Andres’s review of Zorba the Greek > Likes and Comments
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Exactly how I felt! I had a hard time reading this novel... To everyone who says this was a dated novel, it was published in 1946... even 1800s novels were less misogynic than this. Yes maybe it was a good book back in 1950s, but not anymore in 2022.
Well I am less confused now because I thought Zorba was the dead/dying friend with the rock, then the book jumped back in time. But then he wrote a letter to the friend with Zorba , right there, and I said ... Well that can't be! Now I get it
Your point is narrow-minded! Tell me one book of dostoyevski that has characters like angels. Even Saint John in les miserables was a thief. You have to realise that is fiction, the writer is a different person than the characters and he doesn't necessarily like them in real life. Also these were the situations during his time ,women were always mistreated and it was a patriarchal community! Women were suffering but for then it was the normal. So bear in mind the time and place the writer lived! That is a very childish point of you of yours !
Yessssssssss I love all the other Katzanzakis books and am really upset with this one. Half way in and still waiting for some sort of redemption but I guess there won’t be any. To everyone saying that this is a childish point and that “back than it was normal” I say we still have to criticize this book and retrieve its glory so that it’s ideas do not contaminate new minds. Katzanzakis (as far as I’ve read, which is honestly too far) does not offer any criticism of Zorba’s terrible ideas. He instead seams to glorify him as the ideal Greek male. If you know anything about Greek education you know that literature like this is still being used up to today to promote this highly problematic ideal of National male identity that Zorbas embodies. So fuck this book really.
I was about to comment something serious but no serious person answers f@#$ in a book review! That's disgusting
Someone, I can’t remember who, wrote a book about primitive men. It was disgusting how they dressed in animal skins. Can you believe they rarely even washed? And they actually failed to cook their meals and forced themselves on women and fought each other relentlessly. Should we castigate such an author for incorporating realism? Your sensitivity to male domination is obvious but is insufficient explanation for denigrating a most excellent writer. I’m so sorry you were made to feel bad. Perhaps a book on evolution would soothe you a bit?
I agree 100% with your review. I am struggling with this book. I am halfway thru and debating whether to carry on with this read. It’s kinda hard to stomach in 2022.
Agree! I kept waiting/hoping for another angle on any of the female characters. Young and/or beautiful women are evil and old women are disgusting. All are whores. Hey remember how I already described this women as a fat old wrinkly blob? Well here she is again and let me make it clear how repulsed you should be by how she looks. disappointing
a completely illiterate review that should be ignored
Good example of the poison of our times in a nutshell. It's hard not to see the pattern everywhere. Slightly unfortunate perhaps that Goodreads appears to be not much different from Twitter.
The pattern goes like: person reads [book/article/comment etc]. If he/she doesn't approve of a part of it, everything else is ignored, nuance is abandoned, perspective is abandoned, understanding is abandoned, the whole thing is straw manned, dislike is turned into disgust, the rating is one star. Others join in with their approval or disaproval, preferably in the form of a oneliner, or a one or five star rating of the comment, and we got us a nice little myopic echo chamber. And this is just a book review...
You got point but ONE STAR ! Please be for real
You perfectlydescribedmy experiencereading this.
I’m sorry that some people might never read this wonderful book because of this and similar reviews. Before reading any book, we must learn to approach it from the context in which it was written, through the lens of its sociopolitical background. Books don’t exist only to confirm our beliefs or match our values. They are here to challenge us, to transport us, to teach us something, and to make us feel. And that’s what makes them powerful.
That said, I do understand why certain scenes can cause discomfort when read through a modern lens. But reducing the book to a “terrible mess” overlooks its deeper purpose: it was never meant to be a guidebook on morality. Zorba is not a role model — he is a force of nature. The violence, the passivity, the contradictions — they are all part of a broader reflection on human existence, not a celebration of it.
Literature isn’t here to make us feel safe or to provide easy answers. It’s here to show us the world, even its darkest corners, and to invite us to think, feel, and question.
provide easy answers. It’s here to show us the world, even its darkest corners, and to invite us to think, feel, and question.
Agree with you Christina. If we are to write off literature that doesn’t confirm to today’s view and moral code that we neglect an entire history of culture. And Zorba is clearly flawed but I don’t think the book is even condoning it just laying one man’s passions and flaws bare.
It is like reading Crime and Punishment and saying that the book is terrible because at times it is a justification of murder.
Everyone is entitled to their opinions sure, but this review is screaming “tell me you can’t read between the lines without telling me you can’t read between the lines”. I mean, you lose a lot of the joy and excitement in reading if you can’t acknowledge the universal themes of a story beyond its plot. If you can’t see underneath the physicalities of the plot in this book, then truly I’m sorry. You’re missing out on an enlightening, or at the very least interesting/thought provoking, experience.
Judging from your other low ratings on many books some of them great, you look like a sour person who tries to fight his complex of being unable to create even the worst piece of literature by feeling some kind of superiority when you give these "ratings".
That's a very sad and biased review of the book. A comment above says it best: "Andreas Louskos: It is like reading Crime and Punishment and saying that the book is terrible because at times it is a justification of murder."
Well said 👏 tedious and dated machismo
You got further than I did and captured my sentiments in your first 2 paragraphs!
I’m 1/3 of the way through and feeling the same way. I’m struggling to finish it.
Look another guy that fell in the trap of individualism and feel bad of everything that don’t represent his own values beliefs and interests.
