Christ Recrucified

This is a remarkably clever, emotional and challenging novel. It is in essence a simple story: a Greek village re-enacts the life of Christ every four years, individuals are given parts to play - how much are they inherently like or do they taken on themselves the biblical/personalities roles? The long novel of 470pages deepens the idea on so many levels you'll love it.Ok a little more detail. The location is a smallish town called Lycovrissi on mainland Turkey (Anatolia) occupied by Greeks in the 1920s. The town is overseen by the Turkish Agha, who is just about the only Turk mentioned (except his two teenage male lovers?); though the town itself is run by the rich miser Ladas, the old Dr Patrarchis and the conniving priest Grigoris.The town is host to the usual variety of individuals and I found it useful to keep a note of the characters and their given roles (by the priest Grigoris) in the re-enactment so here goes:Panayataros - saddler (Judas)Kostandis - family man and cafe owner (James)Yanakos - carrier and mule owner (Peter)Katerina - widow and hussy (Magdelen)Patrachis - doctor and heavy weight (Pilate)Michelis - Partachis's son (John)Ladas - married to Martha (Caiaphus)Manolios - sheep herd (Jesus)Mariori - Grigoris daughterHadis - schoolmaster & Grigoris brotherLeno - Manolios' loveFortunas - captain and Agha's drinking buddyDemitri - butcherThe village is going strong until a group of displaced (from the Smyrna district), poor and starving Greeks headed by father Fotis descend on the town and moves into the local mountain caves (at a sign from God). The righteous want to help (e.g. Manolios) while the wealthy self-interested want rid (Ladas and Grigoris). The depth of the story comes from the roles the individual have taken on, the turn of events they themselves seem to initiate to actually self-fulfill them e.g. Manolios, and the deeper true roles they actually play e.g. is it Patrachis or the Agha who actual behave like Pilate? Sufficient to say it all ends in tears not least helped along up by Panayatros who introduces the idea of a Bolshevik conspiracy.I loved this story and think it Kazantzakis's best. My blood boiled at the inequity of the priest and the town. The characters are deep and well rounded. There are lots of side interests Mariori's illness, Agha's passions, murder, the hypocrisy, Magdelen's righteousness, the poor's need for violence, Yanakos love of his mule and so on. The one thing I suspect went over my head was the necessary knowledge of the less well known (to me) biblical characters (James, Peter etc) but despite this lack of Christian understanding I can recommend the book.

This is one of the best books I have read. Although in essence, it re-enacts Christ's passion the depth of this book is so profound that it throws up, through its extremely strong characters, our failures and our strengths as a human race. Set in the early part of the 20th century in a part of Greece still under Ottoman rule the scenery is vivid, the scenes themselves recognisably Greek in their portrayal. The author travelled widely and the reader can feel that perhaps he doesn't share the same blind faith of good and bad as his characters.

I first read this book in my native greek 18 years ago. I reread it in english 18 years later and was just as enthralled. Obviously a translation can never exactly match the original, the author thought and felt and described in greek. However the translation is superb and I enjoyed it tremendously. To be honest, as an atheist, maybe I am biased as religion and the fanaticism it can create, is left with a lot to answer for. Nikos Kazantzakis is no stranger to controversy though and when he sets the scene of the new priest arriving in a desperately poor greek village, you know there will be complications. When it is decided to recreate Christ's crucifixion things begin to unravel spectacularly. Highly recommended.

It makes sense to read this in the environment it was written in. OK Kazantzakis probably didn't write it on the beach but that's splitting hairs.

Best book ever.

A book everyone should read... Could do with a better translation, as sometimes its a bit off the mark, but overall one of the books who grip your attention from the first moment..

all good

My enjoyment of this book has been severly impaired by the fact that pages 24 to 48 were missing and were replaced by pages 433 to 456 which also appear in their correct place later in the book.Will anyone at Amazon, Faber & Faber (publishers) or Mackays of Chatham (printers) read or respond to this???