In his tenth novel, The Orchards of Ithaca, celebrated Chicago storyteller Harry Mark Petrakis enhances his vigorous naturalism with humor, charm, and revelation. From the street level vantage point of Orestes Panos, a prosperous restaurateur on the eve of his fiftieth year and the coming millennium, Petrakis personalizes humankind's epic struggle between the unresolved guilt and sins of our shared past and the potential of a still untainted future. Friend and host to the pantheon of Chicago political and sports ...
Read More
In his tenth novel, The Orchards of Ithaca, celebrated Chicago storyteller Harry Mark Petrakis enhances his vigorous naturalism with humor, charm, and revelation. From the street level vantage point of Orestes Panos, a prosperous restaurateur on the eve of his fiftieth year and the coming millennium, Petrakis personalizes humankind's epic struggle between the unresolved guilt and sins of our shared past and the potential of a still untainted future. Friend and host to the pantheon of Chicago political and sports celebrities, from Ditka to Daley, Jordan to Kup, Orestes is a respected member of his Halsted Street neighborhood. Unbeknownst to his peers, he privately wars with the consequences of a near-fatal childhood illness and the insecurities foisted upon him by his late, brutal father. Orestes finds security and comfort in his twenty-three-year marriage to the loving Dessie, without knowing that she harbors stark secrets of her own. Oblivious to these unvoiced burdens of their parents are the Panos children: a son forced into a hasty wedlock when he impregnated a mafioso's daughter, and a teenaged daughter who seeks salvation in designer fashions. Orestes must also endure the barbs of his shrewish mother-in-law, an avid Tom Selleck admirer who openly scorns her son-in-law for lacking the machismo of her screen idol. As Y2K, Oval Office infidelity, the casualties of Columbine, and millennium fever loom over them, the Greek Town community is not without its own disruptions. When his parish priest is accused of child molestation, Orestes becomes the young cleric's orator and advocate in the court of public opinion. He also must contend with a young, golden-haired temptress who seeks to draw him into her fantasy of a dead poet and his muse. But these crises of faith and fealty pale in the face of the contest of character arising when family tragedy sparks confession in the Panos household, forcing Orestes and Dessie to reveal long-concealed truths that threaten their sacred union. With their reality torn asunder, Orestes and Dessie confront the same choices posed to a conflicted globe: to enter this fresh millennium still imprisoned by the terrors and obsessions of individual pasts or to find the wisdom and compassion to move forward as liberated and deeply loving human beings.
Read Less
Add this copy of The Orchards of Ithaca to cart. £9.72, fair condition, Sold by Goodwill Books rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Hillsboro, OR, UNITED STATES, published 2004 by Southern Illinois University Press.
Add this copy of The Orchards of Ithaca to cart. £10.45, good condition, Sold by ThriftBooks-Reno rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Reno, NV, UNITED STATES, published 2004 by Southern Illinois University Press.
Add this copy of The Orchards of Ithaca to cart. £14.97, very good condition, Sold by David's Books rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from ypsilanti, MI, UNITED STATES, published 2004 by Southern Illinois University Press.
Add this copy of The Orchards of Ithaca to cart. £15.46, very good condition, Sold by Prairie Archives rated 3.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Springfield, IL, UNITED STATES, published 2004 by SIU Press.
Add this copy of The Orchards of Ithaca to cart. £17.90, very good condition, Sold by The Book House - Saint Louis rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from St. Louis, MO, UNITED STATES, published 2004 by Southern Illinois University Press.
Add this copy of The Orchards of Ithaca [SIGNED COPY, FIRST PRINTING] to cart. £27.62, very good condition, Sold by MostlySignedBooks rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from San Francisco, CA, UNITED STATES, published 2004 by Southern Illinois University Press.
Choose your shipping method in Checkout. Costs may vary based on destination.
Seller's Description:
Very good in very good dust jacket. SIGNED and inscribed/dated by the author on the first free endpaper. 1st edition, 1st printing, complete number line. Minor edgewear to the dust jacket. Very faint shelfwear to the bottoms of the boards. Sewn binding. Cloth over boards. With dust jacket. 270 p. Audience: General/trade. By the author of 'Legends of Glory and Other Stories' and 'Nick the Greek'. Where possible, all books come with dust jacket in a protective mylar sleeve, sealed in a ziplock bag, wrapped in bubble wrap, shipped in a box.
Add this copy of The Orchards of Ithaca to cart. £32.07, good condition, Sold by Bonita rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Santa Clarita, CA, UNITED STATES, published 2004 by Southern Illinois University P.
Add this copy of The Orchards of Ithaca to cart. £41.90, new condition, Sold by Chidoc5 Rare Books rated 2.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Highland Park, IL, UNITED STATES, published 2004 by Southern Illinois University Press.
Add this copy of The Orchards of Ithaca to cart. £51.40, new condition, Sold by Bonita rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Santa Clarita, CA, UNITED STATES, published 2004 by Southern Illinois University P.
