I Married A Greek – Review and Chat with the Author

One of the things I like about the Starbucks I go to in the morning (besides that fact that it is safe) is that there is a reading corner with book shelves filled with books. While I wait for my morning drink I usually scan the shelves for interesting books and read the covers if something meets my eye.

In April, I spotted I Married A Greek and picked it up. The cover interested me and I saw that the author was local (I love finding local authors, like Christi Phillips) so I copied down the book’s info and bought the book. Since I had such a wonderful experience with Ms. Phillips, I decided to contact Patricia Mouille. I found her publisher online and contacted them by email asking them to forward my request.

After a few days, I had not heard back. And as I approached the middle of the book, I found that there was a postcard stuck inside with the books website and email contact. I sent an email directly to Patricia and waited. And waited. I had resigned myself to the fact that I was not going to here back from her, when voila! She emailed me back, I had neglected to recall that she is a tax professional…I had contacted her during her busiest part of the year! And even so, she agreed to answer questions for a quick interview.

“Official” Summary: Patricia F. Mouille is married to Kostas Petras, the third of six sons in a large and tumultuous extended Greek family. An amusing, often embarrassing, almost slapstick collection of short stories, I Married a Greek records the Odyssey of this modern American business woman who spends her summer holidays in Greece with her old world husband and his family. Within these pages you will meet this family, this cast of characters she calls her in-laws. Patricia will make you laugh and cry as her stories unfold like dessert appearing on the table after a full, rich Greek meal.

You’ll see this brand new world from Patricia’s eyes, follow her as she tries to mingle with the Greeks and figure out what’s really going on. These are the candid observations taken from this wife’s private journals that reveal, in her often humorous and totally honest depiction, the particular trials and tribulations, the crashing change of culture, the cuisine, the sea and her attempts at understanding and communicating in a world so much different than her own.

About the author: In Tiburon, California, Patricia Mouille is known as the smart and happy Tax Lady and everyone knows it. For three months of the year when her business demands it, she works 16 to 18 hour days, six days a week. Then off she goes…

Understanding people is Patricia’s forte and greatest pleasure. She loves learning and exploring new languages, living and experiencing other cultures. One of her sisters married a Frenchman and at their wedding one of her brothers met his French wife.

You must hear her laugh, but if you can’t then read her stories. Her job is to keep you entertained and like everything else she does, she intends to do it well. Opa!

My review: All I can say about I Married a Greek is “more!” The book is set up as short stories, so each one a complete story by itself. Reading stories about how different cultures come together is something that is near and dear to my heart. And some of the stories mimic experiences that I have had being married to a Frenchman with a mother-in-law who only speaks two words of English! Patricia has a way of making you feel like you are there with her in Greece whether it’s practically tasting the food she describes, to feel the sun on your skin and the salt from the sea as she passes the afternoons at the beach. You feel like you are part of the family and the stories are wonderful (although warning, not always happy!). There definitely needs to be a part two!

My mini-interview with Patricia Mouille: We were originally going to meet in person (how cool is that), but because of scheduling we were unable to do so, and Patricia took time out of her busy-just-after-tax-season-life to answer a few questions.

[MWA] With 20+ years with your husband, how did you choose which stories to write?

[PM] Wow. hmmmm. Toughest questions are always first. I gotta take ‘em one at a time. With regards to Leonidis and 2&3 &5, I was laid up, out of order, not able to carry on the normal vacation so I was the passive observer with time on my hands. With regards to Lucas and Washing Machine well it was pretty much the outrage of the Greek male, ahhhh there’s no describing it. Big Man was just a silly fluke and Little Green Book, I’ve never felt like little Bo Peep in my life and sure did then….still kicking myself..that was just last summer and I hoping to find it in the Thessaloniki airport lost and found this year.

I should say I have a very best friend, Cathy who came to my wedding in Greece way back when and she lives for my stories when I get home….didn’t really perfect my journals to form until 1999-Leonidis.

The printed word doc Little Green Book was sitting on my coffee table in my office when Kati (Mill Valley Graphics Patricia’s book cover designer) came in to do her tax returns in September. She asked what it was, I said this year’s story and three hours after she left she was back asking for more stories. She was the impetus of collaboration and I just loved how she worked the cover and helped get me Cathy and another bud Anne to work the edits. She’s a little crazy, nutty, but she’s truly a talent. She could help anybody put together their journals into bound.

