User Reviews
Rating: really liked it
This is the book. The best book for me. I don't say it's the best book for everyone. But for me, it is my mainstay, my main man, my mainsail. Kazantzakis has made a work of stunning genius. Simple. Funny. And true as Zorba. I first read this book when I had leukemia and was being poisoned by chemo for one solid week--24 hours a day of it for one week, and this book kept me sane and my heart pure.
It's about life. How does one live it. How does one deal with the vicissitudes of it. The tragedies. the failures. Does one stand on the sidelines of life and never jump in? does one fear getting married or fear having children or fear doing any activity that could fail or come to naught? Zorba tells us what to do. And in the end, when the whole bloody mess comes falling down around us, and all our plans and schemes are for naught, what do you do? Dance. Dance as hard and as wild as you can. Spit and fume and sing and smash your heels into the dirt. And laugh at it all. the absurdity of worry and wondering. The joy of just "being" and "doing".
This book is a philosophy and a trip back into time. When the mechanistic and material world had not such a hold on our Western minds. When things were simple. If a beautiful woman wants you, you go to her. You go to her. You! Go..... to her! It is an insult to life and the gods not to.
And see the movie. It is truly one of the few movies that captures a novel precisely. And Anthony Quinn will be remembered through the ages for his Zorba. when you and I are dust, they who will be the living will still be watching him dance.
Rating: really liked it
Βίος και Πολιτεία του Αλέξη = Víos kai Politeía tou Aléxē Zorbá = Life and Times of Alexis Zorbas = Zorba the Greek, Nikos Kazantzakis, Νίκος ΚαζαντζάκηςZorba the Greek, is a novel written by the Cretan author Nikos Kazantzakis, first published in 1946.
It is the tale of a young Greek intellectual who ventures to escape his bookish life with the aid of the boisterous and mysterious Alexis Zorba.
The novel was adapted into a successful 1964 film of the same name by Michael Cacoyannis as well as a 1968 musical, Zorba.
تاریخ نخستین خوانش: ماه ژوئن سال 1980 میلادی
عنوان: زوربای یونانی؛ نویسنده: نیکوس کازانتزاکیس؛ مترجم: تیمور صفری؛ تهران، امیرکبیر، 1347، در 398ص؛ چاپ دوم 1357؛ در 362ص؛ چاپ دیگر تهران، زرین قلم، 1379؛ در 362ص؛ شابک 9647026098؛ چاپ بعدی، جامی، علمی فرهنگی، 1383؛ در 398ص؛ چاپ سوم امیر کبیر، 1394، در 407ص؛ شابک 9789640017890؛ موضوع داستانهای نویسندگان یونان - سده ی 20م
عنوان: زوربای یونانی؛ نویسنده: نیکوس کازانتزاکیس؛ مترجم: محمود مصاحب؛ تهران، شبنم؛ 1357 ؛ در 458ص؛ چاپ دوم 1361؛ چاپ دیگر تهران، نگاه، 1357، چاپ دیگر 1363؛ چاپ بعدی 1384؛ در 519ص؛ چاپ دیگر تهران، چکاوک؛ 1377؛ چاپ دیگر 1387؛ شابک9789648957150؛
عنوان: زوربای یونانی؛ نویسنده: نیکوس کازانتزاکیس؛ مترجم محمد قاضی؛ 1357؛ در 438ص؛ چاپ دیگر تهران، خوارزمی، 1384؛ در 417ص؛ شابک9644870424؛ چاپ دیگر خوارزمی، 1389، در 438ص؛ شابک 9789644871184؛
مترجم: محمدصادق سبط الشیخ؛ تهران، تلاش، 1391، در 430ص؛ شابک 9786005791457؛
کتاب را، جنابان آقایان: «تیمور صفری»، «محمود مصاحب»، و «محمد قاضی»، ترجمه، و انتشاراتیهای: «امیرکبیر»، «نگاه»، «جامی» و «خوارزمی»، آنرا بارها منتشر نموده اند.؛
نخست، نواری نود دقیقه ای داشتم، از آهنگ فیلم، که در نخستین سالهای دهه ی پنجاه، از سده ی چهاردهم هجری خورشیدی، خریده بودم، دیالوگها، با صدای «آنتونی کوئین»، همراه با آهنگ بود
فیلم دوبله شده به فارسی را، در سال 1358هجری خورشیدی، در «سینما بلوار تهران» دیدم، صحنه ها، مرا به یاد همان دیالوگهای انگلیسی «آنتونی کوئین» انداخت، که در نوار کاستی ضبط بود و هماره به آن نوار در منزل گوش میدادم؛ تا صدای آن موسیقی و آن دیالوگ به فارسی را شنیدم انگار در تاریکی، از روی صندلی خویش پرواز کردم، انگار در هوا بودم؛ پس از آن روز بود، که کتابش را نیز پیدا نمودم، و یادمانهای آن نوار، دوباره برایم زنده شد
نوشته هایم را باز هم دزدیده اند و پاکسازی کرده اند، دوست دارند، جمله هایم را بی معنی جلوه دهند، به هر کدام از ریویوها که مینگرم، با آنچه در ذهنم است ناآشنا و غریبه به دیده هایم مینشینند
تاریخ بهنگام رسانی 26/05/1399هجری خورشیدی؛ ا. شربیانی
Rating: really liked it
I'm glad I read this book so that in the future I can tell people just how awful it is.
