A review by beatrice_apetrei
Christ Recrucified by Nikos Kazantzakis

5.0

"There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed." Ernest Hemingway

This is more than just fiction, is more than just a story, but then again, all books are more than just stories , some action in which you can find delight or not; Christ Recrucified felt more like an exploration of human capabilities to reach the highest they can get.

It starts as a game, or rather a play. People from a Greek village, Lycovrisi, are chosen by those who held the political, religious and economical power, according to their actions and personalities, to re-act the events of Jesus Christ's trial : Yannakkos ( Apostle Peter ), Michelis ( Apostle John ), Kostandis ( Apostle James the Great ), Panayotaros ( Judas ), Katerina (Mary Magdalene ), and lastly Manolios ( Jesus Christ ). It's beautiful how at the beginning they don't think of themselves as being worthy of / suitable for the roles , but as days pass, they become more and more who they are supposed to impersonate.

The writing : It is exquisite. With no exaggeration. Kazantzakis is a talented author. The phrases are not too short, the dialogue is not hollow ( I don't think there were any shallow remarks or dull conversations ) and the paragraphs give a lot of information regarding : the weather, the places , the mentality that governed those times, the ideas, the vices of men, the people and their beastly instincts, how they separate from animals, how they fight against what threatens them and their beliefs. Everything comes to life and draws you in. One minute you are Manolios, in his attempts to sacrifice his nothingness to God, the other you are Yannakkos, a merchant-peddler talking with his donkey ( his only treasure ). Then you get some bits from Panayotaros and his loathing of the elders and the village for forcing him into becoming Judas. But wait, you are once more determined Michelis, trying to cut lose the ropes that tie him to Earth and so empty himself of anything that could turn into vices, so he can fill up with Light.

You can empathize with all characters : you understand their reasons because you understand their way of thinking, Kazantzakis really gives you a glimpse of what expectations or mentality certain people have according to the environment they grew up in. Love them, hate them, laugh at them etc, they exist and you know they do, because they are real . They are believable and surely you've met one or another. You cannot classify them in good or bad : there is no black or white, but shades of grey, lighter or darker.

At first, I read books out of curiosity, of desire for living in an unreachable world, narrowed between two hard covers and showed in black letters on a white paper, of longing for a different life lived through different eyes. Then, when I grew, I started looking for understanding, not necessarily an author's understanding of me, but rather the exact opposite. I want to know how, why and for what he is writing : what is he trying to prove, what does he feel, what is he looking for, what is he feeling. When I first started reading one of Kazantzakis' books, [b:The Last Temptation of Christ|8737|The Last Temptation of Christ|Nikos Kazantzakis|https://d2arxad8u2l0g7.cloudfront.net/books/1420938097s/8737.jpg|1193292] , I knew what I would find : a man trying to find the Truth, or perhaps, trying to understand a small part of what he thought the Truth is. I will not tell you if he achieved his purpose, or if he managed to heal his wounds ( because we know that art is a way of healing or of emptying oneself of unbearable emotions ), because not even after finishing it I could not answer it . I think he did not expect the same people to read more than one of his books. Because shortly after, I read [b:Christ Recrucified|82531|Christ Recrucified|Nikos Kazantzakis|https://d2arxad8u2l0g7.cloudfront.net/books/1366544033s/82531.jpg|1685425] ( which had been written a few years before ) and I felt as if I was reading the same book once more. Same questions, same doubts, same answers . Or better said : same lack of answers.

Now you might ask "why would he write such a book?". In my opinion he tried to understand how far can a man go in emptying his mind of himself and filling it up with Light, with understanding of God, with comprehending Him.It's unimaginable what boundaries should break for him to reach the sky. The question is can he still be a man afterwards? Nikos Kazantzakis came with an answer ( answer that is found in more than one book, so maybe he was unsure ? or perhaps he simply wanted to convince himself of its Truth?).

I wonder what's your answer.