarrinikolaou. "So if I had just gone to Athens but never wrote the book, that would have been meaningful enough."

But Sarrinikolaou found that once he'd begun his chosen task, things began to fall into place in unforeseen ways.

Facing Athens' acknowledgments section begins with a nod to "Moira": the Greek version of destiny. It's Sarrinikolaou's way of characterizing the propitious manner in which his journey progressed: "From the small details of finding housing in Athens, to getting the information that I needed for the book, to finding a computer after mine was stolen, to the publication -- things just went favorably. And I think," the writer said with a self-conscious chuckle, "there was something there -- something about taking that risk, and mustering the strength to do it, that was being rewarded."

He found a publisher for his manuscript "extremely easily," he thought, "compared to most people's experience." And early response to the finished book has been generous. "I think people have reacted to it for what it is: a different and alternative take on this legendary city.... I suspected that my fellow Greeks and Greek-Americans wouldn't take it so well; but there hasn't been very much negative criticism of the book even from them, and that's been surprising to me."

Sarrinikolaou was not unaware of the impending 2004 Olympics in Athens when he began his project. "I thought it would be a point in my favor in pitching it to publishers," he said. "And I was right about that; I think the timing has paid off."

Asked if he thinks this year's Olympics will be a good thing for Greece, Sarrinikolaou said, "I think Greece is taking a gamble, as every Olympic city does: spending a lot of money that it hopes to recoup if the city becomes an even greater tourist destination than it already is. But if this doesn't happen, then Greece will face some daunting bills once the games are over."

The author himself isn't in Athens for the games, he has stayed in the U.S. to promote the book, and in October he is scheduled to read from and speak about Facing Athens as part of a Hellenic cultural festival at the New York Public Library.

In lieu of watching others attempt heroic challenges this summer in the city of his birth, George Sarrinikolaou is launched on another heroic journey of his own, in his adopted city of New York. "As in this book, I'm interested in how the past affects the present," he said. "So I'm thinking generally about that concept -- in writing a novel." --Tom Nolan