Greek author Menis Koumandareas's 1978 novel, Koula, is a spare and rather understated story about an affair between an older woman and younger man. Since I've been reading Greek mythology (with dips into a little nonfiction as well), I've become interested in reading a few Greek authors (and not just books set in Greece but written in English). A little online browsing netted me Koula, which was published in English (translated by Kay Cicellis) by the Dalkey Archive Press, which has a reputation for bringing out not only works in translation but authors who are writing cutting edge fiction.
Whatever the publisher's reputation, Koula is not a difficult read. Coming in at less than a hundred pages, Koula is more of a novella and a snapshot of a moment in life. Don't expect much to happen or any surprising twists and turns or shocking moments as this is more a story about the interior lives of the characters, particularly of Koula. If fiction imitates life, Koula is a good representative story. Koula is an average, middle class, middle-aged wife. She works in a tax office at a job she's very good at. She's not really ambitious, but she's conscientious. Her home life sounds on the bland side. She's mother to two young daughters and her marriage has settled into a comfortable but lackluster relationship.
Earlier in her marriage she had thought of asking for a divorce. She knew she was living with someone she didn't love, didn't even much care for. When she asked for advice from a lawyer, hard reality set in instead.
"When I told him how I felt, he laughed and patted my shoulder. Come on, Koula, you're behaving like a schoolgirl; one's not supposed to be madly in love with one's husband or wife; marriage is simply a matter of habit, and you'd better get used to the idea; that's what happiness is all about, haven't you found that out yet, you little fool?'
So when she spots the same young man on her nightly subway ride home, and their eyes meet and lock, an instant attraction forms. And by all appearances its reciprocated. He is sitting in the same spot every night and as the car empties she takes the seat across from him and eventually they strike up a conversation.
They know where things are headed even without really talking about what they're feeling. It's as if the relationship from total strangers to lovers is a natural progression. Dmitri is a college student, who's closer in age to her daughters than to herself, but it doesn't matter. Dmitri has a thing for older women and has even taken money for favors rendered on occasion. The affair is like a sparkler on the fourth of July--a great burst of energy that flairs and then eventually dims. For Koula, and this is her story told from her perspective, the affair is intense and all consuming. With Dmitri, and somewhat out of character, she goes to seedy bars and clandestine apartments which gives the affair veneer of sordid illicitness.
This story is less about the physical, which is actually downplayed, than about the internal struggle. So much of the story is played out in the subway, it's not surprising that that's where Koula has her moment of epiphany. In the darkness of a power cut she finds she regains her lucidity and life turns once again sharply into focus.
Koumandareas has won the Greek National Book Award three times. Koula is, I believe, his only work that has been published in the US.