Petrakis Reads Petrakis — Harry Mark Petrakis

Master story-teller Harry Mark Petrakis reads three of his stories on this audiocassette. In "The Journal of a Wife Beater," an insufferable male chauvinist discovers, to his horror and bodily peril, that his wife is younger, stronger and even more vengeful than he is. In "Dark Eye," a master of the art of the shadow puppet is embittered by the indifference to his art in America's Greek towns; his son, equally embittered by his father's drunken rages, comes to terms with his memory and his mother's grief. In "The Miracle," the rake Barbaroulis and a priest trade insults and satirical couplets in smoking fusillades that fail to conceal their mutual affection and respect, mixing tragedy and ribald sarcasm as Barbaroulis lies dying. For reviews praising Petrakis as a story-teller, see the entry for his "Collected Stories."