Of course I've heard of the author's reputation, along with that of the movie version of the book, so I was very eager to read and savor this book to find out exactly how wonderful it really was.
Here's my summary: privileged, naval-gazing student meets presumptuous windbag, believes him to be answer to his navel-gazing problems, women are denigrated left and right, reader is left awed at how this ever became popular.
Really, it just is astonishingly bad to contemporary sensibilities. Maybe when this was first published in 1946 (then in English in 1951/2) it was a breath of fresh air narrative, but whatever was hailed as inspiring or positive about the Zorba character has, 65 years later, been lost to time and he's now reduced to a caricature of someone who is so chauvinistic that nothing is redeemable at all, even if one or two of the things he says are aphorism worthy.
But the other 99.9% isn't worth anything. Want to know what his views on women are? They're weak, they don't know anything, they're easily won over if you grab their breasts (really!), all a woman needs is a man between her legs (especially if they're widows!), and in fact they're happy and grateful and melt if any man gives them any attention (which they should be grateful for because, really, men are doing them a favor). And so on. For 300 pages.
One woman's emotions are played with for the main characters' amusement, but that's okay because she's just an old whore who should be happy to have any attention at all since she's just an old, fat lady (who's described as such in a hundred different ways, every other adjective involving an animal in some way).
Another women is beheaded (her HEAD is CUT OFF and thrown into a church courtyard!) because she basically refused a man's attention and everyone in the town is okay with it because it was the right thing to do. The narrator bravely deals with it by saying it was justified since a thousand years ago it was okay, so never mind that it happened just now! in front of his eyes!
The book is just a terrible mess of male-centered egocentricity. And really, the whole subplot with the "Sodomite" monk killing another monk and getting away with it is strange since the most intimate scenes and relationships happen between men. Was it meant to condemn homosexual relations? Was it meant to condemn the religious community for allowing the murder and abuse to occur? Are the terrible people who inhabit the village to be exalted or reviled by the reader? Is someone really supposed to find Zorba's zeal for life inspiring (as long as you forget all the bad stuff he says and does, including raping women!).
Truly awful.
Rating: really liked it
I finally read this after it was in my TBR pile for many years. I’m glad I did as it is a pretty good read. I’ll structure the review in terms of themes.
A wealthy young man (thirtyish), whom Zorba calls ‘boss,’ hires Zorba to run his coal mine and tree harvesting business on the Greek island of Crete. Zorba not only runs the entire business and the hiring and supervision but even the financing as well as doing physical labor.
“I looked at Zorba in the light of the moon and admired the jauntiness and simplicity with which he adapted himself to the world around him, the way his body and soul formed one harmonious whole, and all things - women, bread, water, meat, sleep – blended happily with his flesh and became Zorba. I had never seen such a friendly accord between a man and the universe.”
“He [Zorba] interrogates himself with the same amazement when he sees a man, a tree in blossom, a glass of cold water. Zorba sees everything every day as if for the first time.”
Zorba has traveled all over the world. He has a wife and children somewhere. As a former soldier, he has killed Turks in Greece and Bulgars in the Balkans. Now that he is over 60 his specialty is widows. Anywhere he travels he will find a widow who will take him in. He is the epitome of a man with a lust for life -wine, women, song, dance, hard work.
The younger man simply reads all day. He’s an aficionado of Buddhist philosophy and dreams of establishing a community of scholars and artists – musicians, poets, painters - a commune - who will live together, do art and discuss philosophy. He and Zorba drink lots of wine and they have a bonfire on the beach almost every night roasting chickens, suckling pigs and chestnuts. They eat figs, fruits, onions, honeyed olives.
Of course Buddhism, the losing of yourself, is the exact opposite world view of Zorba who has such lust for life. The main character tells Zorba: “Buddha is the ‘pure’ soul which has emptied itself; in him is the void, he is the Void. “Empty your body, empty your spirit, empty your heart!” he cries. Wherever he sets his foot, water no longer flows, no grass can grow, no child be born.” They constantly discuss their contrasting philosophies but fail to connect them.
Here’s Zorba’s take on God: “God enjoys himself, kills, commits injustice, makes love, works, likes impossible things, just the same as I do. He eats what he pleases; takes the woman he chooses… If she’s a good woman they say ‘God has taken her.’ If she’s a harlot, they say: ‘The devil’s carried her off.’ But, boss, I’ve said so before, and I say it again, God and the devil are one and the same thing!”
Misogyny is a main theme. Women are ignorant and a product of the devil. Period. But the men can’t live without them, so what can they do?
There’s a bit of homoeroticism in all this. At the start we learn of the lifelong bond the young man has with a good male friend who is in Africa. They swear love to each other and have an agreement that they will call out telepathically to each other when one dies. The young man and Zorba talk of love and embrace, and Zorba’s role is almost that of a traditional wife. “Dance for me Zorba; play the santuri for me Zorba.” And when Zorba’s widow is not cooking, Zorba barbeques food on the beach and serves the wine. The young man does have a one-night stand with a beautiful widow.
