The Good Greek Girl

by Maria Katsonis

The Good Greek Girl will make you laugh, cry, gasp and smile, written with the honesty Maria’s story deserved, and the elegance and craft expected from such an inspiring public intellectual.
Maria Katsonis is the good Greek girl who grew up above her parents’ milk bar and shared a bedroom with her yiayia. That is until university where she discovered her rebellious side, realized her true sexuality and abandoned nine-tenths of an economics degree for a career in the theatre.
Furthering her studies later in life, Maria attended Harvard University and left with a Masters of Public Administration. Little did she know, in five years time, Maria would be alone on a bed in a white psych ward fighting for her life.
“In the space of five years, I went from graduating at Harvard to becoming a psych patient. I overcame the stranglehold of depression and chose not to die. Instead, I embraced life only to discover I am a good Greek girl at heart, albeit an unconventional one. This is my story.”

Genres: Mental Health, Memoir, Autobiography, Nonfiction

191 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 1, 2015

About the author

Maria Katsonis is the author of The Good Greek Girl, a memoir about her experience of mental illness and rebellion against a traditional Greek upbringing. Described as a ‘stunning book’ and ‘generous, intelligent and loving’, it has been published in the UK at The Mind Thief. Her latest book is Rebellious Daughters, an anthology of true stories from Australian female writers as they find their place in the world.

A vocal mental health advocate, Maria is a beyondblue Ambassador and a consumer representative with Mental Health Australia. You can read more about Maria at www.mariakatsonis.com.au and follow her on Twitter @mariakatsonis.

Reviews

[Michelle_Mck · Rating 4 out of 5]

I seem to have been on a bit of a kick for reading about mental illness and it has been great to find some great work done by Australians, for me it resonates so much more when I can picture where they are and understand the environment.

IN the Good Greek Girl we meet Maria Katsonis, she is dynamic, smart and engaged in her world. She has worked in theatre and the public service and because of her desire to really contibute to policy and the work she does she finds herself studying for her Masters at Harvard. Achieving her masters should have been a wonderful opportunity to leap into the rest of her life but after she returns to Australia whilst Maria's life got bigger for those she left behind in the year that has passed life hasn't changed. I could really connect to that as I have spent big chunks of time months/years away working interstate or overseas and you feel like you are doing all of these great things and then you get back and everyone is kind of "so what?"

Within five years of returning back to Melbourne Maria finds herself admitted to a psych ward and recovering from depression. Her insight to herself and the process of going through this experience was really profound, when her Mother passed away I could feel it/see it/taste it almost with Maria, it leapt of the page and it really hit me between the eyes and there were quite a few tissues.

If you watch entertainment shows or read the womens magazines at the hairdressers I think we think we know what rehab or similar places would be like, in the book you really get a birds eye view of what the experience is like. How small your world can become and how big small things become when you are in the same environment every day. Her time in the Clinic is a wonderful part of the book and I have a great appreciation and understanding of what friends have been through in the past.

I loved this book, it was entertaining, interesting and educational but not in a force-fed kind of way. Maria has a wonderful style about her writing and I couldn't turn the pages quick enough and I read this in one session.

It leaves you feeling hopeful and that no mountain is to big to beat.

[Gail Chilianis · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read The Good Greek Girl in a couple of days. I was interested in how Maria Katsonis would write a book about her chronic mental illness. I enjoyed reading of her traditional Greek childhood in Melbourne. Later on the fractured relationship with her father as she didn't reach his expectations in her life choices.

[Deborah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absorbing, well-written memoir. I didn't laugh, cry, or gasp (as predicted by the blurb) but I smiled in recognition, frowned, empathised, and cared a lot about Maria and her friends and family.
I was struck by how similar and also how different Maria's story and mine are. We're about the same age, Australian, have both been carers for our mothers after they had a stroke, both did mid-life study, both experienced major depression. but we are different in many other ways...
I recommend this book to anyone who wants to understand the common yet misunderstood experience of mental illness - it's different for everyone, even with the same diagnosis, but some things are universal.
I want to give this book to many of my friends, family, and former colleagues. And to write my own memoir.

[June · Rating 5 out of 5]

I believe this book deserves 5 stars because the author describes her bouts of depression and her stay in hospital so honestly and in such detail. Katsonis is a beyondblue ambassador and a consumer representative with Mental Health Australia. The book also contains a list of mental health resources and assistance that readers can refer to if they need to.

I also really enjoyed Katsonis's descriptions of growing up in suburban Melbourne in the 60s and 70s.

[Wendy Tanner · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked it, and finished it because it was my book club book for this month, but found it a little bland. While I admired the honesty and vulnerability of the author, I thought it lacked something. Tension maybe. Drama? I found her insights into depression and the treatment of mental illness interesting. And the Greek culture too. I found it hard to believe that she could forgive her father though, after the physical and psychological damage he caused her.

