Book Review: The Full Catastrophe

Travels Among the New Greek Ruins, by James Angelos

I spent the last five days pouring over The Full Catastrophe.....a through review of Greece and how they arrived at a five-star mess.  The book was wrapped up in January and is fairly up to date.

First, I'll say that Angelos writes like Steinbeck and gives a wonderful rich full-color explanation of events and characters of Greek society.  When he describes a scene of a Greek gal doing an interview, smoking a unfiltered cigarette and wearing cowboy boots....you actually stop and re-read the whole paragraph and get the significance of the moment.  These are brilliant descriptions of mortal men and women....put to paper.

Second, there are only seven chapters to the book, but he divides the chapters into great explanations as to how Greek fall into a pit of despair.  I would strongly suggest a slow read of chapter one....'Island of the Blind', which covers the disability gimmick used by a number of Greeks to claim a disability status using a fraudulent claim.  Oddly, no one really feels shamed when they admit they were on the receiving end of the false claims.

As you pour over the book, you are left with three gut-feelings.

First, Greeks are screwed.  They know they are screwed, and even admit to visitors they are screwed.  It's almost like some national character flaw.....needing to be screwed and be public over the intense nature of the screw-job.   They talk about being screwed with the neighbor, the retired guy at the pub, the local minister, and even their relatives.  It's like a badge, and they wear it proudly.

Second, no one really wants to cooperate on tax-payment.  Not the rich, not the middle-class, and not the poor.  They worked hard for their assets and feel no one deserves their money.  So when the gov't says they've collected X-amount of revenue for tax revenue.....it's probably half of what they should have collected.

Third, Greek politics work like a Shakespeare-Samuel Beckett-Oscar Wilde-T. S. Eliot twenty-five act play, with comedy, lust, deceit, fraudulent honor, and woeful heroes.  Oddly, in the middle of the book, there's a chapter to cover 1940 to 1945, and you do get the idea that Greeks probably suffered more than any society at the hands of the Nazis....maybe just as much as the Jews in fact.  Even in a thousand years.....I don't think the Nazi era will ever be forgotten in Greece.

My recommendation?  If you have a curious nature over how Greece screwed up.....this is the book for you, and it'll be a rich reading experience.  Don't worry about college economics being explained or some difficult-to-understand Greek history lesson.  Angelos does a great job of telling a simple story and keeping you in full sight of the intended goal of the book.

Greece is.....in my humble opinion.....Disneyland-Med.  It's the place where you want a week of relaxation, cobblestone streets, wonderfully cooked dinners, cheap wine, and a desire for a low-crime or low-stress environment.  Greeks are among the nicest people in the world, and absolutely genuine in their character (they really aren't faking you).  But somewhere over the past 2,500 years.....they've latched onto tax-avoidance, low view of law, and attached themselves to the ninth degree to socialism.  It's the kind of socialism that you demand in receipt, but never seem to know the true cost, and act shocked later when you don't have the money to pay for what you desire.