Other than all the misogyny, the village seems idyllic. But toward the middle and end of the book there’s a twist and we see a harsher evil aspect of the village. (view spoiler)
[There’s a murder at the monastery involving the killing of a gay monk. When Zorba‘s widow friend gets ill and dies the people (even the paid old women mourners), start raiding the belongings of her house while she is still suffering on the bed. When a young man falls in love with the young widow (the same one the main character had the affair with), and she refuses his advances, the young man kills himself. The villagers blame the widow and a relative of the young man decapitates her. Others in the village and whatever the law is take no interest in the murder. (hide spoiler)]Some passages I like that also illustrate the writing style:
“In the first light, there he [Zorba] was, gazing into the distance with his lackluster eyes. You could see he was still sunk in a sort of torpor, his temples were not yet freed from sleep. Calmly, fondly, he was letting himself drift on a shady current as thick as honey. The whole universe of earth, water, thoughts and men was slowly drifting toward a distant sea, and Zorba was drifting away with it, unresistingly, unquestioningly, and happy.”
“I slowly worked some tobacco into my pipe and lit it. Everything in this world has a hidden meaning, I thought. Men, animals, trees, stars, they are all hieroglyphics; woe to anyone who begins to decipher them and guess what they mean… When you see them, you do not understand them. You think they are really men, animals, trees, stars. It is only years later, too late, that you understand...”
“In our village we say ‘only stolen meat is tasty.’ ”
“Did you see her?” I asked? “How is she?”
“Nothing wrong with her,” he answered “she’s going to die.”
Many people reading this have seen the 1964 British-Greek comedy-drama film starring Anthony Quinn as Zorba – the highest-grossing film that year.
Well worth a read.
Photos from the top:
A santuri from Wiktionary.org
Stavros Beach in Crete where some of the movie was filmed from creti.co/blog
The author (1883-1957) from benaki.gr
Anthony Quinn as Zorba from AllPosters.com
Rating: really liked it
At the time of the First World War around the year 1916, an event occurred in the busy port of Piraeus, Greece quite ordinary a chance meeting of two utterly different types of men. In a grungy sailor's cafe Alexis Zorba 65, a Greek peasant who's seen it all, done everything imaginable good or evil, chased and caught numerous women killed some men in and out of war, a boisterous vagabond always seeking pleasure, traveling wherever his heart desires, eating , drinking all he can get his hands on. And a bookish quiet intellectual, a countryman with money, unnamed but Zorba calls him "Boss", at 35 looking for something meaningful to do in life, he has a Lignite ( brown coal ) mine on the rather primitive island of Crete, awaiting a ship to take him there ( obviously based on Nikos Kazantzakis, and his friend, Giorgis Zorbas). It doesn't take much persuading by the charismatic Alexis to be taken on the voyage, besides the Boss needs help, an experienced miner and Zorba has been one among the countless jobs he's had. Crete is beautiful has unspoiled sandy beaches, attractive white mountainous terrain, fertile green valleys , small rivers and lakes, also plenty of charming churches and holy monks in monasteries, yet backward customs prevail. In the village by the mine, the poor, uneducated, almost starving people there are glad to see the mine reopened, they desperately required employment. The gregarious Zorba soon has an ancient, lonely, ailing French woman Madame Hortense, ( foreigners are hated here) who owns and runs a battered, small inn fall in love with the always dashing much married , just once legally though man, he likes the ladies. And the intimidating voluptuous "Widow," best looking woman around of course, the villagers hate her too, casting eyes on the Boss he feels both uneasy and excited. The mine is worked hard , vigorous Zorba in command is tireless driving the workers to dig and find the valuable coal, however after a long effort nothing can change facts it is an unprofitable enterprise; maybe timber will be lucrative. ..The tense village hides dark violent secrets, the calm a subterfuge only those who live inside know them. The real reason this book is still read and he easily dominates the story, is the passionate Zorba, naturally such a man...no I take that back Zorba is a spirit , a sweeping wind an uncontrollable force, an enthusiastic flow, an enigma not really human something that is seen but can never be wholly understood no rules apply, this unearthly being emerges, brings energy to where it is acutely needed, then abruptly vanishes...until the next time...and for perpetuity...
Rating: really liked it
I read Zorba the Greek, originally titled Alexis Zorba, by Nikos Kazantzakis as part of my 2017 classic bingo challenge. Considered the 20th century Greek novel most known to American audiences, Zorba chronicles the lives of two unlikely friends as they attempt to build a mining empire in Crete. Later a movie starring Anthony Quinn, Zorba is an impassioned novel detailing Greek culture while also going in depth into the souls of two complex men.
Our narrator first meets Zorba at a tavern in Piraeus. Although he has traveled all over Europe and is about to embark for Crete to begin a mining expedition there, he is known by sailors as a book worm. While his miners toil, the narrator is content pouring over a manuscript or reading the teachings of the Buddha. At first glance it is apparent that he is not well versed in the ways of the world, and, amidst the teasing of his companions, Zorba appears and insists on leading the team of miners. The two set sail for Crete, and both an adventure and deep friendship commence.