[The Bookish Gardener · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a tough book that brought out many truths. It brought insight and understanding to me, but it also raised many questions.
There were a few lightbulb moments, where I went aha, just as the author must have done when she found out information about her family that had been kept from her. But my experience was as a reader and hers was as the main player in this story of her own.
I believe this book took a lot of guts to write. But it is a book that many, myself included, will be so pleased that she did.
Katsonis tackles the themes of family, ambition, pain and fear in an incredibly personal way, it is as if you are sitting right next to her and she has a story to tell. This is my favourite kind of writing.
The childhood memories were similar to friend's childhoods and I often juxtaposed them in my mind.
Likewise, when her mental health began to unravel, I too imagined the pain of some closest to me. And like she said when she was working on her health, that there were things she could hardly understand, I tried to understand too, as much as I was able.
As a lesbian, I was hoping for more information about her relationships, to find some kinship there, but that wasn't the story this time around.
I loved her friendship with her Harvard friends, her drive to study and to learn and ultimately to face up to her greatest test, survival.
A really good book that shows ambition, vulnerability and courage. Respect. I wish the author all the best.
Oh, and I loved the ending. Perfect.

[Ann Tonks · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very honest book about growing up in multicultural Melbourne, about the highs of career and academic success and the lows of mental illness, about fighting against and succumbing too the demands of family. It's a narrative rather than an analysis of the life that is lead and to some degree lacks depth because of that. but it's still a highly admirable story and one worth reading.

[Mel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Maria Katsonis's story of growing up in Melbourne will resonate with many children of migrants. She details her life from childhood, being an overachiever, a student at Harvard and her struggle with mental illness. Well written, though provoking and a really good read.

[Pen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyed reading about Maria’s experience with depression and how she lives with it.

[Hayley (hayleys.little.library) · Rating 2 out of 5]

this memoir was challenging for me to read. I really admire Maria’s strength with all that she achieved while studying at Harvard and battling her mental health. My heart broke for her when she dealt with mental health, dealing with self identity and coming out, family problems and grief. I really recommend this to anyone that wants to read a memoir about someone enduring great hardship. 2/5 stars🌟

[Tania Chandler · Rating 5 out of 5]

Compelling, well structured, great writing and a very moving story. And the family and food! Nicely done.

[Amra Pajalic · Rating 4 out of 5]

Maria Katsonis is the child of Greek migrant parents. She spent her whole life being a high achiever, for herself and to make up for her parent's sacrifice in coming to Australia. At 39 she decides on a public service career and is accepted into a prestigious Masters program at Harvard University. Fast forward five years later and she is diagnosed with clinical depression and is a psychiatric patient.

Maria's story is particularly poignant as it shows everyone is vulnerable to being a victim of a mental illness. All that it takes is that the pressure of life is turned up too high, a few too many of life's curve balls, and the floodgates crumble.

i was humbled by Maria's honesty in writing about her life, her illness, and her acceptance of this new identity as a sufferer of a chronic mental illness. One in five people will be diagnosed with a mental illness in their lifetime and we need more people with Maria's bravery to share their stories and demystify this condition.

[Catherine Davison · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hmmm, I really wanted to like this book, I appreciate the writer's attempt to "smash the stigma" and tell a no holds barred story about her own experience with depression. The descriptions of growing up in Bambra Road Caufield in the 70s and going to Melbourne Uni in the eighties, coming out to her parents all of that resonated with my own experiences. I found it interesting but only the facts of the telling, not the style of writing, it lacks sophistication.I smiled later on in the book as I recognised women I know from my own theatre days, but again this is just mildly interesting and the type of material one might read on a blog or on a Facebook page. I just wanted more tension, more artistry; it was too pedestrian and it felt like listening to a very self centred person talking incessantly about herself. It was in fact, quite boring, it needed more. I wouldn't recommend it.

[Simon · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fascinating story of overcoming so many challenges - after reading this very well written story I feel I have learnt so much about the challenge of going thru mental illness (although I started from a very ignorant position), and the challenges faced by children who live very different lives to their traditional parents, but still feel the strong pull of family and duty. An ultimately uplifting story but hard going at times as Maria confronts tough times. Fantastic and brave book. Definitely going to recommend it for my all-male book club.

[Rania T · Rating 5 out of 5]

Intelligently written, raw and emotionally honest. Maria Katsonis' memoir breaks the stigma of mental illness and the suppression that surrounds it, especially in multicultural backgrounds, in her case, Greek. That she has survived the many highs and lows in her life, bears testament that her story is one that needed to be told to help not only those with mental illness, but those from traditional backgrounds that follow an unconventional path in life.

[Sammy · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lot of people will have different opinions on what this book is truly about. For me... It was relatable. Maria's memoir of her struggles through mental health is a true reminder to us all that the "darkness does not define you" as a person and "from vulnerability comes strength". Overall well written and a good insight to the struggles as she mentioned 1in 5 people face.

[Anna Bucci · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book held me spellbound from beginning to end. Well written and thought provoking, Maria's experience resonates with me, both as a child of the European diaspora and a person struggling with family expectations and depression. I will definitely be reading her next book, can't wait!!

[Amanda Witt]

A good ability to laugh at herself after her ordeal, and time in a psychiatric hospital after hitting rock bottom with depression. Then Maria decided to be honest with her work colleagues, and nearly every one had a story about someone they know who's experienced a condition like it.

[Heather Ellis · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very readable book. I read this on the recommendation of a friend saying it was a great example of a well written memoir. And it was. Maria Katsonis takes you to the deeps of her depression and back again. She is an exceptionally talented writer.

[Janice Van · Rating 5 out of 5]

Highly recommended. Beautifully written. I laughed, I cried, I was inspired.

[Gogo Reads · Rating 5 out of 5]

What an emotionally consuming read! The Good Greek Girl is moving and edifying. Finished it in two sittings. Loved it. #smashthestigma

[Sky Mykyta · Rating 3 out of 5]

A worthy read. #smashthestigma