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God Forgets About the Poor
SHORTLISTED FOR THE NSW PREMIER'S LITERARY AWARDS
LONGLISTED FOR THE INDIE BOOK AWARD FOR FICTION 2024
‘A stand out amongst contemporary Australian literary fiction for its stylistic and structural ambition, God Forgets About the Poor is the novel Polites has been climbing to. It is moving, poetic, powerful - at once a folktale and a modern day lament. Christos Tsiolkas meets Gabriel Garcia Marquez.’ - Maxine Beneba Clarke, bestselling and award winning author of Foreign Soil and The Hate Race
‘In God Forgets About the Poor, Polites has produced a masterpiece.’ - ArtsHub
‘a triumphant reclamation, written in prose clean as polished stones’ - The Saturday Paper
‘God Forgets About the Poor feels like a culmination; it’s the author’s most striking work yet.’ - The Guardian
‘an important literary achievement’ - The Conversation
‘God Forgets About the Poor is a reminder that everyone has a story worth telling and hearing, but not everyone gets the chance to share it. This is one told well.’ - Books + Publishing
I will tell you why you should draft my story. Because migrant stories are broken. Some parts in a village where we washed our clothing with soot. Some parts in big cities working in factories. How we starved for food in Greece and starved for Greece in Australia.
You don’t know the first thing about me. A son can never see his mother as a woman. You will only see me in relation to you. I have had a thousand lives before you were even a thought. Hospitalised as a child for an entire year. Living as an adult without family in Athens when the colonels took control.
Start when I was born. Describe the village and how beautiful it was. On the side of a mountain but in the middle of a forest. If we walked to a certain point on the edge, we could look over the valley and see rain clouds coming. Sometimes we would see a cat on a roof, we read that as a warning of a storm. When we looked down, we saw the dirt, which was just as rich as the sky. My island, your island, our island.
Sometimes I think God forgot about us because we were poor.
A stunning new novel from the author of Down the Hume and The Pillars, God Forgets About the Poor is a love story to a migrant mother, whose story is as important as any ever told.
PRAISE FOR GOD FORGETS ABOUT THE
‘Polites brings to light his mother’s story, a migrant woman who has lived a number of lives, surely a common story in the Greek community, and while the title suggests god may forget about the poor, Polites wants to make sure the world does not.’ - Neos Kosmos
‘It is an exquisite mode for the diaspora story, a genre that is increasingly losing its meaningfulness in a time of its commodification. In God Forgets About the Poor, the old country is dead, yet it continues to live vividly in migrants' memories even as they evolve amongst future generations.’ - ABC Arts - The Bookshelf
‘Peter Polites is also sensitive to the ways in which migrant stories can be reduced, stereotyped and consumed in mainstream publishing
LONGLISTED FOR THE INDIE BOOK AWARD FOR FICTION 2024
‘A stand out amongst contemporary Australian literary fiction for its stylistic and structural ambition, God Forgets About the Poor is the novel Polites has been climbing to. It is moving, poetic, powerful - at once a folktale and a modern day lament. Christos Tsiolkas meets Gabriel Garcia Marquez.’ - Maxine Beneba Clarke, bestselling and award winning author of Foreign Soil and The Hate Race
‘In God Forgets About the Poor, Polites has produced a masterpiece.’ - ArtsHub
‘a triumphant reclamation, written in prose clean as polished stones’ - The Saturday Paper
‘God Forgets About the Poor feels like a culmination; it’s the author’s most striking work yet.’ - The Guardian
‘an important literary achievement’ - The Conversation
‘God Forgets About the Poor is a reminder that everyone has a story worth telling and hearing, but not everyone gets the chance to share it. This is one told well.’ - Books + Publishing
I will tell you why you should draft my story. Because migrant stories are broken. Some parts in a village where we washed our clothing with soot. Some parts in big cities working in factories. How we starved for food in Greece and starved for Greece in Australia.
You don’t know the first thing about me. A son can never see his mother as a woman. You will only see me in relation to you. I have had a thousand lives before you were even a thought. Hospitalised as a child for an entire year. Living as an adult without family in Athens when the colonels took control.
