Rating: 
Summary: One of Miller's best
Review: I want to encourage any fan of Miller that this is a worthy read. I have read at least half a dozen other Miller novels and would rank this one with the best of them. Infinitely better than Air-Conditioned Nightmare and Big Sur, rich in ideas and beautifully truthful insights, penned with the expertise of the seasoned and worldly Miller. Well worth your time.
Rating: 
Summary: Sing Muses, of the rage of Henry
Review: If you are a Henry Miller fan "Colussus" is worth reading ... However, I wouldn't consider it one of his best works. At times it seems artificial and strained in its attempt.
Henry went to Greece just before WWII broke out after spending almost ten years in Paris. He visits some of the great sites of ancient Greek civilization but generally does not seem to give an evocative picture of what these sites represent. One feels that some stronger connection to the great achievements of this civilisation is lacking and Henry admits that he never read a line of Homer and his knowledge of Greek history is almost null. Thus, his discriptions of the grecian landscape and the archeological sites seem merely to be flashy literary effects and imaginative exaggerations. What makes the book worthwhile are his descriptions of the friendly and ready to please Greek peasants, the boring and annoying American and English tourists, and the simple and proud Greek-Americans (who annoyed the hell out of him). Big-city Henry shunned the materialistic world and worshipped that which the tourists and Greek-Americans from Chicago deplored. He prefers dirt, dust, chaos, donkeys and honest poverty to the sick, fat, spoiled excesses of Paris and New York. His additude echos Socrates' remark upon viewing goods spread out in the market that such a display only makes clear to him what little he needs. Henry was always rather poor and proud of it. His avoidance of the boring American tourist, the so-called "ugly American," is something fellow expatriots can relate to...he felt closest to the honest Greek peasant, which probably was in part a reaction to his years living in busy Paris. As an American in Greece he was treated almost as a demi-god. At that time America was a different country, still more or less pure in its foreign policy and true to its founding principles. America at that time was a hero to these Europeans, even with its greatest heroic role yet to come in the liberation of Europe.
This book is classified as a travel book. The only "travel book" thing about it is that Henry travels in it. If I were planning a trip to Greece I'd rather read "Lonely Planet" or "Let's Go," along with a great book on Greek cultural history such as the "Oxford History of Greece and the Hellenistic World," "The Histories" by Herodotus, or Egon Friedell's fantastic "Kulturgeschichte Griechenlands."
Rating: 
Summary: Flawless writing - flawed writer
Review: In my youth, Henry Miller was IT. He's a writer's writer, and his prose is surpassed only by Graham Greene, in the English language. That's something no one can take away. However, as I matured, I found that Henry Miller did not. He is in some sense the quintessential New York writer - a complainer. Quite harsh on people. At this point I consider him something of a tragic figure, who wasted enormous talent. If you look about, he is ignored in the literary world today, which is a sad legacy.
Rating:
Summary: Responce to Mr. "Bouzoukia"
Review: Of course you cant find any of what Miller is describing in the book, in todays youth, in Greece. For once your are not living there any more. Second you are anothter one of those Greek-Americans that Miller avoided like cholera while in Greece... Next time maybe should try to catch a sunset at Sounio, or the sun-rise at Likavito, instead of breaking "piata" at the bouzoukia evey night. One Should be more carefull before he offends the youth of a nation, particullary if still some part (probably the better part) of himself still has something in common. The Greek youth is glad you are in the States... stay over there...
Rating:
Summary: This book sent me to Greece for a year
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: Achingly Beautiful
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: The Ghost of Henry Miller
Review: This book is quite simply one of the best travelogues ever written. Never has a writer described a place so vividly and in a so unapologetically personal manner. His impressions are filled with wonder and light, much in the way the mountains and seas of Greece are.Miller's love inspired me to go to Greece and to write about it myself. My own stories are a poor shadow of Miller's greatness, of course. His barbarous prose spills off the page, oozing passion and joy. Although Miller's Tropic of Cancer may be the better 'novel' - The Colossus of Maroussi will find a more special place in your heart.
Rating:
Summary: A book that flatters my patriotism and sooths my soul.
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: Miller's underappreciated masterpiece!
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: maybe the finest travel book about greece
Review: This may be the greatest travel book ever written about Greece because it is so unpretentious and has none of the romantic tripe that one gets with a lot Philhellenism. It is also wonderful as a narrative of peace before the gathering storm of WWII that would consume most of Europe, including Greece. More than anything, however, it is perhaps the finest writing that Henry Miller ever did because it is simply him traveling around Greece, feeling damn glad to be there, enjoying the frienship of Durrell and Katzimbalis, and taking pleasure in the wine, the sea, and the warmth of the Greek people. If you like this book, try Patrick Leigh Fermor's "Mani" and "Roumeli." He's a bit more scholarly than Miller, but he too taps in to the same essence as Miller and refuses to get sappy about "the glory that was Greece."
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