OUT OF THE BRONX

In this debut memoir, a woman
recounts the turbulence of a childhood that left an emptiness she has spent
most of a lifetime trying to fill.

The youngest of four children, Sardanis
was born in the Bronx in 1933 to poorly matched Greek immigrant parents. Her mother,
Maria, was a plain, illiterate peasant girl from a small village on the island
of Lesbos. An arranged marriage to her brother’s friend Costa sent a terrified
Maria off to New York, where she met her husband for the first time: “My mother
valued family, religion, and her home. My father liked to drink, talk politics,
and party with others.” He also spent most of what he earned on himself—fine
clothes, “alcohol, and women.” They fought constantly. There was never enough
money for rent, and food was sometimes scarce. When Sardanis was 5 years old,
Costa left Maria and their four children, refusing to let them know where he
lived: “Rejected by my father, my mother sought a channel for her misery. She
found it in me.” Verbal assaults were accompanied by violent physical beatings.
The author took to hiding out in libraries, which became her secret passion.
Salvation came in her teenage years from a compassionate social worker who
provided the emotional support she needed. Eventually, Sardanis married her first
husband, Sotiris, and they moved to Los Angeles. This emotional memoir is constructed
as a series of essays, each chapter centered on an event or time period. Conversationally
articulate prose is filled with unresolved anger and pain but also expresses
the author’s strong attachment to her Greek heritage, especially when it comes
to food (with a few recipes capriciously dropped in) and the warmth of the
community. According to the author, the trauma of her early years—including sexual
molestation by the father she had once adored—left scars that would impact her
life for many years. Of Sotiris, she writes: “I’d married someone cruel like my
mother and irresponsible like my father.” Not until her third marriage, in her
late 40s, would she learn how to trust and love.

A vividly raw portrayal of a brutal
upbringing, sprinkled with historical tidbits about Greek immigrant culture.