Christ Recrucified (original 1948; edition 2001)

Very fine. The parallels between the original events and the staging of the local passion play are shrewdly managed. I particularly liked Kazantazakis' sense of pace. This is a relatively long book, but there is no dragging and there is consistent forward motion. The "Herod" character is particularly amusing, very believable in this context. ( )

Chef d'oeuvre ( )

This book is a beautiful meditation on how the true adoption of Christ-like attitudes changes a good person into a great person, and how the simple sincere gospel threatens the powerful, rich and greedy. Kazantzakis may have written his characters alittle too sharply; few characters had real, complex lives. Perhaps because those who were complex were destroyed by their own emotions, Michelis and Panayartoras. Both lost the woman they loved. One turned to destruction, trying to destroy the world. The other turned to acetism, turning his back on the world. And Manolios and the widow both found salvation in martrydom, though the "church" refused to recognize their sacrifice as salvation. The book continually asks the question why the "church" refuses to see Christ and insists on it's own righteousness. ( )