extremely refreshing to read some Miller again. I think this might be his best I've read, simply because the setting of Greece is perfect for the diatribe about evil civilization and true spirituality that he's always going on about. I can't really help that I love Miller because I mostly agree with his iconoclastic ideas, but the general form (same as always: this is my life, these are my ideas) is the most honest literature's ever been. The backdrop of WWII also provides a real immediacy here, in short, it's just Henry Miller but it's the best setting he's ever had. ( )

The Colossus of Maroussi is a literary memoir about Greece. More than that it is a paean to the idea of Greece as Henry Miller shares some of his life and love of that land and its meaning for him. The incandescent spirit of Miller and Greece is on every page and the joy that creates cannot help but permeate the reader's soul. Miller's descriptive powers are immense and he evokes beautiful sunlit mornings and evenings on the Aegean with ease. For those who already know Greece from the classics it is a reaffirmation of the meaning of the people and their land; for those who do not already know Greece it is an awakening of the spirit. With literary references and reverential treatment of the gods and demigods present everywhere this book takes you an a journey that you do not want to see end. Ever since I read his The Tropic of Cancer I have loved Miller's work. This memoir provides another reason to embrace his literary world. ( )

Covering Miller's travels in Greece (1939-1940) following his time in Paris writing the "Tropic" books, this book stands out as being a quite different beast. Totally lacking in explicit language or sexual conquests, "Maroussi" reflects more of a spiritual awakening in a non-secular, more humanistic sense, detailed in a series of epiphanies as Miller journeys from Athens to ancient spots such as Eleusis, Mycenae, and Knossos. Miller fully acknowledges his ignorance of the Greek language and the country's history, and the continual mixing of school-boy memories of Greek mythology with Miller's observations of contemporary Greece will certainly annoy those familiar with ancient Greece. However, the visceral flow of Miller’s language as he growingly comes to realize his path to happiness through transmission of the human spirit more than makes up for any inaccuracies. Highlights include fascinating portraits of the larger-than-life poets Katsimbalis (the colossus of the title) and Lawrence Durrell, a surrealistic bebop riff on French bourgeois living, an ominous portrait of a nation about to be swept up in WWII, and a stark, revelatory passage set literally atop Agamemnon's tomb (or it's supposed location). No red flags.

Basically a travel book about pre-WWII Greece. Miller fawns a bit but his observations of life in Greece are fun to read...and sometimes insightful. ( )

When one hears the name Henry Miller one thinks of the “Tropics” and “The Rosy Crucifixion” and rightfully so. Though he may have had antecedents (if genius has antecedents) in Cendrars and Celine, he broke new ground in American writing and was truly revelatory for readers half a century ago. Readers like myself who lived near Big Sur and couldn’t get enough of his, at times, bombastic and bellicose prose. But there is nothing bombastic in “The Colossus of Maroussi” and perhaps for that reason it’s the one book of his I have the greatest affection for. In the “The Colossus” everything is clear. Water becomes an event, light is transcendent. This is not so much a book about Greece (though, as one reviewer noted, it is one of the greatest travel books of all time), but about a modern man who rediscovers himself in the cradle of Western civilization. Miller feels everything about Greece; the heat, dust, the people, the space and its’ ambiance. It feels as though everything came together for him in this book; a grand coalescence, if you will. It is about the spirit of a place and mans place in the infinity of being. ( )