The Fall of Athens reflects the bleak state of present-day Athens and reminds the reader that there is nothing new about Greece's suffering. Combining present observations with portraits of the Greek musicians and writers, Holst-Warhaft's book is both a peon of praise for the music and poetry that the author first discovered in the Greece of the 1960's, and a reminder of how much the country has changed since it returned to democracy in 1974. Having played in the orchestras of such legends as Mikis Theodorakis and Dionysis Savvopoulos, the author had a bird's eye view of 20th century Greek...