While copper mining is the premise for this Greek classic, the novel centers on the title character Zorba as he pours out his soul to the narrator. The two share a meager hut by the beach, and nightly Zorba cooks simple yet hearty meals of fish stew, meat chops, bread, and wine. Over food, dance, music, and a Greek guitar called the santuri, Zorba regales his friend in the ways of the world. He spins captivating yarns about his travels throughout Eurasia and attempts to bring his friend away from books and into the world.
In addition to Zorba's pearls of wisdom, we meet the characters in this remote Cretan village and learn of their way of life. National pride runs high at a time when Crete was a separate nation from Greece, and each country in Macedonia held distrust of her neighbor. Even though Zorba's presence fills a room, villagers are skeptical of him at first because he is Greek, not Cretan. Thus, the miners live away from the village, slowly building rapport with the town elders, all the while regaling each other with the stories of their travels.
Although slow moving at times, I enjoyed learning about early 20th century Greek culture and customs. Centered around a Greek Orthodox calendar, the monastery and church as well as the protagonists' beliefs play a large role in the novel. We are regaled with traditional food, dances, and festivals that may not be well known outside of the Mediterranean. Zorba, even though he is worldly, still appears to be a religious person, and dreams of opening his own monastery together with the narrator. Although he attempts to conquer every woman he encounters including the town siren Dame Hortense, with whom he shares a special relationship, Zorba does not miss church on important festivals, making his a life of contradictions. Despite his and others' treatment of women, I viewed this as normal of the time and place and allowed myself to be swept up in Zorba's tales.
Zorba the Greek merited inclusion on the Boklubben of Norway one hundred classic book list. Sad and wistful at times, it is a beautiful story of a man who is larger than life and an era gone by. The narrator, who appears to be a fictional character based on Kazantzakis' own life, weaves a poignant tale of his and Zorba's lives together as they attempt to conquer Crete. Alexis Zorba appeared as a man larger than life and transported me to another era where time slows down, and people slowly pass time by strumming the santuri while sipping wine and eating halvah. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this Greek classic, and rate it a full, bright 5 stars.
Rating: really liked it
This book was chosen as plan B in my book club. Plan A had been to read The Brothers Karamazov. As I had already read it, I suggested that I would be reading a biography on Dostoyevsky instead Dostoievski. But as life seemed to get somewhat difficult to a couple of members, we thought to shift to a plan B and read something airier. As it was also the beginning of summer, we thought that beautiful Crete would provide some sun and relaxation. And thus, Zorba became the alternative.
It was not quite what we expected. We knew how successful it had been, and the popularity that the film from the mid 1960s with Anthony Quinn had enjoyed.
The book was published much earlier and we all found that we were reading a dated book. Obviously, the misogynist Zorba had to irritate a group of women readers. And the dichotomy between a somewhat disgruntled bookish man seeking light in Buddhism and a down-to-earth man who enjoyed the ‘here-and-now’ better than any Orientalist maxims could invoke, did not succeed in increasing a closer appreciation of the novel. May be in the 1940s and 1960s Buddhism held a more swaying interest than it holds currently - now it is so much more commercial.
On my side, what I found more bothersome than the goofy (read ‘insulting’) attitude to women of Zorba, was really the very manly way of looking at the world of the narrator (suspiciously ‘the author’). Here was a slanted view which gave no breathing space to a female reader. (view spoiler)
[And I am not minding the rape-loaded Ovid that I am reading these days. (hide spoiler)]So, instead, I tried to focus on another topic that is alluded to, but alas insufficiently developed, in the book: the political.
The whole novel, its story and its themes, seems to be precipitated by a character who does not make a presence in the actual plot except for occupying space in the mind of the narrator. He is Stravridaki, a friend of the narrator whom he loves dearly (we do not know in which way). I kept going in my reading hoping for him to show up and reveal more. I also began investigating a bit more about the history of modern Crete, of which I knew embarrassingly little.
The novel was published in 1946, that is, a couple of years after the Nazis left the island that they had occupied for almost five years. But it is not to this political aspect that the novel makes its veiled references. Instead, the mysterious Stravridaki is engaged in a resistance movement in the Balkans region, but of this we we learn almost nothing. Granted, Zorba, in one of his tirades mentions the time he was involved in the invasion of Bulgaria with the Greek hero Pavlos Melas during the very early part of the 20th Century. At that stage in his life he raped and killed. But Zorba's political musings filter through almost unnoticed, mixed as they are with his other observations about life. They are directly related neither to the resistance activities contemporary to the action unfolding in the book - presumably in Macedonia--, nor to the elusive Stravridaki.
It is almost as if a veil had been extended over the more political setting - precisely what I would have found most interesting in the book.
So, not sunny and colourful Crete. There was neither sufficient light in its story nor was there a spotlight granted to what would have been a very compelling theme.