Start when I was born. Describe the village and how beautiful it was. On the side of a mountain but in the middle of a forest. If we walked to a certain point on the edge, we could look over the valley and see rain clouds coming. Sometimes we would see a cat on a roof, we read that as a warning of a storm. When we looked down, we saw the dirt, which was just as rich as the sky. My island, your island, our island.
Sometimes I think God forgot about us because we were poor.
A stunning new novel from the author of Down the Hume and The Pillars, God Forgets About the Poor is a love story to a migrant mother, whose story is as important as any ever told.
PRAISE FOR GOD FORGETS ABOUT THE
‘Polites brings to light his mother’s story, a migrant woman who has lived a number of lives, surely a common story in the Greek community, and while the title suggests god may forget about the poor, Polites wants to make sure the world does not.’ - Neos Kosmos
‘It is an exquisite mode for the diaspora story, a genre that is increasingly losing its meaningfulness in a time of its commodification. In God Forgets About the Poor, the old country is dead, yet it continues to live vividly in migrants' memories even as they evolve amongst future generations.’ - ABC Arts - The Bookshelf
‘Peter Polites is also sensitive to the ways in which migrant stories can be reduced, stereotyped and consumed in mainstream publishing
- GenresFictionContemporary
257 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2023
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 38 reviews
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August 25, 2023I really wanted to like this one, but found the writing dense and mostly not understandable. DNF at 25%. Second library ebook not finished this week.
October 7, 2023
Really beautiful writing but the last chapter kind of ruined it for me, and the format made it somewhat confusing and annoying to follow the story.
August 31, 2024
I'm always next to you in times of crisis. Big and dramatic and gay moments. I am always driving you places... I reminded you that you told me you didn't know if God exists. You look beyond the window. Outside was darkness. You could have told me there was a little village out there with a family. Or that outside was Athens, and a young woman was coming out of girlhood. You could have told me there was a hospital bed and I would've believed you. You wondered if indeed you ever told me that. You then said, with the easiest breath, sometimes I think God forgot about us because we were poor.
this was so good. a sons complicated love letter to his immigrant mother, and her origins, and her impact on her family. i will always appreciate a book that can so intimately captures the life and experience of people through snapshots into memory.
You can't keep writing your gay things. And a son writing a story about his mother is not a gay thing.
This isn't a long book but you feel the full grasp of the author's mothers life, and her mother's life, and the authors own life alongside his sister. Polites takes you on a journey that really does encapsulate a lot about the migrant experience and what life is like in parts of Sydney I grew up in.
This country tricked people into thinking they loved multiculturalism... the way this country doesn't understand women is the way they don't understand migrants.
Anyways here are quote that sit with me. No spoilers.
Greeks can't say horrible things about the dead. But we do it anyway and then say God protect and keep her. She was a horrible woman, a terrible mother and possibly a witch. May God protect and keep her.
She thought of the three boys in the snow and ice, exercise turning their cheeks pink, how she loved those boys, for that was what they were - boys that had not yet become horrible men.
...You know, sometimes living next to the ocean just makes you conservative. Like the people in Australia.
and thank you to gub for getting me this book, her recommendations don't fail me ever. and shoutout roselands shopping centre. and also shoutout the reference to Medea because one thing about me i dont play about my girl Medea.
June 5, 2024
I feel like the one star comes from my internal disappointment. This book, this storyline had so much potential but imo the execution fell flat.
August 29, 2023
- thanks to @ultimopress for a #gifted copy of this book in exchange for my honest review
I had the pleasure of meeting Peter at his launch at @betterreadbookshop and am very glad for the opportunity. In fact, hearing Peter talk about his book made me re-think my experience with it completely.
Even though God Forgets About the Poor is Fiction, it is about Peter's family. At his launch, I asked him why he classified his book as a novel instead of Non-Fiction, given that his characters are based on real people (including their names). He told me that, for him, Non-Fiction should be a category only for academic/educational texts. I find this utterly fascinating because once I discovered that the book is based on his family (and actual conversations with his mother, for example), I appreciated the book way more—a personal preference and feeling, of course.
Structure-wise, the novel is ambitious and challenging. The book is divided into seven parts, each focusing on different characters at different times of their lives. Some parts are written in first person, second person and third person. Although I understand the reasons behind these creative choices, I had difficulties adjusting to the different perspectives and maintaining the flow of the narrative, even though switching POVs gives each character remarkable depth.
