REPORT TO GRECO

by Nikos Kazantzakis ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 13, 1965

As more and more of Kazantzakis' work is made available in translation, it becomes increasingly clear that his is the one true epic talent among the recent moderns. He is a writer of the utmost sensitivity, passion and strength, a visionary rooted in the earthy life and history of his native Crete, struggling always to fulfill his destiny, his faith, to give life to his Cry: ""My entire soul is a cry, and all my work the commentary on that cry."" Accustomed as we are to the aridity, narrowness or cheap improvisations of so much current literature, the aspirations of a Kazantzakis may seem at first reading unfashionable. Certainly, in the power of his personality, the breadth of his interests, the intensity and beauty inherent in his style, he suggests the 19th century (Nietzsche and Dostoevsky particularly) rather than the temper of our own day. Thus his semi-autobiography, mixing ""truth with fancy,"" presents the scenes, events, intellectual and emotional relationships of his past as a stage-by-stage unwinding, an adventure of the spirit, from youth to old age, from the most primitive beginnings to the most subtle apprehensions, filled with many moods: delight, suffering, compassion, freedom and bondage. ""During my entire life one word always tormented and scourged me, the word ascent."" It is the key word in any understanding of his artistic endeavors, and how marvelously he lets such an ascent illuminate, his wanderings through Europe or Russia, Jerusalem or the East, whether it be to describe historical change (the Communist revolution), religious attachments (Christianity and Buddhism), the wonderful characterizations of his family, friends and loves, or to recreate the artistic process, the seed-bed, then the flowering of Zorba or of The Odyssey. A titanic flow of impressions, life-enriching and rare.

Pub Date: Aug. 13, 1965

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 1965

Categories: NONFICTION