VisionsA critical review by Evripides Korres
Reading "VISIONS on a winter day" the autobiographical life deposit of Christos Anagnostopoulos, I must admit that I was surprised. The theme is original, its structure keeps the reader's interest undiminished, and its writing flows effortlessly, unfolding an incredible tangle of events and experiences of the author.
At the same time, as the reading of Anagnostopoulos' book goes on, the reader is led to the inevitable question. Is the author, indeed, the charismatic person to whom a higher power heralds significant events, or is it that he just confuses real and imaginary facts, in a way that neither he himself can distinguish where one ends and where the other begins.
What's important for the evaluation of this book, is not the answer to this question, which, anyway, no one can give with confidence. What's a lot more important is to wonder why Anagnostopoulos puts his reader in this dilemma? Why he chooses to expose himself, as a writer, to the reader's critique, not over the meaning of his work, but over himself as a person? But, that's exactly the inner meaning of the book. Anagnostopoulos, intentionally includes himself in his book's reflections, artfully dragging the reader into putting his own self in the same reflections – in the dilemma of whether the writer's narration is a communication of the shape of things to come, of if the reader himself has lived through a similar experience, and of how the evolution would be if everyone had the courage to go out and shout what has been revealed to him; how many tragedies would have been prevented; how different, perhaps, our life would be.
Finally, the "VISIONS on a winter day" is a book special and unique, just like the one who wrote it. My personal wish, is for him to achieve the dream with which he concludes his narration and keep alive the story of his book, so as to recount it to his grandchildren after many years, in those evenings by the fire ...