How To Live Life --- Zorbas The Greek - by Nikos Kazantzakis (Book Review 27)

Tweet

I know nothing about Greek literature, so when I looked for adequate reading matter for our hols on Crete I turned to google and found Nikos Kazantzakis’ ‘Zorba the Greek’. Ah, yes, suddenly the wonderful film from 1964 came back to my mind. Older members may recall Anthony Quinn in the role of Zorbas. I didn’t know that the film was made after Nikos Kazantzakis’ novel. He is the most translated Greek author of modern times, an internationally acclaimed novelist, dramatist, poet and journalist. He narrowly missed out on the Nobel Prize for literature by one vote in 1956. He created two opposing characters: a 35-year-old intellectual, a Cretan by birth, who has led the life of a bookworm and suddenly feels the urge to get into contact with real life. He rents a lignite mine on the south coast of Crete and sets out to exploit it with simple workmen sharing their simple life. When he’s waiting in a bar for the ferry, he’s accosted by a 65-year-old workman from Macedonia who asks him if he wants to employ him. He’s capable of doing any job. More opposed characters are not imaginable, but the two men like each other at first sight and so an adventure begins that spans three quarters of a year. The story deals with the job in the mine, the difficulties they encounter, the people they meet in the nearby village, the villagers’ problems and how they affect the two men’s lives. Simple as the lives of the villagers may seem, their problems have the impact of ancient Greek drama. The story is told in the first person by the young intellectual. He hasn’t got a name, we know him only as ‘boss’. He describes Zorba, comments on his character and repeats their discussions. Mostly Zorba begins like this, “Boss, what do you think about . . . “ and more often than not the widely read bookworm has no answer, Zorba then tells him what * he * thinks, always backed up by something he’s experienced during the adventurous times he’s spent in various Balkan states. He’s broken all commandments, committed atrocious crimes and has nevertheless come out a humane and wise man. “All the problems which we find so complicated or insoluble he cuts through as if with a sword, like Alexander the Great cutting the Gordian knot. It is difficult for him to miss his aim, because his two feet are held firmly planted on the ground by the weight of his whole body.” Zorba is like a force of nature. The intellectual envies Zorba. Does he learn from him, does he change his life, can he change it at all? The friendship between the two men and how it develops reads as fascinatingly as the story about the mine and the villagers. The Crete Kazantzakis describes is not the one the tourists of today find. The advent of mass tourism have changed Crete like other destinations round the Mediterranean Sea (well, world-wide) more than the millenia before. The novel has thus gained a dimension the author could not foresee. It’s a portrait of Crete of times gone by. Never will they return. Kazantzakis was buried in his hometown Heraklion, the capital of Crete. On his tombstone stands the inscription, “I hope nothing, I fear nothing, I am free.” Zorba could have said that. The Guardian has included Zorba the Greek in the list of the 100 best novels ever written. Highly recommended. ---- Watch the video, listen to the famous music by Mikis Theodorakis and watch the two men dance! --- If you're interested in my other book reviews, click on the green line at the top of the site (Malus Book Reviews)