Crete

by Barry Unsworth

With his sure grasp of history and wide-ranging curiosity, Barry Unsworth brings to life the rich heritage of Crete and her stubbornly independent people, whose fierce spirit has withstood successive waves of invaders.
Unsworth explores every aspect of this realm, from the ancient myth of the Minotaur to the stunning archaeological sites that reveal the secrets of long-lost civilizations, from remote hermits' caves to Venetian palazzos to the Mosque of the Janissaries, fearsome shock troops of the Ottoman Empire. And woven throughout are tales of the heroes at the heart of the Cretan self-image, like the proud sixteenth-century rebel George Kandanoleon, who fought the Venetian invaders to a standstill until he was betrayed at a wedding-feast massacre worthy of a tragedy by Sophocles or Shakespeare.

Genres: Travel, History, Nonfiction, Greece, Ebooks, Ancient History

176 pages, Hardcover

First published February 1, 2004

About the author

Barry Unsworth was an English writer known for his historical fiction. He published 17 novels, and was shortlisted for the Booker Prize three times, winning once for the 1992 novel Sacred Hunger.

Reviews

[Gail Pool · Rating 4 out of 5]

Even for the Greeks of old, “Crete was the most venerable and ancient place imaginable,” says the novelist Barry Unsworth in his chronicle of a trip he took to the island with his wife one spring. According to myth, Crete was the birthplace of Zeus, and it was where Zeus later carried Europa, daughter of a Phoenician king, having seduced her in the shape of a bull. “Crete then, not only gave Europe its name, it was where Europe began,” he says, “a truth Cretans have always known.”

Writing with imagery that is evocative but not flamboyant, Unsworth conveys the antiquity—as well as the spirit—of this rugged island which abounds in caves, gorges, and magnificent views of the sea. Visiting ruins, he recounts both the colorful old myths and the history of a country that suffered for centuries at the hands of a succession of invaders—Byzantine, Venetian, Turkish—before uniting with Greece in 1913.

A great admirer of the Minoan civilization that preceded the Greeks, Unsworth describes the fascinating excavation of Knossos by Arthur Evans at the end of the 19th century and the extraordinary quality of the artwork that remains. He is especially awed by the Festos Disk, dating from around 1700 BC, with its elaborate ideographs—“241 signs in all, among them running figures, heads crowned with feathers, ships, shields, birds and beasts and insects”—the script still undeciphered. “And all of this several thousand years before Gutenberg!”

"Crete" is not a travel narrative. Indeed, apart from a few remarks, including some interesting comments the author makes about writing and his novels, there is little of a personal story here at all. Nevertheless, this compact book feels personal: it is one informed individual’s guide to a place he loves. He shares his exploration of the areas he found most interesting, warns against the heavily touristic areas he loathed, identifies and quotes from the books about Crete he found most useful. While I was drawn to "Crete" because I’ve so enjoyed Unsworth’s novels—and knew the writing would be as excellent as it was—all of this makes the book practical as well as a pleasure to read.

[Niklas Braun · Rating 1 out of 5]

My god this was brutal. I grabbed this book because it's just called "Crete". I'm like, alright, I'll learn about that island, I'm sure there's cool stuff in its history. Well guess what? It's basically an unsourced travel memoir by this rando who has no fucking gusto. Holy shit he literally sounds like this is the worst vacation he's ever taken. Never excited about anything except trashing the locals' own history of their place. Seriously, it's a joke. All he does is talk about some Greek myths and their relations to the island, then add some history about the Turks. This book is terrible.

[Ryan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Like sitting in crisp light by shingle and waves. The book begins coincidentally where we plan to go this summer. Surely this made me inclined to like the book. The book, like the people (so the book claims), has a romantic wistful edge.

[Andrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

A short but engrossing introduction to the mythology, history, archaeology, geology, geography & mentality of one of the world's great islands: Crete.
Barry Unsworth knows his subject as a writer with a keen interest in the Eastern Mediterranean & particularly in its Ottoman ravages & exploitations. Crete has suffered for hundreds of years but that is only half the story, as Unsworth delves into the cavernous history of an island that retains more than a fierce pride & an ancient inheritance - sadly now under threat, not from rampaging Turks, Venetians or Germans, but from modern tourism. But away from the new, hideous developments, Crete is a perfect location for the human soul to consider the story of our distant ancestors in all their most vivid colours in a landscape first settled thousands of years ago.
The natives of this enchanting culture are as unique as any in the whole Mediterranean, a people with a vibrant story to tell. Unsworth gives us only a flavour of the labarynthine complexities of the island, but it is a flavour that invites more than a taster!