Regardless of my preferences, this novel has a lot to enjoy. Although a bit dense and demanding at times, Peter's writing works like a time machine, effortlessly transporting the reader to situations, places and people. I loved the exploration of migration, especially the woman in Peter's family who migrated to Australia. I also really appreciated the nuanced commentary on intergenerational trauma and the focus on the unique diaspora experiences.
Overall, God Forgets About the Poor is a novel embedded in truth and authentic experiences from voices that need to be heard. An excellent choice for readers looking into learning more about the realities of migrants and an unmissable option for any Greeks, of course!
I had the pleasure of meeting Peter at his launch at @betterreadbookshop and am very glad for the opportunity. In fact, hearing Peter talk about his book made me re-think my experience with it completely.
Even though God Forgets About the Poor is Fiction, it is about Peter's family. At his launch, I asked him why he classified his book as a novel instead of Non-Fiction, given that his characters are based on real people (including their names). He told me that, for him, Non-Fiction should be a category only for academic/educational texts. I find this utterly fascinating because once I discovered that the book is based on his family (and actual conversations with his mother, for example), I appreciated the book way more—a personal preference and feeling, of course.
Structure-wise, the novel is ambitious and challenging. The book is divided into seven parts, each focusing on different characters at different times of their lives. Some parts are written in first person, second person and third person. Although I understand the reasons behind these creative choices, I had difficulties adjusting to the different perspectives and maintaining the flow of the narrative, even though switching POVs gives each character remarkable depth.
Regardless of my preferences, this novel has a lot to enjoy. Although a bit dense and demanding at times, Peter's writing works like a time machine, effortlessly transporting the reader to situations, places and people. I loved the exploration of migration, especially the woman in Peter's family who migrated to Australia. I also really appreciated the nuanced commentary on intergenerational trauma and the focus on the unique diaspora experiences.
Overall, God Forgets About the Poor is a novel embedded in truth and authentic experiences from voices that need to be heard. An excellent choice for readers looking into learning more about the realities of migrants and an unmissable option for any Greeks, of course!
July 4, 2023
I have been lucky enough to read an advance copy, and while it may vary from the final publication, no corrections to the text will alter the brilliance of this novel. I’ve read his other books so I’m already a fan, and I cherished every word of this one. Polities writes with a piercing self awareness and vulnerability and he has a knack for well-timed allusion that is very entertaining. In ‘God forgets about the poor’ he captures the migrant experience of straddling two worlds and the struggle to live in the present without forgetting the past. He takes a look at how siblings can experience their mother differently and how that difference is sometimes gendered. It’s a story of mothers and women and inter generational trauma with a side of social commentary and lot of love.
September 22, 2023
This book is delicately written and utterly brilliant. It really dissects and unpacks the working class experience of Greek migrant families in Australia in ways I've never truly been able to unpack personally.
Special mention of the vivid description of my primary school which caught me absolutely off guard.
Special mention of the vivid description of my primary school which caught me absolutely off guard.
September 12, 2023
This is an absolute triumph by Peter Polites. Incredible, beautiful writing.
January 22, 2024
I enjoyed this book. It was impressive to see how the author managed to encapsulate the position of migrant trying to live these two lives. Three stars as the ending lost me a bit.
August 31, 2024
characters felt a bit trope-y, which is a little odd for a memoir. narrative heaved and fell at inappropriate times i felt
August 17, 2023
review to follow!
January 8, 2024
Got onto this one from the ABC radio podcast, The Bookshelf, and really enjoyed it. It's a novel based on his mum's life. She wanted him to write it warts and all and he's certainly done that. From the Greek island of Lefkada we get the history of the hardship of life that you never see as a tourist. Through war, tragedy, food shortages and economic hardship to a life in Australia, you get an appreciation of what immigrants of that age went through. Did peter out a bit at the end but mostly engaging throughout.
December 28, 2023
I love the idea that everybody has a story worth telling and hearing, but not everybody has the opportunity or audience to share it with. Peter Polites movingly captures his mother’s story in God Forgets About The Poor, a story who worth sharing but would have been unheard if not for Polites taking creative liberties with his mother’s biography.
