Impressions: 'Zorba The Greek' by Nikos Kazantzakis
I’d only read one other Kazantzakis novel before this one — The Last Temptation of Christ, which I thought was absolutely brilliant. Zorba The Greek was originally published in Greece in 1946, and this English language translation is from 1961 (I’m not sure whether it was published in English before then). Just from previewing the first few pages, I knew this was a novel I had to experience and I’m glad I did because it’s an absolutely wonderful book.
It is said that Kazantzakis based the character of Zorba on an actual person he knew, a man named George Zorbas, who worked together, along with the author, in the mines and his experiences with George Zorbas was the impetus for the character in the novel.
The story takes place in the 1930s. It is a first person narrative of a Greek writer/intellectual who decides to leave his bookish life behind after being insulted by his good friend Stavridakis, who is about to travel to the Caucuses in order to help the Pontic Greeks who are being persecuted there. The narrator decides travel to Crete to reopen a lignite mine and immerse himself in Crete’s working class peasant life. He meets the older, free spirit named Alexis Zorba, a man with a zest for life and experience, and the two agree to go into business together with regard to the mine. We immediately see the difference between these two characters — the narrator, the troubled, answer seeking intellectual (who’s working on a manuscript about Buddhism) and the illiterate, take life as it comes, live in the moment working class peasant who has absolutely no time or love for books or anything intellectual. He’s a man who desires freedom, and freedom to him is not having any attachments or links to anything other than the moment.
But Zorba is not a stupid man by any means, and he expresses himself in a variety of ways which have a profound effect on the young intellectual who slowly begins see the vivacious Zorba as something of a working class philosopher, (and something of a Buddha-like figure) who has more to teach the troubled man immersed in his theories and books. The two become great friends, in an almost mentor-teacher relationship. However, the harsh peasant life, and the amorality of its citizens, coupled with a horrific tragedy and their business difficulties, alienates the young intellectual, despite his growing appetite to be more like Zorba and detach himself from his former way of life.
Beneath the surface of the story is also an exploration of post-Ottoman Greece and the lives of the people effected/influenced by it. There is quite a bit of interesting history here, of which Zorba had experienced and figures strongly into his personality and philosophy of life. At times the novel becomes heavily existential and thought provoking, making it a challenging but still highly entertaining read. Kazantzakis’s prose is wonderful, perfectly capturing the hot, Mediterranean climate in which the story is set. This book proved to be something I hadn’t expected it to be, in a good way, and it quickly rose to the upper echelon of my ‘favorite novels’ list, and Kazantzakis, one of my favorite authors.
Zorba The Greek is available here.