[MWA] “Summer Bondage” was one of my favorites (that and “Washing Machine”) because I can totally relate as I have a mother-in-law who only know two words of English, how did you learn to overcome this in the beginning of your marriage? Did you know any Greek when you met your husband?

[PM] Hah. Thanks for appreciating the poetry of Summer Bondage, I feel it is the most misunderstood story that most holds my heart. I did not know a word of Greek when I met Kostas. I have a deaf sister so I know sign language which helped a lot. I knew before the first time I went to Greece I had to learn the symbols or I couldn’t read signs and that could be problematic.

The first time I saw Kostas’s Mama I knew she would come to love me. I’m a good girl. Just like she, I serve my man hand and foot, but every once in while we leave them to fend for themselves so they know what they got….The brothers were harder to understand. In old world families, the guys go out and the girls pretty much don’t, at least not unescorted. That was the hardest thing to overcome. Let’s face it, in the home the language is pretty basic….course I could very well be understating my ability to undertake a new language to suck up the culture of a new country du jour….which is my life’s passion.

Mama would often say, if only you know more Greek. I understand enough…in fact by the end of tax season I begin my slow reply and answer in Greek to my husband to get warmed up. It warms him up. His brothers do get a little peeved when they talk to each other presuming I don’t know what they’re saying…and reprimand them for any unkindness.

[MWA] There was a dish you described at the beginning of the story called “Two, Three, Five Altogether” what was it? Would you share one of your recipes that you learned from your mother-in-law?

[PM] Vasoolaki. String bean stew…absolutely yummy…Nei (which means yes in Greek) From page 119 “it takes a special kind of patience for a really good cook to write down a recipe. One who doesn’t know would think you could just sit yourself down and write it all out. They would be wrong. It’s an instinctual art, by golly.” Trust me, Andy. I’m going to set about writing down those recipes once again and more this summer. But the mainstays are dill, mint and sweet onions, virgin olive oil and agape, agape–that’s love.

[MWA] Do you have any suggestions for first time travelers to Greece? Where to go that is off the beaten path and a must-see?

[PM] You said it. Off the beaten path. Go to the Acropolis and have a cold drink in the old city “Plaka” but don’t eat there. Go anywhere in town….away from the the main street…you’ll find great little restaurants. Stand outside and listen, are they Greek? Then go inside, well outside, nobody eats inside…..and Greeks don’t eat where lots of tourists are, so they don’t cook the same. Don’t order Mousaka. It’s yummy but unless your stomach is very strong the bechamel sauce well get you every time.

And remember timing for goodness sake. Lite breakfast…no lunch the main meal is at two pm and the Greeks sleep after that so don’t expect to eat well from 4 to 9pm…..at 10:30 the Greeks come out and promenade and congregate and eat, opa, eat!!!! wear comfortable shoes and loose fitting clothes. Opa! Have a good time!

[MWA] I remember to do is always acknowledge people in stores and restaurants with a “bonjour” thrown out when you enter. This little courtesy can go a long way in France. Are there any Greek customs travelers should be aware to make their visit go more smoothly?

[PM] I was at a party last week and speaking of foreign travel. I don’t get how and why “Americans” complain about the french or other foreigners when we are visitors in their country yet expect immediate courtesy. I take “bonjour” a step further. I actually prefer the “I’m sorry. Please” approach that makes anybody open their eyes hearts and minds. In Greek it’s “SIGNOME, PARA KALO” In French it’s “Je suis desole. S’il vous plait.” Who wouldn’t offer you their sweater?

And about the Greeks, unlike the French. Rude American? You get charged more. The French get flippant, the Greeks charge more. When shopping, never pay what the Greeks ask. Make a look, nod your head no, begin to give back the product and the negotiation starts from there. Try that with a French person and you’re likely to be asked to leave.

[MWA] Were you able to re-create any of the stories from the Little Green book?

[PM] Ah, shucks. no. I can can cook more and start the process of re writing recipes, but the stories are written right there…from the Bulgarian sun dwellers to my warm erotica, nope they’re gone…but I will have another little green book this year and not only that, I’m taking my 18 year old niece to Greece. She’s French but now lives in the state of Georgia. She’s a sharp as a whip, cute as a button, tall and great in a bikini. I’m giving her a little green book so we can see everything with a fresh new eye.

Isn’t she fun? Check her out, buy her book and check her out. Oh and if you are in Chicago, you might want to check out your local Starbucks, because I left my copy there for someone else to enjoy!