Customer Reviews

The Colossus of Maroussi

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This must be counted among the most peculiar books ever wrtitten about Greece by an Anglophone writer, but it is also among the most truthful and , at least in part, beautiful. Henry Miller states that he approaches Greece with little book learning (p. 89) and considers himself a savage. He is really no savage but we can perhaps call him a barbarian, in the sense that Walt Whitman and Robert Browning are barbarians. This is an important point that distinguishes him from his friend and fellow philhellene writer Lawrence Durrell, who also wrote a good deal about Greece but with another kind of imaginative but more refined sensitivity. The title of this book refers to someone called Katzimbalis, a magnificent raconteur who seems never to have published anything himself but did a lot to promote the work of some important modern Greek poets. (See Edmund Keeley's books for details of the great English-Greek-American literary friendships of the thirties and forties.) But the book is not really about its purported subject. It is about the changes taking place in Greece during the thirties and changes that took place in Miller as a result of his long stay in that country. He presents the experience as mind-altering. The structural pivots of the book are visits to Knossos, Phaestos, Mycenae and Epidaurus. Each of these visits becomes an occasion for meditations on the meaning of life and death, all delivered in the author's peculiarly masculine and barbarian style. But the best writing is found when he deals with the low-lifes of Syntagma Square in Athens, who offer him whores and beautiful young boys. How innocent life was in the thirties. Listing is an important part of Miller's style. He piles up great numbers of nouns or present participles or finite verbs. Sometimes the reader feels a bit overwhelmed by them. Miller lived in France for quite a while and brings to his work the post-adolescent dislike of American culture and society that used to infect every intelligent American a few generations ago. Everything American is bad...everything Greek is good. Miller is passionate about nearly everything and dosn't try to hide it. He doesn't write to give the reader pretty words but to give a vision of truth as he sees it. I think he sees it well, even though his vision is different from mine.

As a Greek-American reading about Greece in Miller's account written in the 1930's, I found it to be very moving. It isn't simply a travel book about Greece, it's about Greece healing someone's soul!

I absolutely love Miller's, "Tropic of Cancer," and was expecting the same style for Maroussi. However, I was mistaken. Miller doesn't include any of his notorious womanizing stories here. Instead, Miller writes about finding peace in contemplating Greece, modern and ancient. Again, his written prose is like reading poetry. There are some passages from this book that I had to "cut out" and keep for inspiration.

I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in Henry Miller or Greece. I must also recommend Edmund Keeley's, "Inventing Paradise," which is something of a companion to Maroussi. In it, Keeley discusses Miller's Greek journey, which he took along with George Seferis, Lawrence Durrell, and other 20th century Greek poets, writers, and painters.

Reading this book (along with a couple by Lawrence Durrell) in my early 20s was the impetus for my husband and me to quit our jobs, put our belongings in storage, sell our 2 cars, and take off with a couple of backpacks for Greece. Miller's ability to render the landscape and the people in the incomparable clarity of Greece's pure air is a rare talent. The Colossus of Maroussi is destined to be read for a long time, for it has a timeless power to transport the reader not only into the mind of the author but also into mind, heart, and soul of the Greek people. They could not have had a more loving and compassionate chronicler than Henry Miller.

Henry Miller's reputation as a writer needs little verification from the likes of me. Nevertheless, it is a pleasure to be able to confirm the abilities of a truly great author. This example of his work is in some ways a peculiar one since it was written during a turning point in modern history, namely the Second World War, and was inevitably a turning point in Miller's own life as well.

Henry Miller has not always had kind things to say about his native U. S. A. Here, in "The Colossus of Maroussi," he uses the American state as a kind of false backdrop for his discoveries in Greece. For Greece is the central geographical landscape on which he builds. Far from being a travelogue, however, it is a story of that ancient land and some of its people; Miller uses the fabric of Greek life to weave a story of mankind.

His writing is distinctly dated today, but delightfully so. It is full of a poetic imagery that is almost entirely absent from the main stream of post-modern literature. As such, it is very complex writing which occasionally seems to be almost self-serving, as if the author was writing for no one but himself. In the main, it is a very accessible book that tries to reach out in pure, non-political terms to touch the essential core of what is man. At the present time, we could do well to review our own situation in life, and one way of doing so is by simply reviewing the literature on the subject. I recommend "The Colossus of Maroussi" as a place to start. Besides being the work of a truly formidable writer, it will take you to places you probably never dreamed existed.

This is a small book with a big heart, an eloquent and enlightening memoir of Greece, where Henry Miller stayed briefly prior to leaving Europe for America at the begining of World War II. It is perhaps his best literary effort. For those who know Miller only through Tropic of Cancer or any of his other controversial books, pick this up today. If your local vendor doesn't have it, order it. Your eyes will be opened not only to the sun-drenched beauty of a country, but to the kind and loving genius of a man. You will see how truly visionary, human, and humane Miller was as he recounts his experiences and the people he befriended. His reflections are poetry here, his recollections sheer magic. You will be left with the knowledge of having experienced someone undergoing a spiritual transformation, and of being freed yourself. That is the book's gift to any reader. A country was never given a greater love letter. It is olives, bread and wine for the soul.