Rating: really liked it
OK, people, I'm officially in tears. When you slowly savor a book like this for a month as I have, the characters' fates mean something to you. Pound for pound, sentence for sentence, word for word, I've not read a more profound book in all my days, I think. The sentences sing and pulse and it's bright and rich and life affirming with robust characters and a real journey of discovery. This one is now near the top of my favorite books list. Countless times I wanted to mark a nugget of wisdom for later reference, but instead opted to continue wending my way through. There will be time for marking, some day. I adopted Zorba's philosophy of life, I chose to live it rather than fixate on categorizing or trying to contain what I was reading in some mathematic way. This book addresses life and its mysteries and how we can chose to live it. That's all I'm going to say. It is one of the masterpieces of world literature. 'Nuff said.
Rating: really liked it
Titular Zorba is Don Quixote & Sancho Panza both. An idiot savant, & yet damn if wisdom doesn't occasionally spurt out of that mega-mustachioed mouth. Un-P.C. & misogynist to the extreme, he very much belongs in the annals of literature-- the creation that in itself is all the plot that the novel requires, since it does not have one to begin with. Interest throughout this ebbs & flows like the Meditarranean sea along its coast.
Rating: really liked it
Love, hate, passion, god, men, women, philosophy, hedonism…just damn everything interesting in life can be found in this book. It is a marvel.
If I was asked to describe the book in one word, I would say: life.
The book is lengthy most of the time, but what mostly matter in the book are the extensive dialogues between two completely different characters. The first is a writer who lives his life in books and submerged himself in Buddha’s teachings and believes himself to be living for his soul. The second is hedonistic Zorba, who is certainly living for his flesh. I think these two characters represent two distinct ways of life which intrigues every one of us. A question is asked throughout the book: which is better? Being a “stable” person and be accepted and respected in society, or being a crazy person living a life full of pleasure, pain, love, sex, best food, without acknowledging any boundary whatsoever.
According to Zorba’s philosophy, everything in life should be experienced, including those things that are deemed unpleasant, but the least commitment to anyone or anything is a form of prison and virtual death.
What makes this book a 4-star book instead of 5 is the constant disregard for women. Some people may – I really know some guys who did - stop reading it for that reason.
I don’t recommend it for everyone though. It will be appreciated by those who want to know what it means to live free, fearless and without limitations, liberated from the shackles of society, friends, family and above all oneself. Those who already want that will relate to the book very much and those who are not interested will find it alien and immoral, much as the writer’s character in the book which represents a winning side in everyone’s character who chooses to live a “normal” life.
I agree with some that the book is packed with exaggerations – an animation movie based on the book may be a good idea, since animation movies tend to represent exaggerations in a really creative and skillful manner – but the book is passionate, smart and it tells you lot about life.
Rating: really liked it
Woe to him who cannot free himself from Buddhas, Gods, Motherlands and Ideas.
- Nikos Kazantzakis Though this book hardly needs yet another review, I felt an overwhelming urge to pick up the pen, errrrh, slide out the keyboard, for Kazantzakis has wonderfully demonstrated the old truth: life is pitiless, terrible and beautiful, and we have no owner's manual.
Everyone has heard of Nikos Kazantzakis' (1883-1957)
Zorba the Greek,(*) due largely, I suspect, to the well known movie Hollywood made of the book. Unfortunately, such a circumstance is well suited to cause me to make a wide detour around the book. Sometimes such a prejudice leads one into error, and this is such an instance.
Zorba is, first of all, a meeting of two extreme modes of living: the self-reflective, reserved, somewhat bloodless life of a young, middle class intellectual who is, to maximize the contrast, also awash with certain life-renouncing ideas he culled from a study of Buddhism; and the untrammeled, sensual, instinctive life of an elderly man of the people. The former narrates the story, admires and envies the latter, Zorba, immeasurably, but finds it difficult to emulate the old goat. Fascinated by Zorba's nature, he is nonetheless torn between conflicting ideas and urges. But then, so is Zorba himself. Granted, Zorba is not torn between the world of the intellect and ideals and that of his very, very corporeal existence, but he, too, is sometimes uncertain, contradicts himself from one moment to the next and often does so with total certitude, as does the narrator. Mixed into this central confrontation are cameos of other lives, other ways of existence, other conflicted and contradictory ways of life.
Alongside this portrayal of mankind as a confused, self-conflicted mass of mutually contradictory lives all bound for the same place - the grave - Kazantzakis gives us a vivid picture of his native Crete early in the 20th century, how it looked, smelled and tasted, how its people lived and acted.(**)
The narrator has come into an inheritance and, perhaps because he didn't earn the money himself or because he had internalized Buddhistic detachment to such things, he planned to dispense the money in order to acquire some experience in the world outside of the universities and cafes of Athens. Zorba's sudden appearance was just what he needed, and though Zorba would surely have continued through his life as before without the narrator's admiration and funds, he respects and sometimes pities the narrator and spends his money freely. They live in a hut made of petrol cans with glassless window openings on the southern Cretan coast and try to make a go of a small coal mine and logging operation. And they talk and eat and sing and dance and talk. Zorba does by far the most of this; the narrator listens and watches, as do we. And though I did not
always share the narrator's admiration for the profundity of Zorba's talk, it did always sweep me along with its colorful and sometimes surprising flow.
The main female characters are women without husbands, women who were (are?) the focal points in Mediterranean societies of sexual fantasies and aggressions.(**) They try to make the best of things, but tragedy surrounds and ultimately besets them. The human vultures who gathered at Hortense's deathbed were wrenching and totally convincing.
