Review by Choice Review
Anthropologist Bryant (George Mason Univ.) studies the effect of the 2003 opening of the checkpoints between southern and northern Cyprus, which allowed the Greek and Turkish populations to move through the divided island. She focuses on the northern town of Lapithos, where the Turkish residents do not quite understand why the former Greek inhabitants, who consider themselves refugees living in the south, keep turning up. The displaced Greeks view the town as their home, and they wish not only to return but to replicate the life they once lived before the 1974 partition of Cyprus. The author argues that the opening of the checkpoints has driven the two communities further apart and has hardened the lines between them. The two communities have developed diametrically opposing views of the past, of memories, of land holding and ownership, of past sufferings and victimization. Bryant strives to be fair-minded, and at times her colorful prose gets in the way of her narrative. For further background on the subject, see the author's Imagining the Modern (2004) and Peter Loizos's The Heart Grown Bitter (CH, Sep'82). The bibliography is general yet useful. Summing Up: Recommended. General and undergraduate libraries. T. Natsoulas emeritus, University of Toledo
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
