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3.89 AVERAGE
3.89 AVERAGE
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty
I recently reread this, having been a big fan of Greene years ago. The history behind this novel featuring a Catholic priest who is a fugitive in Mexico during the early part of the 20th century, surprised me because I hadn't thought of the Mexican govt. as being anti-Catholic. There was a stretch of time when priests were forbidden to offer mass and Catholicism went underground.
The Power and the Glory by Graham Greene mostly follows the nameless character referred to as "the whisky priest." He's the last priest in a Mexican state where the Roman Catholic Church has been persecuted. The other priests have all escaped or been executed.
The novel takes a while to progress, because we're introduced to an array of minor characters that don't really move the story forward. After 50 pages or so, the narrative picks up. The novel is about the whisky priest's faith and the followers of the church. As the priest gets further from the trappings of the church he finds he is closer to God. It's a novel that sends the reader toward introspection and ruminations on God.
The novel takes a while to progress, because we're introduced to an array of minor characters that don't really move the story forward. After 50 pages or so, the narrative picks up. The novel is about the whisky priest's faith and the followers of the church. As the priest gets further from the trappings of the church he finds he is closer to God. It's a novel that sends the reader toward introspection and ruminations on God.
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
“But at the center of his own faith there always stood the convincing mystery—that we were made in God’s image—God was the parent, but He was also the policeman, the criminal, the priest, the maniac, and the judge. Something resembling God dangled from the gibbet or went into odd attitudes before the bullets in a prison yard or contorted itself like a camel in the attitude of sex. He would sit in the confessional and hear the complicated dirty ingenuities which God’s image had thought out: and God’s image shook now, up and down on the mule’s back with yellow teeth sticking out over the lower lip; and God’s image did its despairing act of rebellion with Maria in the hut among the rats. It must sometimes be a comfort to a soldier that the atrocities on either side were equal; nobody was ever alone.” pg 136
emotional
informative
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
hopeful
informative
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
reflective
sad
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
N/A
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I am struck by the immensely complicated feelings I have with martyrdom in this story. It’s a beautiful tale which clearly always doomed our whisky priest and I don’t think I would end it any other way. But in an era of seemingly endless martyrs, I find myself only able to cry at what seems like the fiction of it all. Is this really all it’s for?
Perhaps I’ve become too tender.
Perhaps I’ve become too tender.