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jonfaith's review against another edition
4.0
I enjoyed this one, the visceral departures from the now standard screen version were welcome. thats aid, I was left just short of satisifed and, now, it is awkward to articulate why.
part_time_recluse's review against another edition
3.0
I really didn't enjoy this book, but it is well written with very descriptive characters, strong dialogue and engaging storylines, so I still gave it 3 stars on account of all that. But I wouldn't recommend it to anyone. It's so misogynistic that I found it to be an arduous read. The main takeaway seems to be the lesson the narrator learns from Zorba is to not live your whole life through books but to get out and experience life in all its full and amazing glory. Which is a great message but not a good enough reason to make this a worthwhile read. You can easily find that message elsewhere in much more enjoyable novels and without all the misogyny!
keitto's review against another edition
funny
reflective
sad
slow-paced
3.5
My mom told me this book "cracked [her] up" when she read it about ten years ago, so I was looking forward to a funny story. Not so funny! I did like some of the pearls of wisdom that Zorba shared, but maaaan the way women are treated in this story is dated and frankly the main issue that I have with the book. I'm not going to go into detail, but it gets DARK. So, I liked the story OK overall, but it felt dated.
coco_py's review against another edition
informative
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
4.5
I can’t say I understand the content fully, but I enjoyed it nevertheless.
At first, I wanted to absorb and understand more about Greeks’ mentality, culture, and many more. This book had provided plenty.
But, of course, it is so much more than that.
At first, I wanted to absorb and understand more about Greeks’ mentality, culture, and many more. This book had provided plenty.
But, of course, it is so much more than that.
mslingercarreer's review against another edition
2.0
Meh. I'd like to show this book some grace because of the time it was written but I'm not going to. Was it refreshing in 1946? Maybe. But now, 78 years later, not so much. Read the other reviews. They do an excellent job of explaining what I didn't like it better than I can myself.
leadbelly's review against another edition
4.0
Wonderful book and Zorba is an astonishing literary creation, embodying an existentialist ethic of freedom and the self. The book is one of clashes between tradition and modernity, youth and age, instinct / experience and books / learning, physical and mental, masculine and feminine, wild and tame etc. Religion, whether it is the corrupt seclusion of the monastery, the philosophical, socialist Buddhism of the narrator, the villagers' brutal amoral orthodoxy [in both religious and sociological senses], the barely discussed but "suspect" Frankishness of Madame Hortense and the almost animist religion of Zorba is a key notion.
The gendered attitudes, perhaps reflecting the time when the book was set are pretty brutal and female characters are feared, pitied and condescended to. They are treated brutally whatever the situation. This element of the book made painful reading and I would almost wince when encountering these sentences. The treatment of the widow is painful and distressing in the extreme.
A great book though and highly recommended.
The gendered attitudes, perhaps reflecting the time when the book was set are pretty brutal and female characters are feared, pitied and condescended to. They are treated brutally whatever the situation. This element of the book made painful reading and I would almost wince when encountering these sentences. The treatment of the widow is painful and distressing in the extreme.
A great book though and highly recommended.
gorystaff's review against another edition
funny
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
colinlusk's review against another edition
4.0
Holiday audiobook. I spent a whole day with this in one ear and birdsong on the other while i pedalled through the city, along towpaths, through the countryside to Cambridge and it was very good company. The character of Zorba is very vivid, and the author contrasts his immediate, practical way of walking through the world with narrator's own more bookish knowledge. It's a very effective device. Its not all dialogue of course. There's a lot of stuff going on, including shagging every widow in Crete and a really grizzly murder.
bashir27's review against another edition
4.0
يا ليت الجميع يتعلن من زوربا اليوناني البسيط وفلسفته في الحياة ..
لقد كانت الدنيا في نظر زوربا كما كانت في نظر الإنسان الأول مجرّد مشهد كبير رائع. فالنجوم تتألق فوق رأسه وأمواج البحر تتكسّر تحت قدميه وهو
يعيش مع الأرض والماء والحيوان والله دون أن يفسد عليه التفكير العقيم متعة الحياة.
--- قال لصاحبه : أواه يا صديقي ماذا أصاب الناس وهوى بمستواهم ! لقد أصيبت أجسامهم بالبكم واصبحوا لا يتحدثون الا بافواههم .. ولكن ماذا تستطيع الأفواه ان تقول !