Review: Zorba the Greek by Nikos Kazantzakis

Zorba the Greek by Nikos Kazantzakis
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I remember very clearly when I first read Zorba the Greek, by Nikos Kazantzakis – I was on my first visit to Greece and meandering through the Monastiraki Flea Market in Athens, came across one of the many bookstalls offering a variety of reading material for us tourists! And among all the latest thrillers and travel books…there was one book that seemed to be saying….you have to read me…....

This was a book that took me on an intoxicating journey leading me to my everlasting connection to the world of Greece and Greeks. A love for life, for passion, for living each day to the full…. To feel….

And since my first reading then, 1973, I have read it many times again….and each time I am equally inspired and astounded by this beautiful book that did so much more than just take me on that journey!!!
It is a book that should be read by anyone who wants to be touched and perhaps be transformed by how we see our lives.

What is this book about? I read a synopsis that I feel best describes it….

Synopsis kindly obtained from Wikipedia
Zorba the Greek resists easy definition. Like the Odyssey and Don Quixote, it is nearly plotless but never pointless. Like the heroes of those fictional sagas, its hero, Alexis Zorba, casts a larger shadow on the world than the world does on him. …

Who is Zorba? He is Everyman with a Greek accent. He is Sinbad crossed with Sancho Panza. He is the Shavian Life Force poured into a long, lean, fierce-mustached Greek whose 65 years in the Mediterranean sun have neither dimmed his hawk eyes nor dulled his pagan laughter. … Zorba is a great unbeliever in everything but the abundant life. Pockmarked with bullet scars, he has no faith in war. Full of reverent awe before the universe, he cannot stomach organized religion or priests ("[They] even fleece their fleas"). Child of instinct, Zorba defines the hours as if he had created them. "Daytime is a man," he explains, "night is a woman."

On many a night Zorba heads for the home of Bouboulina, a blowzy, scow-bottomed "old siren," once the darling of admirals and of fleets. When his boss refuses to make love to a young, appetizing widow, Zorba warns him: "Every man has his folly, but the greatest folly of all ... is not to have one." The boss takes Zorba's advice to heart and the young widow to bed. Meanwhile, Zorba never misses a chance to ask such puzzlers as: What is a woman? Who made the stars? Why do men die? The boss's widow is murdered by puritanical peasants, Bouboulina dies, the lignite mine fails — and all these calamities lead to the heart of Zorba's message: live as if one were to die the next minute.

It’s a story of friendship, self-discovery and finding inner-strength. Two people, so different…..Alexis Zorba, philosopher living life to the full

and the narrator, a quiet, scholarly writer who has come to Greece to re-open a mine in a small Cretan village….

As the two men grow closer, Zorba slowly reveals to the narrator the story of his life…….and thus having a profound effect on how much he has missed out in the joy of just living….the exuberance of Zorba is intoxicating and profound and a joy to behold…

This is a powerful book that will inspire you. How we should live our lives fully and not waste a moment away. Live each day as if it were your last day!!!

“there are three kinds of men: those who make it their aim, as they say, to live their lives, eat, drink, make love, grow rich, and famous; then come those who make it their aim not to live their own lives but to concern themselves with the lives of all men – they feel that all men are one and they try to enlighten them, to love them as much as they can and do good to them; finally there are those who aim at living the life of the entire universe – everything, men, animals, trees, stars, we are all one, we are all one substance involved in the same terrible struggle. What struggle?…Turning matter into spirit.”

And yes, I did find my passionate Greek man….my husband Costa, was a true Greek at heart and we shared our lives together in the most glorious way!!!!

While experiencing happiness, we have difficulty in being conscious of it. Only when the happiness is past and we look back on it we do suddenly realize — sometimes with astonishment — how happy we had been.

Please…if you have not read this book…..I urge you to do it now!!! You will be forever happy you did.

One of many favorite quotes that I loved in this book :

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