J. Frangouli-Argyris interview: The real-life story behind 'High Heels for Six'
Greek-Canadian Justine Frangouli-Argyris knows how to weave a story, entwining it with the fabric that lets readers leap over cultural walls and embrace different experiences. Her meta-feminist novel "High Heels for Six" is no exception as it chronicles the friendship of six schoolgirls reunited after twenty years of separation. The novel is semi-autobiographical, drawing from her own memories of a tragedy that saw one of her friends and her mother leave the island of Lefkada.
The book traces the links between the two, binding their development with the ropes of tradition and the restraints of a desirable pair of high heels. Here's what the Huffington Post blogger and prolific author told Proto Thema about meta-feminism on the occasion of International Women's Day (March 8). (Scroll down for a sample).
Which real-life tragedy is the book inspired by? "The book is inspired by the tragic suicide of the father of one of our schoolmates from Lefkada. We woke up one morning to the the news that Telemachus Papaminas (not his real name but the one used in the book) had stabbed himself in the bathtub. He was found drowned in a pool of blood by his young and only daughter. Our island was plunged into a "redness" of the blood of this great man, our memories stained forever. Immediately following, our classmate and her mother left the island." How much of your own personal story as a Greek woman living in Canada is depicted in the book? "My personal experience as a Greek woman who emigrated to Canada is described in the novel through the evolution of Julia's story. All my novels are set in an experiential canvas because, for me, a novel is the "literaturization" of real life." What is the difference between a Greek, a...
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