Something Will Happen, You'll See: A Tale of Polygamy Paperback – 15 March 2016

If there is any doubt in the reader's mind that the author isn't addressing this very issue[Banker Occupied Territory] - just read a few of these heart wrenching stories. Stories realistically portraying good people enduring unimaginable suffering, so that the few cannot only have more than their share, but indeed, have it all!The first chapter/Come on Ellie, Feed the Pig, where the author is referring to an acronym PIGS: Portugal, Italy Greece Spain. All targets of financial capital whose endgame is to break public services worldwide by financializing them to bankruptcy, and at the point of failure to replace them entirely with privately-owned profit-making services.If the poor people do things like that to other poor people[steal their last dollars] what on earth are the rich people supposed to do to us, asked Ellie; little realizing the reason she is so destitute and enduring so much suffering, is precisely because the rich are stealing from her and populations worldwide - without remorse. Therein is the irony we see as the characters are being stripped of their remaining humanity by an inhuman class of ruling elites.Another character, Niki, in another chapter says/You have to stay strong, Something will happen, you'll see. Banks don't just take people's homes away. This isn't America. We'll manage somehow. You'll see. [Later in the chapter] Compromise. All of life is one big compromise. We're all born of compromise Niki thinks, out of that great silent yes that our parents say when they choose to bring us into this world. Which means we all carry a kind of compromise inside us, in our blood. That's why all revolutions are destined to fall.Another character, in yet another chapter/They sold us down the river, the others said. Don't you get it you fool? Our co-workers. Our comrades-in-arms. They sold us out.Still another chapter, another character/That's what real democracy is. When poor people don't wait for the rich to come and save them but take back the situation into their own hands. Because that's how the trouble starts: with us thinking that the rich will ever help the poor. It just doesn't happen. We live in two separate worlds. They're over there and we're over here. We have to take the situation in our own hands. What do you think our greatest enemy is? Death? Money? Not at all. It's fear. That's our worst enemy. Fear. Fear.The author is well-grounded in the territory he brings the reader to/Five men had lit a fire outside the Social Security offices in Nikaia in the middle of the January night. They were retirees, former office workers or manual labor, unshaven and down at the heels. They had started gathering at three in the morning so they'd be the first to see the doctors before the crowds came and the line stretched all the way to the sidewalk. They didn'y know one another and didn't bother to introduce themselves - they had other things on their minds. Besides, their names didn't matter. What mattered was the order, that the order of the line be strictly maintained. Which is why each man thought of himself and the others as numbers on a list that would keep growing as the night advanced.So reader, come stand in line with those in banker occupied territories, and live awhile with various good people who find themselves inside a landscape of betrayal; and be prepared to join them, as the banking territories come expanding into your neck of the woods. For, as the old saying goes... And Then They Come For You.

Moving stories about powerless people, often still drawing strength from their heritage. Vivid settings in Piraeus and vicinity. Highly recommended.

Good Lord, this is one depressing book. Page after page, story after story of the most awful things people have to bear. It is dark and heavy, with most characters living lives that are hopeless, chaotic, and unstable.I echo the other reviewers who have praised author Ikonomou for so powerfully capturing the poverty, despair, and destitution people are experiencing in Greece's garbage economy. But what struck me most about this book is how negatively women are portrayed--always helpless, sad, borderline crazy. They are abandoned and oblivious and, even though they are the ones keeping their families together, they still somehow come off as weak. They are raped and whored out A LOT. Even in the stories where they are the main (and sometimes the only) characters, they always play second fiddle to the men. Is this a cultural thing? Is this simply an accurate portrayal of how women are treated in Greece? And is Ikonomou okay with it? Or is he trying to make a point against it? I'm not sure. But, yikes, it's bleak.Reading this book was depressing and eye-opening. If you read all the stories in one sitting, like I did, prepare to be overwhelmed with the sadness of it all. I wish I had chosen to digest them bit by bit. Instead, I zipped through it...and then had to have a good cry afterward. The book is powerful, but, wow, it's a lot to absorb.

Modern Greece has endured one tragedy after another, each compounding the damage to the country's economy and psyche.I found here a set of moving, vividly told stories of individual experiences of the latest in Greek tragedies: the economic crisis.The stories are not maudlin, however. Rather, they are infused with the indomitable human spirit that refuses to capitulate and instead struggles to survive with the hope of one day thriving again.The first selection grabbed my attention to the end. I can still picture in my mind's eye the character's apartment, imagine what it is like to work three jobs, and to see my life's potential so cut short by circumstances out of my control. Still, there is some wry humor and a determination to enjoy what sweetness is left in life.I found the writing (and translation) vivid and fast-paced, with no dull or slow parts, even when there is little action per se.The size and feel of this small, almost-square book reinforces the intimacy the reader feels with the characters. I carry it in my bag, and pull it out when I have spare moments to sit outside somewhere to read another chapter.

The writing of these stories is terrific. The book is truly "literature". It picks you up sweeps you along. Kudos to the translator. It is impossible to tell this was not written in English.All the stories are about down and out Greeks suffering in the horrible economic times. Most have been knocked down by the depression, others by circumstance. Either way, there are no winners in this book. There is also no hope, no light, no resolute human heart. The stories are of the down and out with no sugar coating. There is particularly "Greek" about the characters. Except for the settings (and the liquor drunk) these stories could be of monetarily and psychologically depressed people anywhere.The writing is definitely superb. The dark nature of all the stories is fitting. I have two criticisms of the book. It is difficult to sit and read it all at once. The pacing is all the same and the stories all have the same theme. Sit and read one story and you will sit back and marvel at the talent and the feelings elicited. than a few at a time and they the stories get repetitious and run-on. It's like a very rich and sweet treat. A little at a time is nirvana. Too much at once results in stomach upset. Read more