[Derek · Rating 4 out of 5]

‘All the works of man will in the end be a wide plain, empty of all but stones and flowers’

[Bandit · Rating 3 out of 5]

Because in all likelihood I'm never going to visit Crete, I felt compelled to at least armchair travel there. The book was just the ticket. Brief (but then again it's a fairly small island) and vivid travelogue through the place where if you believe your mythology Europe began when Europa gave in to Zeus's advances. This was part of a literary travel series and indeed read like literature, so it was somewhat less humorous and more serious than the regular travel book fare, but managed quite nicely on both educational and entertaining categories.

[Shaelene (aGirlWithBookss) · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is a travelogue around Crete interwoven with the history of places they visit, and the author's opinion of these places and what they have to offer.
The author has a writing style that sucks one into the vibrant and tumultuous history of this extraordinary island of Crete. I have always been fascinated by ancient history so I very much enjoyed the aspect of these places told through the histories of its storytelling and the revolutionary and mysterious people who inhabited them.
I’m not able to travel so this was a wonderful work of writing detailing a place I’ve always wanted to visit.
3 stars.

[Tom U. · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this because I'm off to visit the island in a few weeks. It was a rewarding little book, giving me greater insight into the place and it's people, their long heritage and the encroachment of mass tourism. Unsworth, for me, has a personable voice, expressive and curious, observant of his cultural and physical surroundings. I wouldn't read this as a travelogue, but rather an inspiration to become more deeply immersed in the island, of which Unsworth offers a satisfying sample.

[Sarah Salah · Rating 3 out of 5]

After the first couple chapters I ended up just skim reading it. I found it hard to read, it was pretty much a tour around Crete and Turkish history.
It fell flat for me, some of the information was interesting, but it was written in a way that it was easy to lose interest.
Glad I finished it, but at the same time I probably could have not read.
Always take reviews with a grain of salt and try reading it and make your own opinion.

[Laurel · Rating 5 out of 5]

I started this book before my trip to Crete and thought it was ok, not great. When I returned home, I picked it up again and now the book has so much more meaning for me. The author truly captures the spirit of Crete and it’s people. Yes, visit the cities, the beaches and historical sites but get off the main roads and go into the small villages, the mountains and hidden beaches. Glorious.

[Dona Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this in preparation for an upcoming trip to Crete later this year. It is written as a travelogue but is so much more as history and myth are large parts of the book. It invokes an atmosphere of fiercely independent people who have suffered an almost continuous series of invasions and rebellions. I’m especially looking forward to the Minoan ruins.

[Laura Conner · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant and illustrative. Unsworth brought my many memories of trips to Crete back to life, allowing me to vividly remember my experiences while providing extra background and commentary that was comforting and essential for this travel memoir.

[Emily Davis · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've read a lot of books about Crete. This one is a very personal memoir by this writer and really a travelog of his journeys around the island. It is evocative and a nice journey. But other books told me a lot more.

[bookinglibrarian · Rating 4 out of 5]

A wonderfully evocative overview of the landscape and lore of the isle of Crete.

[Bev · Rating 4 out of 5]

A pleasant read -- accompanying Barry Unsworth as he explored Crete, bringing his classical knowledge to the modern island.

[Pat McManus · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice travel book by a Booker prize winner who speaks Greek.

[Olga Vannucci · Rating 5 out of 5]

Splendid in antiquity,
Birthplace in mythology,
Then invaded by many,
Central in geography.

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an odd and rather pleasant little book, the account of a springtime visit to Crete around 1993. As I was reading it, I could not shake the feeling that it was written forty or fifty years ago, probably because the black and white photographs looked as if they dated from the 1950s. Barry and wife Aira's trip proceeds from west to east, mostly along the north coast of Crete, with occasional forays inland and to the south. Even in the early 1990s, tourism was growing faster than the infrastructure of transportation and services, such that the author muses sadly on the result:

What has been missing is what is always missing, in Crete as in a thousand other places, cooperation between citizen and municipal authority, the ability of local communities, often traditionally poor, to withstand the invasion of capital and so take a longer view, retain some space for human purposes other than the single one of spending money, open the land to people instead of closing it. But this would mean admitting the inadmissible: that constant growth is a chimera, that the stream can dry up, that unlimited numbers of free-spending people cannot be accommodated in a limited space, and that continued attempts to do it will foul up the very thing that the people came for in the first place.