A great deal of truth garbed in richly coruscating language. That is a winning combination for me. Perhaps Kazantzakis' characters are larger than life, but I fear that it is we in our sanitized, uniformized, consumerized, over-regulated, hyperbureaucratic urban world who have become smaller than life.
(*)
Zorba was first published in 1946, so Kazantzakis wrote it in his sixties, a
summa of his lifelong occupation with life itself.
(**) That a rural, poor and uneducated community at that place and time did not conform with early 21st century, first world views of the social standing of women seems to disturb some of
Zorba's readers. Particularly the role of widows is tragic. But throughout the Mediterranean basin, and apparently for thousands of years, widows and young, unmarried women who were not protected by their male relatives were irritating challenges to the social order and became obsessive focuses of sexual frustration and not always withheld sexual predation. How can one criticize Kazantzakis for remaining true to life there as well?
Rating http://leopard.booklikes.com/post/113...
Rating: really liked it
The Hasaposerviko
The priest, wearing a white loose fitting long sleeved shirt, baggy white pants, and a straw hat with a narrow brim, was hanging bunches of fruit from the arches in the corridor of the monastery; a pile of various fruits were lying on its stone pathway nearby for him to use as he went along. What a nice dream i had due to reading this book.
“I leaned out of the little window and saw a slender monk with a long back covering over his head moving slowly around the courtyard striking a small mallet against a long piece of extraordinarily melodious wood. The gong’s voice, all sweetness, harmony, and appeal, dispersed though the morning air…”
But then a murder occurred at the monastery, and I thought, that is how it has always been for me. Looking out at a pastoral scene of monks, or being in church listening to people sing praises to God has always been wonderful, just like my own dream or the scene in Zorba the Greek, but behind the scenes the churches were often killing man’s spirit.
I actually thought that I would love this book, just as I had loved the film in the 60s when it first came out, but I am older now; I see things differently. I had read that the movie and were basically the same, so in both Zorba was presented as a “male chauvinist, “a “misogynist.” So when I read this book, the disparaging comments that Zorba was making all seemed to familiar to me. Maybe I had heard them from my women friends who had dated or married such men, or maybe I had heard it from men myself.
The narrator of this book hung out with Zorba in order to learn from him on how to live life to the fullest. What can he learn from Zorba? Well, women are to be used, they need sex to make them happy. Women are weak. If you grab their breast they will give in to you. Life is dance, sex, wine and food. But where is the caring for a woman by not using her as a sex object? Where are the statements that show that he actually liked women and had no contempt for them? The only times I saw that Zorba cared were when he tried to save a woman from being stoned and then when he was at the bedside of a woman who was dying. He had a heart after all. Perhaps these things made up for all of his other faults, but I doubt it very much.
At one time when Zorba was out of town the narrator was talking to the old woman who Zorba used to pleasure, and during their conversation he read a letter to her that was supposed to be from Zorba, only he was making it up along the way. It was a love letter, and the narrator had Zorba asking the old woman to marry him. When Zorba returned he was upset over this but kept up the pretense. I found this to be cruel on the narrator’s part, and so when Zorba kept up the act, I spent some time trying to see it as Zorba’s kindness to her, that he didn’t wish to break her heart. But how would this ever get resolved?
Every evening when I picked up this book, I found it difficult to do so. I just wanted it over with because besides Zorba’s disgusting dialogues, the book was boring, and then half way through the book I was almost glad to be reading it.
When reading this book, I spent much of my time thinking about my college days with the Greeks in Berkeley. My friend Cathy was dating a Greek named George. He, like Zorba, was a misogynist, but the year or so that she was dating him, I, at least, had a lot of fun because Cathy had often invited me and a few other people to go with her on her dates. And I never knew what he was really like until after they broke up.
I thought that the fun times that we had were far better than those of Zorba’s, unless a person likes to just have sex, drink, and eat, and well, there is the dancing.
Anyway, our fun was different than Zorbas. We went to the beaches, to San Francisco, to bars, to the movies, all normal things, but then George liked to do things that high school students would do, and after all he was a 35 year old high school teacher. Some of the things that I still remember were:
One night we went to the Greek theater in Berkeley when no concert Was happening. It was just me, Mitch, Cathy, and George. We got up on the stage. Cathy was sitting down with her legs dangling over the end of the stage. George was off to himself giving a famous Greek speech, and Mitch was pretending to be a lion and began chasing me on his hands and knees. I began screaming. The police came because a neighbor had heard screaming and thought that someone was being raped or murdered. I told him, “I’m sorry. That was me. Mitch was pretending to be a lion, and I was a Christian, and so what could I do but scream?” He laughed, tore up the ticket and left.
Then there was Juanita’s restaurant that sat alone in the country just north of San Francisco. Outside the dining room window Juanita kept pigs in pens. I can still see her standing outside directing traffic as people were driving into her parking lot. She always wore a large moo moo and people would take photos of her when she took her large elongated breasts out of her bra and placed them over a man’s shoulder so it would sort of look like he had breasts.
