MY AILING CHAMPION

In this memoir, a Greek immigrant to the United States who’s also a linguistic scholar shares his version of the American dream.

The book opens in 1994in a restaurant in the Cook Islands, where Koubourlis listened to an anticolonial anarchist at a nearby table pontificating on the history of American exploitation. As an immigrant who viewed the United States as a “savior,” the author stood up to publicly debate the stranger on American virtues. This introductory anecdote sets the tone of the memoir, which centers on how the U.S. opened up educational, professional, and other opportunities for the author. The book’s first half centers on his life in his home country of Greece. Born during his own nation’s civil war, Koubourlis had a childhood that included homemade bomb shelters and other wartime horrors that he later featured in his short story collection, Sometimes Cruel (2023). The current book mostly focuses on his desire, as a young adult, for an education: “I was locked into a family and community conspiracy,” he writes, describing himself as suffocated by the “war-traumatized mediocrity” of his family’s psyche. Hungry for education, the author expressed dismay that his mother banned books from their home and encouraged him to find a trade or enlist in the military. To escape the limited opportunities of his motherland, Koubourlis immigrated to America in 1959 to attend California State College in Sacramento; the author recalls his awe at first seeing the Statue of Liberty and skyscrapers as his ship approached New York City. Over the course of the next two decades, his life centered on what he calls an “educational marathon.” Koubourlis would earn a doctorate from the University of Washington’s Slavic and East European Languages and Literatures Department and later become a tenured professor.

Although the author notes the highlights of his career, which included the publication of multiple scholarly books and his service as a foreign-exchange professor in the Soviet Union, much of his book is dedicated to his admiration of the nation he now calls home. Never one to back down from a philosophical debate, he notes his public squabbles with Ivy League Marxists, whom he describes as “ideological sleepers on the alert for any opportunity to replay their canned message.” Although he’s critical of American politicians driven by “crisis-driven policy,” Koubourlis emphasizes his belief that his adopted country’s “core ideals align with a better world.” Those on the left of the political spectrum may disagree with his defense of American exceptionalism, as well as some of his policy positions, such as his argument that immigration authorities should prioritize “the cream of the crop.” But the book’s narrative offers an inspirational read when it’s focused on the author’s personal triumphs. The author employs an accessible, engaging style that’s distinct from that of his peer-reviewed, academic writings. The text is accompanied by full-color maps, photographs, and other images, although some of the book’s AI-generated artwork detracts from the narrative.

An often absorbing, if occasionally polemic, immigration remembrance and defense of the American dream.