the colossus of maroussi by henry miller

Here, as always, we see Miller as primitive shaman, awed and humbled by nature and humanity, disdainful of modernity and materialism: “Mechanical devices have nothing to do with man’s real nature-they are merely traps which Death has baited for him.” We were in the dead center of that soft silence which absorbs even the breathing of gods…Through the thick pores of the earth the dreams of men long dead still bubbled and burst, their diaphanous filament carried skyward by flocks of startled birds.” Why had no one prepared me for this? I cried out…We were amidst the low mounds and hummocks which had been stunned motionless by the swift messengers of light. “…Out of the corner of my eye I caught the full devastating beauty of the great plain of Thebes which we were approaching and, unable to control myself, I burst into tears. Like most of Miller’s writing, from the joyous novel Tropic of Cancer to his trenchant essays, this book succeeds thanks to his freewheeling iconoclasm, his divine madness, and his inimitable language: They brought me face to face with myself, they cleansed me of hatred and jealousy and envy.” “I love these men, each and every one,” writes Miller, “for having revealed to me the true proportions of the human being…the goodness, the integrity, the charity which they emanated. At its core lies Miller’s spiritual transformation through welcomed encounters with warm-hearted, generous, high-spirited Greeks, particularly the “colossus” Katsimbalis. The Canadian critic Northrop Frye once said that the “story of the loss and regaining of identity…is the framework of all literature.” That certainly applies well to travel literature, where the journey often occurs within the narrator as well as over the Earth, and in particular to The Colossus of Maroussi. Rather, the book stands as a compelling paean to the Greek spirit, to liberty, and to life-as well as a barbaric yawp prefiguring the coming cataclysm. But, like all great travel books, it’s much more than mere depiction of beautiful landscapes, missed connections, bad weather, and surly waiters-though Miller recounts those as well.

Some critics call The Colossus of Maroussi- Henry Miller‘s account of his trip to Greece on the eve of World War II-the greatest travel book ever.

The Colossus of Maroussi, by Henry Miller

The colossus of maroussi by henry miller