The Maze

by Panos Karnezis

Book Overview

The bastard love child of 'M*A*S*H' and Shakespeare...Supple prose and perfectly tuned dialogue.--Philip Connors, Newsday In the summer of 1922, the Greek army is in retreat from Asia Minor, leaving... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0374204802
• ISBN13: 9780374204808
• Release Date: March 2004
• Publisher: Farrar Straus Giroux
• Length: 364 Pages
• Weight: 1.20 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 5.8" x 8.4"

Customer Reviews

The Greek retreat

Set during the 1919-22 Greek-Ottoman war in Asia Minor, the story follows the retreat of a defeated Greek battalion accross the Anatolian desert to the sea and their brief but profoundly changing occupation of a small town previously isolated from the war. The book is semi comic semi tragic in style, and Karnezis builds up each character (including a dog and a bathtub!) with histories that-although amusing-tend to pad out the thin plot rather than add to it. This makes for enjoyable reading,but ultimately 'The Maze' falls short of being really satisfying. It has been feted as a fable on how war corrupts and changes everything in its path,but in reality never it never really moves away from being anything other than a good story.But if you want heavy reading, there's plenty to be found,so enjoy this for what it is !

Great Book - Fantastic Use of Descriptive Language

I really enjoyed the maze, so much I even contemplated giving it 5 stars instead of 4. It is a beautifully written book, very descriptive and pretty straight on the mark with its history. My only qualm with the book is that Greek names were not used for the Greek army stuck in Asia Minor, which I found quite odd...and it gets off to a slow start till the army enters the town. At times I thought are they going to wander the desert forever? Overall I would completely recommend this book, especially to any fans of historic fiction.

to see the sea

one feels the desert's choke.....the town's hope, yet the sea does not deliver. a good easy read..if you put it down and pick it back up....latter...you will not miss a beat.

Five stars with quibbles

This is the story of a lost Greek brigade in the Anatolian steppe at the end of WWI, presumably about to be routed (or at least rerouted) by Ataturk's resurgent Turkish army (see previous review.) This would be a five star book if it weren't for the intrusive footnotes which interrupt the text to explain an array of quite well known Greek myths, and a slightly offputting, Garcia-Marquesan distance between the author and his characters. Otherwise, a thoughtful book with impressive historical and psychological resonance.

A Fantastic Debut Novel --- Keep an Eye on Karnezis!

At the end of the Greco-Turkish War, one Greek brigade wanders lost in the Anatolian desert. Led by Brigadier Nestor, the soldiers hope they are marching toward the sea and the end of their disastrous tour of duty. The war is over, but the men in Panos Karnezis's debut novel, THE MAZE, must battle on.Brigadier Nestor, an aging career soldier still devastated by his wife's death a year earlier, has become addicted to morphine and Greek mythology. His second-in-command, Chief of Staff Major Porfirio, while appearing to be a model soldier, is keeping a treasonous secret. The company priest, Father Simeon, imagines himself the Apostle of All Anatolians, but in fact is just a thief. And the rest of the brigade is not fairing too well either. Subsisting almost entirely on cornmeal, their morale is low and things are growing stranger the longer they wander.It seems though that the luck of the brigade is finally changing. First, a Greek pilot crashes from the sky bringing hope that perhaps they are being searched for. Then, following a runaway horse, they come across a quiet village virtually untouched by the war. The inhabitants and tales of the village are just as interesting and complicated as those of the brigade. The mayor is about to marry the madame of the brothel, the church is overrun with rats and the Turkish Muslim quarter is surrounded by an open sewer. This village does not offer the comforts the brigade had longed for. Brigadier Nestor still hopes to lead the men to the sea and escape, and the mayor knows the way. But before they can leave they must all contend with a desperate war correspondent and one final act of violence that permanently scars the village. This act oddly reflects another moment of violence that haunts the brigade and lies just beneath the surface of all they do.The brigade may finally escape the maze of the Anatolian desert, but each man is forever marred not only by the war but by what has happened since the war ended. The worst casualties may have nothing to do with battle.Karnezis's debut novel is fantastic. Unlike many war novels, the violence is something that exists for the most part in the margins, coloring the actions of the characters in a subtle and complex way. This story is really about the emotional effects of the war --- feelings of desperation, loneliness, anger, dissatisfaction and, literally and figuratively, wandering lost in the war's aftermath.Karnezis's writing style is clear and straightforward but without the coldness of, say, a Hemingway novel. The ideas, characters and situations are touched with something so unique that it seems to verge on magical realism, although nothing magical ever takes place. The characters are all realistically flawed. Several are actually quite mad but they remain sympathetic.THE MAZE offers an interesting commentary on war and aggression and its effects on individuals and communities. This is a recommendable novel and Karnezis is an author to keep an eye on. --- Rev