She allowed us to go upstairs to see her bedroom. Why? I don’t know. So, the three of us walked upstairs. Women’s names were painted on various doors of the other rooms. Ah, ha, a restaurant by day, a brothel by night. Her room was cluttered so much that there was only a pathway to her bed and her bed was cluttered as well, leaving only a large indentation where she slept.
Rumor had it that she kept burning down her restaurants for the money, and the last time hings he liked to do were juvenile, I loved it all. I missed the crazy times after he and Cathy broke up, but it was best for Cathy. Some men make good friends but poor partners.
But most of all, like Zorba, I loved to dance to Greek music. I still miss going to Aitoe’s in Berkeley where my favorite dance was the Hasaposerviko. It was a simple dance that picked up speed so much that it felt like my feet were flying.
For those who wish to watch the best two Greek men dance, who look good in their jeans:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FPrUZ...
It would be fun to be there:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5iR2b...
Rating: really liked it
The only reason why I did not fling this book out of the window was because of a philosophy that I had just picked up from a new English teacher who was my latest "wanna-be-like-her-when-I-grow-up" idol. I had acquired this noble idea of of giving everything at least one chance. I gave it to
Zorba the Greek as well and am I glad I did! I would not have been able to shred it apart so easily had I abandoned this utter crapfest midway.
I shouldn't blame Nikos Kazan-whatever with the unpronounceable last name for making my blood boil because in reality, it's YOU who are to blame. Yes, you there crouching in the corner wearing loose "intellectual type" clothes and carrying a wannabe
jhola (or whatever the Western equivalent of that may be). And you too, smoking rolled up cigarettes and droning on in your pant-crappingly boring monotone about some "profound" work that you recently read. In a more general sense of Goodreads voters and reviewers, you are presumably a sad constituent too. As of this moment,
Zorba the Greek has an average rating of 4.03 stars out of five on the basis of 4,018 ratings. Like many other averages, it is complete nonsense.
I am fighting the insidious cabal of 'respectable' opinion. I offer my head to the enraged rabble fed on pretentious prose in order to warn you what an absolute dungbomb
Zorba the Greek is. Kazantzakis, I suspect, was an author who was better suited to something more prosaic - like fumigation.
After reading great things about this book and its movie adaptation, one would have thought that it would turn out to be something absolutely life-altering. Instead, you just wade through a long piece of garbage which goes on and on about a sad, clumsy dance between a sensualist crapbag and an over-educated Buddhist wannabe. Zorba's views on life are presented as something that are the equivalent of what Aristotle may have spewed out at Lyceum. The truth is that even an utterly phony Rahul Bose movie is more tolerable that Zorba's pearls of wisdom.
Anyhoo, here are a few of the Zorba-esque moral science texbook lessons that this book imparts:
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All women LOVE sex, anytime and at any place. A man just has to go and grope a woman and she will instantly pleasure him.Bravo. I bet that's a part of the first chapter in 'The Pervert's Guide to A Successful Rape'.
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Zorba, the philosopher thinks that books are sheer nonsense. Real beauty is out there in the world.Very profound. Jagjit Singh must have taken inspiration for this ghazal from Zorba, as would have every darn go-out-and-have-fun-kids kind of book on this planet.
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A sodomite monk kills his pretty young toyboy. Zorba tells the narrator that this is the way of the world and the narrator experiences wisdom.Boo-hoo at the murder, and applause at the absolutely unique lesson of life. As if we didn't learn what the way of the world was the moment the fat kid stole our lunch in kindergarten and got away with it.
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The pretentious navel-gazer narrator realises in the end that life is not all about constant thinking and writing, but it can be full of enjoyment. We definitely needed to read that. After all, someone who spends their days reading this garbage DOES need to go out and enjoy life a little - preferably in the company of rowdy school dropouts or something.
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The spineless narrator also learns that when he covets something, he should try and make it his (without breaking the rules, of course). Same pinch, Zorba! My mommy taught me all that on her knee. Want the chocolate chip cookies, kid? Try to jump and reach the top shelf of the kitchen (without using a chair to stand on, of course).
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Zorba, on the other hand, seems to have understood that his actions and his words have an impact on the people around him as in the case of Madame Hortense and that he really ought to think twice when it comes to playing with the feelings of others. And to reach THAT enlightening conclusion, you have to wade through a
stinking pile of endlessly monotonous prose.
My main gripe with this work is not with the idea or the BFFs kind of pair of Zorba and Buddha Wannabe. It is just the shoddy prose which fails to engage the reader and simply drifts off into meaningless mumbo-jumbo with a smattering of a few aphorisms. The straw which broke the
etc. came when Dame Hortense conks off and Zorba grieves like a motherless fawn while the Buddha Wannabe narrator goes into a philosophy churning overdrive about life's evanescence and yada yada. Good GRIEF. I've read better carpe diem type of stuff even in otherwise utter faeces like
One Night @ The Call Center .
There is also a lot of chauvinism, sexism, and misogyny. There is an incident describing the beheading of a woman for rejecting a man’s advances. There is an old woman's character who had been ill-used by men all her life and who Zorba basically treats like a bootycall (for the lack of a better word). However, I am not going to complain about all that. Women are not exactly depicted in the best of light but that is how their situation in Greece (or in many parts of the world, for that matter) was in the 1940s. It can get extremely offensive but let us give poor Kazantzakis his due. He can't be lynched for portraying reality.
