"While experiencing happiness, we have difficulty in being conscious of it. Only when the happiness is past and we look back on it do we suddenly realise - sometimes with astonishment - how happy we had been. But on this Cretan coast I was experiencing happiness and knew I was happy."
I've always considered reading a worthy activity. Being buried in a book while the rest of the world is busy with less cultivated pursuits like living...wait, living? Isn't that the point?
And nobody lived more fully than Zorba The Greek.
The story follows the friendship of two contradictory characters. Zorba who learned about life through experience, and the narrator, who learned about life through books.
"I was envious of the man. He had lived with his flesh and blood - fighting, killing, kissing - all that I had tried to learn through pen and ink alone."
The characters become inseparable friends. They try to learn about the meaning of life from each other while pursuing an ambitious business venture in the coast of Crete. The characters' experiences always intersect at one of the central questions of life. Who is right? The ascetic who sacrifices today's worldly pleasure for a promise of a better future or the Zorbas of the world who don't spare a bit for eternity and throw themselves headlong into life.
Of course, you will not find the answer in a book.
Ink and paper will never teach you life's most profound lessons. You may learn them on a surface level, but they will not be ingrained in your soul like what you live. You avoid touching a hot stove because you've felt the burn, and that's a lesson you carry for the rest of your life. We know what gives us joy, boredom, and of course, what gives us pain. But we only learn these, if we dare to live.
Only through experience we discover who we are, and our God-given gifts. Zorba embodies this ethos fully. He knows not because he read, or conducted a study, or learned at school. He knows because instinct guides him.
Yet, instinct can betray us. Zorba also has his vices. He lacks morals, he is untrustworthy, and cannot control his impulses -- the kind of person you want to drink with or have on your side in a fight -- but not to lead an engineering project.
That's why the friendship between the narrator and Zorba is so magnetic. They need to learn from each other. Ideally you would combine both. The wisest have a life well lived and a library full of (read) books.
I learned more from Zorba though. I am more on the bookish side (obviously, I write book reviews). Self-doubt and dwelling over small details has held me back from living. I definitely need to spend less time pondering, and more time acting.
But nothing will change my mind about this... after a good day of living there's nothing better than a good book.
I dedicate this review to my Greek friend, AA, who is pure unfiltered action.