Polites gives a raw and moving account of his mother, Honoured’s, life story, detailing her birth in a quaint, poor village in upon a Greek island to her challenges migrating to Australia and raising a family as an immigrant woman. Much of the story resonated with me, as a second generation Australian woman with Greek migrant grandparents, who’s parents and myself grew up in western Sydney: the diasporic nostalgia, migrant melancholia, the struggles and challenges adapting to a new life, being caught between two worlds. One line really struck me and has stuck with me: “How we starved for food in Greece, and starved for Greece in Australia”. This is something I’ve heard countless times from my own migrant grandparents and felt as authentic as sunlight.
Despite the relatable tugging at my heartstrings, I did not enjoy the execution of this novel. Polites writes well and richly details the Greek-Australian migrant experience, but his prose is overly lyrical and descriptive for descriptions sake. I also didn’t feel the need for Resurrection and All Holy’s chapters to be told from their perspective. I can understand why Polites chose to do this but I feel it detracted from Honoured’s story. Paragraphs are long and chapters drag with irrelevant detail. Much of the writing is monologue and this can work for some books, but in God Forgets About The Poor it feels like a constant running train of thought and regurgitates onto the page. The paragraphs are long and the chapters endless, stuffed with irrelevant detail. Despite this, the plot hardly moves.
Perhaps Polites is too self indulgent with God Forgets About The Poor? There were many moments of quiet chuckling as I understood his references perfectly, yet I often did wonder how someone without my cultural background would understand and follow these details. There were no footnotes or authors note at the end to explain many of the cultural references made in the story, so I assume readers would be confused and a little annoyed by this, that’s if they persevered with the book.
Polites gives a raw and moving account of his mother, Honoured’s, life story, detailing her birth in a quaint, poor village in upon a Greek island to her challenges migrating to Australia and raising a family as an immigrant woman. Much of the story resonated with me, as a second generation Australian woman with Greek migrant grandparents, who’s parents and myself grew up in western Sydney: the diasporic nostalgia, migrant melancholia, the struggles and challenges adapting to a new life, being caught between two worlds. One line really struck me and has stuck with me: “How we starved for food in Greece, and starved for Greece in Australia”. This is something I’ve heard countless times from my own migrant grandparents and felt as authentic as sunlight.
Despite the relatable tugging at my heartstrings, I did not enjoy the execution of this novel. Polites writes well and richly details the Greek-Australian migrant experience, but his prose is overly lyrical and descriptive for descriptions sake. I also didn’t feel the need for Resurrection and All Holy’s chapters to be told from their perspective. I can understand why Polites chose to do this but I feel it detracted from Honoured’s story. Paragraphs are long and chapters drag with irrelevant detail. Much of the writing is monologue and this can work for some books, but in God Forgets About The Poor it feels like a constant running train of thought and regurgitates onto the page. The paragraphs are long and the chapters endless, stuffed with irrelevant detail. Despite this, the plot hardly moves.
Perhaps Polites is too self indulgent with God Forgets About The Poor? There were many moments of quiet chuckling as I understood his references perfectly, yet I often did wonder how someone without my cultural background would understand and follow these details. There were no footnotes or authors note at the end to explain many of the cultural references made in the story, so I assume readers would be confused and a little annoyed by this, that’s if they persevered with the book.
January 7, 2024
4.5 stars - a great book to kick off 2024
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Synopsis
Honoured Peasant is born in Greece in the late 1940s, where she lives until her mid-20s. Honoured later migrates to Australia, where she lives her adult life. She works as a teachers of the Greek language, and as an assistant at the local library. Honoured, together with her husband, raises two children in Australia.
Save for the occasional deviation (usually to reflect and/or provide context), the book is a complete chronology of Honoured's life, from her birth in 1940s-post-WWII-Greece, to Australia in 2022.
Naming convention
Characters are not given traditional names, they are instead named according to their role, virtues, circumstances of birth, place in society, and/or relationship with another character. Notably, the protagonist, is Honoured Peasant during her time in Greece, but her name changes to Honoured Citizen upon moving to Australia.