The main reason why I gave this book two stars instead of one is simply because I like the pretty picture of the physical beauty of Crete that the author paints. I want to visit the island now and forget that I ever read a terribly pseudo book about it.
If one looks only at the superficial message that Zorba’s character espouses, then the book is fine (but still not very enjoyable). However, if one looks at how he actually lives his life and how he treats people, then there is a problem. He has no qualms about using those around him to further his own wants, be it using the narrator for his money, or Madame Hortense (or that girl he had an affair with in that other town) for his own benefit. I can agree to the "live life to the fullest" maxim and many other similar ideas that he supports but I just find them unpalatable coming from an absolute little turd like him.
As for the much-romanticised "passionate" life in the book, I'm sure it may have helped many terribly depressed people at some point in their drowning-sorrows-in-a-bottle kind of lives. However, as a stand-alone philosophy, I see it as something totally dishonest that fails to take account of one of the most important things in our lives: human relationships and the importance of looking after each other, or if not that, then at least not trampling over every darn human being in your quest to live a "passionate" life.
There isn't much about living life in this so-called wonderful piece of literature that I couldn't have learnt from reading some phony self-help book or watching a couple of spiritual 'Art of Living' kind of videos.
Rating: really liked it
Nikos Kazantzakis is buried in Heraklion, Crete. The epitaph on his gravestone reads, "I hope for nothing. I fear nothing. I am free."
If that speaks to you, if that makes complete sense to you, read this book.
The book is much better than the film starring Anthony Quinn! Both the book and the film are full of life - both the good and the bad. You must live life to the fullest. You must appreciate the good and survive the terrible. You must fight. I love the philosophy espoused. While the film makes the central theme clear, the book is more nuanced and gives a more in-depth view of the author's thinking. What is the purpose of life? How should it be lived? Death - Zorba says he does not fear death but neither does he like it. When you read this book all these philosophical questions are what you think about. If you do not like philosophical books, this novel isn't for you.
Christianity is a central theme. There are two main characters- one is Zorba and the other is an unnamed narrator. One is "religious" and one isn't. Both are good people. Both are searching for answers. This offers a good balance, and I appreciate that the author presented the story in this manner.
Women are another central theme. You may not agree with Zorba's / Kazantzakis' views on women, but he certainly appreciates, enjoys and loves them. You have to keep in mind this is writing from an earlier era. The book was first published in Greek in 1946, in English in 1952. It doesn’t seem all l that dated to me, but then I was born in the fifties! I suppose I am dated too. He loves women
as they are and that is enough for me. That isn’t to say that he never got my hackles up.
And there is humor too – at the stupidity of man, at intellectualism and what is done in the name of religion.
George Guidall is the narrator of the audiobook. As stated there are two main characters. The unnamed narrator, who tells the story, is an intellectual. Guidall’s tone for this man made me wince, but more so in the beginning than in the end. That was when I realized how well Guidall had perfectly captured not only the two characters but also how the unnamed narrator had changed. I loved Zorba’s voice. When you listened you always knew who was speaking simply by Guidall’s tone. Excellent narration!
I am no Zorba, but I still admire him and wish I could be more like him!
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Before reading:
Yes, of course I must read this. I saw the movie ages ago and loved it. The philosophy, even back then was exactly to my liking. Do people ever really change?
Thanks, Julia, for reminding me about this book!
Rating: really liked it
This story is magic. Zorba is magic.
“He speaks and the world grows bigger. Occasionally, when words no longer suffice, he leaps up and dances. And when dancing no longer suffices he places his santuri on his knees and plays.”I discovered Zorba’s magic when watching the movie—for maybe the second or third time—after a particularly sad event in my life. It helped. It helped like nothing else helped.
“I felt, as I listened to Zorba, that the world was recovering its pristine freshness. All the dulled daily things regained the brightness they had in the beginning, when we came out of the hands of God.”When I think of Zorba, I’m not as afraid of failure. I’m not as broken-hearted over my sorrows. I’m more hopeful, stronger, tougher. He’s the embodiment of groundedness. He reminds you of how delicious life is, like when you’re in love and all of that wonder and expectation overrides anything negative.
The book and the movie are both, I would say, necessary. With the movie you have Greece, in all of its glorious black and white beauty. You have the music. You have Anthony Quinn. But the book is a masterpiece, and with the book you understand the philosophy and get a better idea of how to be more like Zorba.
“Because you’re like me, too, only you don’t know it.”“Yes, you understand with your brain. You say: ‘This is right, and that’s wrong; this is true, and that isn’t; he’s right, the other one’s wrong …’ But where does that lead us? While you are talking I watch your arms and chest. Well, what are they doing? They’re silent. They don’t say a word. As though they hadn’t a drop of blood between them. Well, what do you think you understand with? With your head? Bah!”This isn’t just a book—it’s an experience. It’s a tonic. It is life. Bravo Zorba. Bravo Nikos Kazantzakis. And thank you.
