The caique from Lavra - a review
The Caique from Lavra, by Michael Nikoletseas - a review
This is the story of Mikail, his journey to Athonite monasticism. If you are looking for a book on sermons, admonition and miracles, look elsewhere. If you have read "The Bear" by William Falkner and found it boring, if you have been wondering why such a big fuss about it, you will feel the same reading The Caique.
Michail visits Athos and for unexplained reasons he feels anxiety or fear overcoming him. This triggers a flight around Athos and a desperate attempt to leave Athos instantly. An experience with the police at the airport of Thessaloniki has such a profound effect on him that he cancels his flight and returns to Athos.
He spends the summer at the monastery of Megisti Lavra. As fall approaches he decides to leave. He goes down the hill to the little port of the monastery to catch the caique. The events that follow are such that the reader becomes aware of the universality of this story. This story is about dark paths man's soul traverses in life and death.
Here I have confined myself to the manifest content of the story. The real story is in the realm of the spiritual. That is for later.
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You can now read the book at Harvard, also in English and Greek here
https://play.google.com/store/books/details/Michael_Nikoletseas_THE_CAIQ...
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it is like a dream, not clear
it is like a dream, not clear why things happen, its like a detective story, figure it out yourself, I think the visit to the cave of St Athanasios is the key.
yes, like a detective story.
yes, like a detective story. I think the cop at the airport is center of the story.
the cop, the cop in the
the cop, the cop in the finale!
The cop!
The cop!
Athos, you refer to Faukner's
Athos, you refer to Faukner's Bear. I suspect you see parallels...
I think there is no parallel.
I think there is no parallel. In Faulkner's story a young man searches for a bear, here Mikhail searches for God.
Same
In Anthropology, totemic concepts, male searches for male totem,
Faulkner's Bear is the gospel
Faulkner's Bear is the gospel of Man, the masculine of the species. All my literary work, including my work on the Classics, is a humble footnote to The Bear.
The Male hunt.
The Male hunt.
Athos, the ending sends
Athos, the ending sends chills down my spine. It is packed, boom! I think the story is not about the monk, its about death.
Chilling ending. He is dying
Chilling ending. He is dying alone. God nowhere!
Indeed! considering he is a
Indeed! considering he is a monk!
God is there but not surely.
God is there but not surely. The gendarme!
God is present in the story, the shepherds, the policeman, the gendarme guarding the port. The boatman at Hilandari. This story appears ridiculously simple and badly written, however it is packed, dynamite!
Thank Billy.
Thank Billy.
a time capsule of Mt Athos
a time capsule of Mt Athos now taken over by American consumerism.
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