Scan barcode
savaging's review
4.0
I'm a testimony that you don't have to be Catholic -- or even much of a theist -- to like this book.
You will begin to like the main protagonist (the one not-completely-and-disgustingly-racist white guy in the book -- that helps), and you'll read with the anxiety you feel watching Meet the Parents, knowing things are going to go as wrong as they possibly can.
Christian authors can be great when they don't risk a happy ending, when they go as low as they can, like Dostoevsky. Where the only hope for redemption is the way a reader loves a character in spite of all their idiotic mistakes, and so you think, well, why wouldn't a god feel the same way?
"If one knew, he wondered, the facts, would one have to feel pity even for the planets? if one reached what they called the heart of the matter?"
You will begin to like the main protagonist (the one not-completely-and-disgustingly-racist white guy in the book -- that helps), and you'll read with the anxiety you feel watching Meet the Parents, knowing things are going to go as wrong as they possibly can.
Christian authors can be great when they don't risk a happy ending, when they go as low as they can, like Dostoevsky. Where the only hope for redemption is the way a reader loves a character in spite of all their idiotic mistakes, and so you think, well, why wouldn't a god feel the same way?
"If one knew, he wondered, the facts, would one have to feel pity even for the planets? if one reached what they called the heart of the matter?"
klparmley's review against another edition
1.0
Unlike Anna Karenina, I finished this drivel hoping there would be something worthwhile in the end. There wasn't. I wanted to smack everyone for being so appallingly stupid and I couldn't wait for Scobie to kill him self and get it over with. I kept muttering "Get on with it." to the book.
katykelly's review against another edition
4.0
A difficult read - sin and shame, heat and corruption.
An acknowledged classic, this has sat on my shelf for nearly 20 years unread. There have always been 'easier' books, quicker ones to get through first. But I bit the bullet and finally decided I needed to get this out of the 'to read' pile.
And it was hard. Both thematically and being of its time, Scobie and his story aren't straightforward. The heat of his town comes off the page, the sweating and humidity. As do the corruption, the racism,the attitudes. All of which make it hard to read at times.
But at the heart of this is a religious man who tries to do right, who sees his wife unhappy, who is disappointed himself in a lack of promotion, and who gets caught up in his own personal hell of taking decisions that could lead to his downfall, one by one.
An ending I was shaking my head at as well, one that is just as understandable today as back then, if for different reasons. I didn't like pretty much any character, even Scobie was rather 'grey area' for me, though I admired his attempts to remain above corruption and could see the slippery path ahead of him that might make this impossible.
Not an easy book in many ways for contemporary readers, but I'm glad it's moved to my 'read' list finally.
An acknowledged classic, this has sat on my shelf for nearly 20 years unread. There have always been 'easier' books, quicker ones to get through first. But I bit the bullet and finally decided I needed to get this out of the 'to read' pile.
And it was hard. Both thematically and being of its time, Scobie and his story aren't straightforward. The heat of his town comes off the page, the sweating and humidity. As do the corruption, the racism,the attitudes. All of which make it hard to read at times.
But at the heart of this is a religious man who tries to do right, who sees his wife unhappy, who is disappointed himself in a lack of promotion, and who gets caught up in his own personal hell of taking decisions that could lead to his downfall, one by one.
An ending I was shaking my head at as well, one that is just as understandable today as back then, if for different reasons. I didn't like pretty much any character, even Scobie was rather 'grey area' for me, though I admired his attempts to remain above corruption and could see the slippery path ahead of him that might make this impossible.
Not an easy book in many ways for contemporary readers, but I'm glad it's moved to my 'read' list finally.
ftremlett24's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
g_g's review
2.0
My least favourite Greene - too much catholic guilt in this one. Still fabulously written however
cozyandfluffy's review
5.0
Before reading this book, I experimented with Graham Greene with another novel "The End of the Affair". The latter was a good book, very easy to go through and I quite liked it. However, "The Heart of the Matter" is absolutely fantastic!
It is a possibility that I loved the book mainly because I was going through something similar at the time, concerning faith. It was a refreshing approach to a problem that I think, everyone had at one point or another. Graham Greene is great in what he does in this book and it almost feels like he gives his characters the freedom to do whatever they might like with their fictional lives.
The character of Scobie is someone I geniuenly cared about. He is a generous, introvert man, who survives to make the other person happy. As long as someone in his life is happy, he is happy. This is basically the theme of the whole book: How can one be happy? He embarks on a journey he wasn't supposed to take and he ultimately reaches sadness, depression, desperation and he refuses to forgive himself for what he may have done, has done and is about to do.
The key word can be "love". Graham Greene talks a lot about the difference between the love of people and the love of God. The great monologue near the end, when Scobie is in church, can be considered the most powerful and heart-breaking moment in the novel.
My advice is to pay attention to the word "love". It will show you a lot in the end.
It is a possibility that I loved the book mainly because I was going through something similar at the time, concerning faith. It was a refreshing approach to a problem that I think, everyone had at one point or another. Graham Greene is great in what he does in this book and it almost feels like he gives his characters the freedom to do whatever they might like with their fictional lives.
The character of Scobie is someone I geniuenly cared about. He is a generous, introvert man, who survives to make the other person happy. As long as someone in his life is happy, he is happy. This is basically the theme of the whole book: How can one be happy? He embarks on a journey he wasn't supposed to take and he ultimately reaches sadness, depression, desperation and he refuses to forgive himself for what he may have done, has done and is about to do.
The key word can be "love". Graham Greene talks a lot about the difference between the love of people and the love of God. The great monologue near the end, when Scobie is in church, can be considered the most powerful and heart-breaking moment in the novel.
My advice is to pay attention to the word "love". It will show you a lot in the end.
beachy123's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Another Graham Greene classic. I really enjoyed this book. A focus on a stifling colonial life in Africa during the war. Lots of classic Greene themes…Catholicism, social standing etc.
emiisntreal's review
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
mikewa14's review
5.0
full review here
http://0651frombrighton.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/the-heart-of-matter-graham-greene.html
http://0651frombrighton.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/the-heart-of-matter-graham-greene.html
deegee24's review
4.0
Greene's novel is mainly about the spiritual torment of its main character, Scobie, a practicing Catholic and colonial police officer stationed in an unnamed British colony in West Africa during World War II (based on Greene's own experience in Sierra Leone). Though I'm not Catholic, I found it refreshing to read a 20th century novel that shows the pain and guilt that can result from marital infidelity and other "sinful" behavior. Some have found Scobie to be a thin and unconvincing character, but I disagree. Greene rejects the stream of consciousness narration of the modernists, but his characters reveal themselves sufficiently through more traditional means. Nor do I accept George Orwell's claim that a colonial police officer could not experience pangs of remorse for his misdeeds. My main disappointment is that the colonial African setting is important only insofar as it is a place where corruption and criminality run rampant in the shadows, and where the boundary between the law and lawlessness is unstable. The book could just as easily have been set in the Vienna of The Third Man. This seems like a missed opportunity to say something more serious about the specific history and culture of West Africa or the last declining years of British imperialism.