I found the use of this convention a little grating, due to the inconsistency with which it was applied. Whilst it was consistent in the sense that every character was given this style of non-traditional name; the way in which the names were given was inconsistent and, at some times, messy. Compared to Milkman by Anna Burns, which adopts a similar naming convention, but in a more consistent manner (Milkman, Brother, Mother, Neighbour), I felt this could have been done a little better in God Forgets About The Poor.
Prose
I would describe the prose as poetic and efficient, which I loved. I note there are some reviews that suggest the prose was 'overly descriptive'; or 'descriptive for description's sake' - I didn't feel this way; I felt the prose was perfect for it's purpose and contributed significantly to making this a wonderful book.
Reflections on themes - gender, religion, socio-economics
I have spoken about these themes and how they played out in the book on my TikTok: @lachreading - would love for you to have a watch.
My Full Review of God Forgets About The Poor
---
Synopsis
Honoured Peasant is born in Greece in the late 1940s, where she lives until her mid-20s. Honoured later migrates to Australia, where she lives her adult life. She works as a teachers of the Greek language, and as an assistant at the local library. Honoured, together with her husband, raises two children in Australia.
Save for the occasional deviation (usually to reflect and/or provide context), the book is a complete chronology of Honoured's life, from her birth in 1940s-post-WWII-Greece, to Australia in 2022.
Naming convention
Characters are not given traditional names, they are instead named according to their role, virtues, circumstances of birth, place in society, and/or relationship with another character. Notably, the protagonist, is Honoured Peasant during her time in Greece, but her name changes to Honoured Citizen upon moving to Australia.
I found the use of this convention a little grating, due to the inconsistency with which it was applied. Whilst it was consistent in the sense that every character was given this style of non-traditional name; the way in which the names were given was inconsistent and, at some times, messy. Compared to Milkman by Anna Burns, which adopts a similar naming convention, but in a more consistent manner (Milkman, Brother, Mother, Neighbour), I felt this could have been done a little better in God Forgets About The Poor.
Prose
I would describe the prose as poetic and efficient, which I loved. I note there are some reviews that suggest the prose was 'overly descriptive'; or 'descriptive for description's sake' - I didn't feel this way; I felt the prose was perfect for it's purpose and contributed significantly to making this a wonderful book.
Reflections on themes - gender, religion, socio-economics
I have spoken about these themes and how they played out in the book on my TikTok: @lachreading - would love for you to have a watch.
My Full Review of God Forgets About The Poor
May 28, 2024
‘Start when I was born.’
In a novel which unfolds over seven parts, shifting between Greece and Australia, between mother, son and daughter, and across time between the 1940s and the 2020s, Mr Polites tells his mother’s story.
‘What do you mean it’s not interesting? People will want my story. My god. I sound like one of those wogs that used to come into the library asking where they tell their story. You know, they publish their own books. But my story is unique. I promise.’
While it is a truism that all stories are unique, this novel took me into a world of which I have little direct experience. Those who migrate are torn between two countries and cultures. One country is left but never forgotten, another is entered but often never home. In this novel, the mother, Honoured Citizen, has lived several lives both in Greece and in Australia. She reminds her son that while he knows her as mother, she has had other lives. And gently, gradually, those lives unfold.
I am taken to a village in Greece, to a home in which children are born (and sometimes die), and where Honoured Citizen herself had to spend a year in hospital as a child. How hard that must have been, for her and her family. We follow her story through adulthood, migration to Australia, marriage and children, until 2022, when Honoured Citizen is ill in hospital. There are overlaps between her story and those of her son, All Holy Citizen and her daughter, Resurrection Citizen. I read and wonder. And occasionally, I slip out of the novel to think of the past, of the many lives of others I have known. I feel invited to consider and contemplate, to recognise the journeys made by those who come before us. I am chastened, remembering the questions I meant to ask of my own family members, questions to which I can no longer expect answers.
I loved the first part of this novel and was gradually drawn into the balance. Yes, an interesting story.
Recommended.
Jennifer Cameron-Smith
In a novel which unfolds over seven parts, shifting between Greece and Australia, between mother, son and daughter, and across time between the 1940s and the 2020s, Mr Polites tells his mother’s story.
‘What do you mean it’s not interesting? People will want my story. My god. I sound like one of those wogs that used to come into the library asking where they tell their story. You know, they publish their own books. But my story is unique. I promise.’
