Sotiris Spatharis, a Greek
born in 1898, taught himself to read and write by studying gravestones.
Before his death in 1974, he had become one of the foremost practitioners of
karagiosis, or shadow puppetry. These memoirs explore the traditions of this
form of puppetry at the same time as they provide a picture of Greece
from1900 to 1945. Publishers Weekly
Spatharis (1898-1974) relates
his life as a leading shadow-puppeteer in Greece during the heyday (1924-44)
of the form called karagiosis. The memoirs are told in a simple,
unpretentious, and almost primitive narrative. Half of the small volume is
devoted to an inexact but revealing “History of the Art of Karagiosis”-
including thumbnail sketches of the most prominent puppeteers. Choice