The thought of giant hotels shoehorned into pedestrian-unfriendly spaces where the buses refuse to stop and driving rental cards is likely to result in an accident is a tourist nightmare.

I had expected more of this book, probably because Unsworth is a winner of the Man Booker Prize who has been shortlisted several other times. But literary excellence does not necessarily make for a great travel book, especially in a region of the globe which has seen outstanding works by the likes of Patrick Leigh Fermor (Mani and Roumeli), Lawrence Durrell (Reflections on a Marine Venus and Bitter Lemons), and even Henry Miller (The Colossus of Maroussi).

For a one month journey to Crete, the book is excellent and worth reading. It does not inspire me to visit Crete, which I've always wanted to see -- but that is not Unsworth's fault. J. Lesley Fitton's The Minoans has made me want to see Knossos, Festos, and other archeological sites on the island; but if the Cretans don't know how to grow their tourism without killing the goose that laid the golden eggs, I may have to reconsider.

[Iamthird · Rating 2 out of 5]

P 19 “ Of course photographs never do justice to our expeirnece. They can’t contain the complex of impressions that made the experience so memorable. But memory too suffers from a similar sort of necessary simplification. A visual image is never purely visual; it depends on the feelings and sensations of the moment, elements beyond our power of recall.”

Pg 35 “ Chania is the best place to start when you first come to crete.

P 51 “ according to the legend, anyone suspected of heresy or conspiracy was obliged to put a hand into the stone mouth. If innocent, nothing happened; if guilty, the hand was bitten off. In short, this was a medieval lie detector.”

P 161 If you see a group of men in earnest conversation in a bar, they are quite likely to be talking about the cost of living. Any vague and unfounded rumor of a bread shortage on the way can result in panic buying and hoarding on a large scale.”

[Mike Mills · Rating 3 out of 5]

This made me yearn to go back to Crete. I wanted to buy a plane ticket after reading the first five pages. I have visited and walked on some of the paths that were described in this book; The beautiful and Venetian inspired city of Chania, the Samaritan gorge, the ruins of some of the churches and places of worship, the beautiful secluded beaches, and the mythological stories and the places that they occurred in. Crete has its hands full in the birth of civilization. So much history that shaped a country and eventually shaped the known world. This book is an ode to that magical island, told with love on a family vacation. How amazing is that, to pass on your love and passion for a place to your children first hand.

"3.5/5"

[Tim Owens · Rating 3 out of 5]

Barry Unsworth takes the reader on his travels of Crete. Mixed in with where to go are many ancient myths relating to the island. The author takes the reader on a journey of the island from west to east exploring caves and other geographic features. The long and tortuous history of the island is briefly covered. The story isn 19t all ancient history when Unsworth gives his take on some of the local life and activities on the island. The book stimulates a desire to visit the island while at the same time is discouraging in describing how 1D greed, ignorance, lack of civic pride and care for the environment 26 1D has led to an ugly tourist destination in some parts of the island.

[Paula · Rating 4 out of 5]

I didn't learn much more than I already knew about Crete. But it was nice to remember what we so much loved about Crete from our trip a year ago. Unsworth kept our dreams alive. I was a bit disapppointed that the photographs were in black and white, seeing as it is a National Georgraphic publication, which is capable of such exquisite photographs. This book made me want to read some of Unsworth's other books.

[Calzean · Rating 4 out of 5]

Never been to Crete, but now I want to.

Unsworth provides almost a diary-like small book covering his visit to Crete in 1993, his observations on the old and new way of lives, his respect for the history of the Island and his enjoyment of the simple things.

[James · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderfully written, elegantly understated. This is the book I'll refer back to as I begin my visit to Crete next week. A small travelogue, part of a set published by National Geographic. I'll look to other books in the set for future travels.

[Matt Brant]

Kind of a bland writing style from a very serious writer, but short and interesting enough for people into places and people of the Med.

[Richard · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting, especially since I was walking in Crete.

[Kati Stevens · Rating 2 out of 5]

I do want to go to Crete, but this book, despite its brevity, felt like a slog.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this during our vacation to Crete. His observations are spot on, his descriptions enlightening.

[Jeremy Burtt · Rating 4 out of 5]

A meandering yet pleasant tale. Decent blend of history and observation...

[Virginia Van · Rating 4 out of 5]

A beautifully written account of a trip to the island of Crete and an attempt to analyse its appeal. Must read for anyone visiting Crete.