While it is a truism that all stories are unique, this novel took me into a world of which I have little direct experience. Those who migrate are torn between two countries and cultures. One country is left but never forgotten, another is entered but often never home. In this novel, the mother, Honoured Citizen, has lived several lives both in Greece and in Australia. She reminds her son that while he knows her as mother, she has had other lives. And gently, gradually, those lives unfold.
I am taken to a village in Greece, to a home in which children are born (and sometimes die), and where Honoured Citizen herself had to spend a year in hospital as a child. How hard that must have been, for her and her family. We follow her story through adulthood, migration to Australia, marriage and children, until 2022, when Honoured Citizen is ill in hospital. There are overlaps between her story and those of her son, All Holy Citizen and her daughter, Resurrection Citizen. I read and wonder. And occasionally, I slip out of the novel to think of the past, of the many lives of others I have known. I feel invited to consider and contemplate, to recognise the journeys made by those who come before us. I am chastened, remembering the questions I meant to ask of my own family members, questions to which I can no longer expect answers.
I loved the first part of this novel and was gradually drawn into the balance. Yes, an interesting story.
Recommended.
Jennifer Cameron-Smith
March 13, 2024
There's something geological about this novel about a woman. Perhaps is the the crumbling limestone of the Greek island of Lefkada where she is born. Perhaps it is the sense of deep and ancient forces turning, of vast histories coming down the ages. It begins in 2021 in Sydney with a mother instructing her son how to write her story. “Try and write something good this time,” she says, “You can’t keep writing your gay things,” drawing a parallel with the person she is talking to and author Peter Polites, whose two previous novels are very gay things. Over this first chapter, which unfolds as continuous speech with the occasional interjection to berate her son, the woman urges him to start with her birth and follow the passage of her life as she migrates to Australia, marries and raises two children. Read more on my blog.
September 27, 2023
This book is overly descriptive to the point where a lot of the text was purely irrelevant detail which added nothing apart from lots of words that filled space. The plot never explains anything of importance but instead focuses on the stream of consciousness of inner thoughts of the particularity unlikeable Honoured. Her thinking remains deeply provincial despite her education and she is a judgmental and unlikeable character. This book mistakes histrionics for plot and constantly jumps from one thought and time period to another making it confusing and impossible to follow. Incompressible and dull.
March 24, 2024
Three and a half stars is my rating The author has a astute way of describing how his mother feels about ‘the vanity of some men and how they love to communicate with the sound of their own voice; who think a real man should talk proudly and not listen’.
The story of Honoured, the mother, tells how history and heritage and fate shape the family story and the bonds that tie through the generations.
The story of Honoured, the mother, tells how history and heritage and fate shape the family story and the bonds that tie through the generations.
Read
April 16, 2024I really enjoyed the stories within this story - important stories to be told about the migrant experience, homeland and connection. I also liked the invitation to think more deeply about the inter generational impact of leaving one’s home country. The book has the feel of a memoir to it, which I really liked, and it is funny and clever in the way that Polites sets up his characters, but I feel like the writer has a little way to go in bringing the separate narratives together.
December 31, 2023
Hi, this is my first time to gave a review (short review actually) like this. Back then, i read this book in English ver and it made me difficult to understand what the author tryna to tell. So…. i couldn’t finish the book until the end. :( sorry.
June 21, 2024
Not sure how I feel about this book. I found the style interesting but difficult to read and comprehend. It seemed to be a cathartic release for the author and did give the reader some insight into the life of an immigrant
June 30, 2024
I have mixed feelings about this one. I really wanted to like "God Forgets About The Poor" but, while it does offer insights into the immigrant experience, it left me feeling disappointed and a bit frustrated.
October 2, 2023
I really thought I’d like this one. Bloated and overwrought. Here and there little parts managed to break through but overall very forgettable.
October 7, 2023
Gave up at about 75% (only got that far because it was a book club selection). Mostly told in the third person, which limits any emotional connection. Very dense writing style.
November 1, 2023
Não tenho nem palavras, esse livro foi incrível.
November 18, 2023
Not for me DNF
Read
December 6, 2023v. fine
March 24, 2024
painfully overwritten, good lord
March 27, 2024
3.5 ⭐️
Displaying 1 - 30 of 38 reviews