Zorba the Greek, by Nikos Kazantzakis June 22, 2006
Posted by CamdenKiwi in : Reviews , trackbackYears ago, I saw the film of Zorba the Greek, and my memories of it are vague – lots of Greek blokes dancing. When I saw the book in a shop on the waterfront in Hania, it seemed like the ideal read for a holiday in Crete.
The book deals with the relationship between two strongly drawn characters, the intellectual, upper class narrator who is detached from worldly persuits and seems to live through his writing and observing of others, and Zorba, an earthy, exuberent somehow more primeval character who feels his way through life rather than thinking. These unlikely companions are running a mine in Crete or, more specifically, the narrator is financing it and Zorba is actually running it.
I’m not sure I like this book. It is powerful and absorbing, but the strong seam of misogyny running through it is hard to take. There is the tragic figure of the old courtesan, abandoned by Zorba and cruelly tricked by the narrator into believing Zorba was returning to marry her, and the widow, killed by the local villagers. Both Zorba and the narrator seem to have a very cavalier attitude to women – Zorba travelling by finding a lonely widow in every village, though his defence of the local widow is heroic.
It is worth reading for the strong characters and the picture of Cretan life in the first half of last century, but is by no means a comfortable read.
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