Far Outliers in Salonica
I recently came across the fascinating blog Far Outliers: "Exploring migrants, exiles, expatriates, and out-of-the-way peoples, places, and times, mostly in the Asia-Pacific region."
Among its gems, I particularly recommend the series of extracts from Salonica, City of Ghosts: Christians, Muslims and Jews, 1430-1950, by Mark Mazower (Vintage, 2006), a book I've been intending to read for some time. The extracts are filed here, along with other Balkan material.
Among its gems, I particularly recommend the series of extracts from Salonica, City of Ghosts: Christians, Muslims and Jews, 1430-1950, by Mark Mazower (Vintage, 2006), a book I've been intending to read for some time. The extracts are filed here, along with other Balkan material.
Comments
It's a great book - I'd strongly recommend it. I found it a real revelation -very good on the Spanish roots and Ladino culture of the Jewish community in Salonica - and a devastating account of its destruction by the Nazis.
See this post:
http://martininthemargins.blogspot.com/2007/05/history-and-identity-in-jaffa-and.html
http://www.tabletmag.com/arts-and-culture/books/23393/the-other-secret-jews/
As far as storytelling ability goes Mazower is excellent. And he is definitely on the right track, the only problem is that he was in the position to create a monumental book but he simply re-packaged existing stuff.*
* existing for me and he did mix them up wonderfully.