When he was not tackling sex and philosophy, Henry Miller traveled. The Colossus of Maroussi is a book of those later times, when he, an "American Savage", entered the world of peace, beauty, and most of all, simplicity he was longing for while living in America. Nothing could prepare him for what he encountered in Greece, not the streets of New York, nor the streets of Paris. Although enamored with France, Miller's passion for Europe goes way further in this book, which at times reads more like L. D. novel than Miller's own. Yet, at the same time he manages to wrap himself in the beauty he encounters, dive in it without holding a breath and resourface a new, more complete being, spellbound by his experience. If only there were more writers like him -- ahh, wishful thinking. Most of all, this book shows Miller in a different light, not limited by his fame for writing about sex (actually, most of his books are not) he explores a new land, unknown to him until then. His ability to take the reader's hand and walk throughout the countryside, observe the people, customs and scenery, is combined with philosophy and his personal views (What else would you expect from Miller?). I have shared this book with many people who did not like Miller and their minds were changed forever. What more can be said? Nothing -- read the book and find out for yourself.

I highly recommend this book to everyone. The book was written and finished on the eve of WWII. And the "Colossus of Maroussi" is by far the most enjoyable book I have ever read by Henry Miller. It is not too often that one can pick up a book and read over and over again as I have done with "Colossus Of Maroussi." Miller wrote this most beautiful of all books after having left France, and having finished his more notable "Tropic," books. My wife, who was my girlfriend at the time, introduced me to the book. Up to this time I was very well read. Having read all the classics, fiction, and non-fiction alike. Dostoevsky was my favorite, and I have read many books that have stayed with me all my life: Balzac, Gogal, Rabelais, Montaigne, Dante, Chaucer, Milton, Cervantes, Joyce, etc. Everyone that is but Henry Miller.

Thankfully my future wife was a Henry Miller fan, because this book moved me like few books have ever moved me before or since. Miller's vision of what he encounters in Greece will captivate you---the reader. I am writing this review because when I encounter people who are well-read, most have never heard of this wonderful gem of a novel. I really dislike the word "travel-novel" that is attached to this book, because it is more than that. It is an introspective book that captures Henry Miller at his best. I am pleased that I did not read Henry Miller's other book's before I read this novel: I may not have appreciated Miller's writing as much as I do today. Having read many of Henry Miller's books since first turning the pages of this greatly overlooked "Masterpiece," [Yes, to me the book is a masterpiece of writing] I highly recommend the book.

I find this book one of the better ones of Henry Miller that I have read: Especially considering it was written by an American on Greece. [American Savage: As Miller refers to himself]. It's kind of funny to think about this now, however, after I first read this book, I actually wanted to go to Greece and experience the same sort of journey that Henry Miller experienced. Even going so far as to retracing his footsteps in his journey. Well, I was much younger then. However, I do believe that you will enjoy this novel, as Miller does not write in any way, shape, or form like his Tropic novels. Miller's writing has a way of almost making you experience life in Greece. Therefore, I recommend the book highly, for you will not be disappointed. [Stars: 5+]

This book is not perfect. I don't even agree with some of Miller's overly romantic view of the ancient past. But, some of the sections are so beautiful that they'll make you weep with joy. This book is like any other transforming experiences in life. They're not faultless. They have peaks and valleys. But the emotions they impart are real, profound, and timeless.

This is a beautifully written book. A real poem in prose. I do not agree with his psychological antipathy with his fellow Americans. However, everything he writes about Greece and Greeks makes me very proud of my heritage and sooths my soul. I find that even today life in the islands and the non touristic inland is as simple, beautiful and moving as Miller describes it. Nothing changed in the friendlines and hospitality, the legendery "philoxenia", of Greeks. I still feel the same peace and wonder that Miller describes over a sunset by a shore, and the same life altering experience by resting at ancient ruins. It is a book of love about Greece. A book that could not be written by a Greek, as it would be considered too presumptuous.
I am grateful he wrote it. It is a pleasure to read. This is a gift that I choose to offer to my friends.

Henry Miller is the "forgotten" genius of American literature, probably because of his political views and his attacks on the "perfect" protestant society. I admire him deeply so as a Greek (Hellenas) I was flattered to read such an inspired account on the idea and nation that is Greece. During his trip to my homeland, amongst the olive trees and the Mediterranean (sheer magic in her own right!), and with the company of a truly gigantic character he unravels the magic that is Greece and in essence enlightens us to the fact that the magic is still there and will be forever. A beautifully written book by a great American writer.
I think it was Goethe that said that "..from all the different cultures Greeks dreamed the dream of life the best"