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Erica
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Jan 05, 2022 10:18AM
Exactly how I felt! I had a hard time reading this novel... To everyone who says this was a dated novel, it was published in 1946... even 1800s novels were less misogynic than this. Yes maybe it was a good book back in 1950s, but not anymore in 2022.
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Well I am less confused now because I thought Zorba was the dead/dying friend with the rock, then the book jumped back in time. But then he wrote a letter to the friend with Zorba , right there, and I said ... Well that can't be! Now I get it
Your point is narrow-minded! Tell me one book of dostoyevski that has characters like angels. Even Saint John in les miserables was a thief. You have to realise that is fiction, the writer is a different person than the characters and he doesn't necessarily like them in real life. Also these were the situations during his time ,women were always mistreated and it was a patriarchal community! Women were suffering but for then it was the normal. So bear in mind the time and place the writer lived! That is a very childish point of you of yours !
Yessssssssss I love all the other Katzanzakis books and am really upset with this one. Half way in and still waiting for some sort of redemption but I guess there won’t be any. To everyone saying that this is a childish point and that “back than it was normal” I say we still have to criticize this book and retrieve its glory so that it’s ideas do not contaminate new minds. Katzanzakis (as far as I’ve read, which is honestly too far) does not offer any criticism of Zorba’s terrible ideas. He instead seams to glorify him as the ideal Greek male. If you know anything about Greek education you know that literature like this is still being used up to today to promote this highly problematic ideal of National male identity that Zorbas embodies. So fuck this book really.
I was about to comment something serious but no serious person answers f@#$ in a book review! That's disgusting
Someone, I can’t remember who, wrote a book about primitive men. It was disgusting how they dressed in animal skins. Can you believe they rarely even washed? And they actually failed to cook their meals and forced themselves on women and fought each other relentlessly. Should we castigate such an author for incorporating realism? Your sensitivity to male domination is obvious but is insufficient explanation for denigrating a most excellent writer. I’m so sorry you were made to feel bad. Perhaps a book on evolution would soothe you a bit?
I agree 100% with your review. I am struggling with this book. I am halfway thru and debating whether to carry on with this read. It’s kinda hard to stomach in 2022.
Agree! I kept waiting/hoping for another angle on any of the female characters. Young and/or beautiful women are evil and old women are disgusting. All are whores. Hey remember how I already described this women as a fat old wrinkly blob? Well here she is again and let me make it clear how repulsed you should be by how she looks. disappointing
a completely illiterate review that should be ignored
Good example of the poison of our times in a nutshell. It's hard not to see the pattern everywhere. Slightly unfortunate perhaps that Goodreads appears to be not much different from Twitter.The pattern goes like: person reads [book/article/comment etc]. If he/she doesn't approve of a part of it, everything else is ignored, nuance is abandoned, perspective is abandoned, understanding is abandoned, the whole thing is straw manned, dislike is turned into disgust, the rating is one star. Others join in with their approval or disaproval, preferably in the form of a oneliner, or a one or five star rating of the comment, and we got us a nice little myopic echo chamber. And this is just a book review...
You got point but ONE STAR ! Please be for real
You perfectlydescribedmy experiencereading this.
I’m sorry that some people might never read this wonderful book because of this and similar reviews. Before reading any book, we must learn to approach it from the context in which it was written, through the lens of its sociopolitical background. Books don’t exist only to confirm our beliefs or match our values. They are here to challenge us, to transport us, to teach us something, and to make us feel. And that’s what makes them powerful.That said, I do understand why certain scenes can cause discomfort when read through a modern lens. But reducing the book to a “terrible mess” overlooks its deeper purpose: it was never meant to be a guidebook on morality. Zorba is not a role model — he is a force of nature. The violence, the passivity, the contradictions — they are all part of a broader reflection on human existence, not a celebration of it.
Literature isn’t here to make us feel safe or to provide easy answers. It’s here to show us the world, even its darkest corners, and to invite us to think, feel, and question.
provide easy answers. It’s here to show us the world, even its darkest corners, and to invite us to think, feel, and question.
Agree with you Christina. If we are to write off literature that doesn’t confirm to today’s view and moral code that we neglect an entire history of culture. And Zorba is clearly flawed but I don’t think the book is even condoning it just laying one man’s passions and flaws bare.
It is like reading Crime and Punishment and saying that the book is terrible because at times it is a justification of murder.
Everyone is entitled to their opinions sure, but this review is screaming “tell me you can’t read between the lines without telling me you can’t read between the lines”. I mean, you lose a lot of the joy and excitement in reading if you can’t acknowledge the universal themes of a story beyond its plot. If you can’t see underneath the physicalities of the plot in this book, then truly I’m sorry. You’re missing out on an enlightening, or at the very least interesting/thought provoking, experience.
Judging from your other low ratings on many books some of them great, you look like a sour person who tries to fight his complex of being unable to create even the worst piece of literature by feeling some kind of superiority when you give these "ratings".
That's a very sad and biased review of the book. A comment above says it best: "Andreas Louskos: It is like reading Crime and Punishment and saying that the book is terrible because at times it is a justification of murder."
Well said 👏 tedious and dated machismo
You got further than I did and captured my sentiments in your first 2 paragraphs!
I’m 1/3 of the way through and feeling the same way. I’m struggling to finish it.
Look another guy that fell in the trap of individualism and feel bad of everything that don’t represent his own values beliefs and interests.
