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3.89 AVERAGE
3.89 AVERAGE
medium-paced
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
My favorite book of all time. The best novel ever written.
This is the 4th GG I’ve read and his Catholic faith always makes an appearance. He was known to be a “Catholic writer”.
This gives his writing a bleak aspect, an underlying futility. I’m no Catholic so I don’t pretend to understand. These days faith is dismissed as either a weak mindedness or a guilty secret, but Greene reminds us that for some it’s a living, ongoing relationship with the mystery of God, and that cannot be easy, whatever you believe.
Amazingly well written, deep and profound, also not very upbeat, so don’t read this if you’re feeling the least bit gloomy. 9/10.
This gives his writing a bleak aspect, an underlying futility. I’m no Catholic so I don’t pretend to understand. These days faith is dismissed as either a weak mindedness or a guilty secret, but Greene reminds us that for some it’s a living, ongoing relationship with the mystery of God, and that cannot be easy, whatever you believe.
Amazingly well written, deep and profound, also not very upbeat, so don’t read this if you’re feeling the least bit gloomy. 9/10.
challenging
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
A challenging meditation on suffering, faithfulness, and belief in the midst of a hostile world. Left me with much to ponder and chew on.
challenging
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I read somewhere that this is Greene's masterpiece. I'm upset that this is the first book of his I've ever read. The prose is so incredible, I bet even his lesser books are better than most of what's out there and I cannot wait to read them. Cormac McCarthy clearly stems from Graham Greene, and it's wonderful to find an author who pre-dates one of my favorites.
Latin America is often perceived as such a devout Roman Catholic region that perhaps few people are aware that early 20th-century Mexico went through an anticlerical regime that destroyed churches and executed priests. This is the setting of Graham Greene's novel The Power and the Glory, written after the author had toured Mexico in 1938 to research this phenomenon himself.
The protagonist of the novel is the last remaining priest in a state hit hard by an atheist government. Knowing that the authorities are after him, the unnamed cleric is desperate to get over the mountains into a more tolerant state, but the needs of the local people keep calling him back. His journey becomes an allegory for the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, complete with a Pontius Pilate figure (an ideologically driven police lieutenant), a Judas and even a Barabbas.
However, this priest is an alcoholic haunted by the knowledge that he's got an illegitimate child out there, he's not at all the immaculate martyr of saints tales. Green underscores the Christian message that all human beings are fallible in spite of a striving for something more. But as the "whiskey priest" moves towards his own Calvary, his devotion and humility transforms him into the holy man he believed himself incapable of being.
The Power and the Glory is written in an accessible style, and is appropriate for all readers. I first came across it as assigned reading in a high school English class, and enjoyed re-reading it many years later. I like the elegant plot, which mirrors the ministry of Christ but stays just unpredictable enough maintain suspense. Green was a convert to Catholicism, and he writes with the white-hot zeal of a convert that is engaging even if I don't entirely share his views (being an Orthodox Christian).
That said, I have some small reservations about the book that keep me from considering it a perfect classic. Green's non-fiction account of his journey to Mexico reveals some casual racism against Mexicans, and this comes across to some degree in the novel as well. Like Joseph Conrad in Nostromo (or the film The Last King of Scotland), he tells much of the story through foreigners (British, American, German), assuming readers need solid European characters because they can't sympathize with masses of "dagos". This back-and-forth between the Mexicans and the Europeans prevents one from really becoming immersed in the setting.
Still, a fine novel and clearly influential to later authors, from John Updike (read his introduction to the Penguin edition) to Gene Wolfe in The Book of the New Sun.
The protagonist of the novel is the last remaining priest in a state hit hard by an atheist government. Knowing that the authorities are after him, the unnamed cleric is desperate to get over the mountains into a more tolerant state, but the needs of the local people keep calling him back. His journey becomes an allegory for the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, complete with a Pontius Pilate figure (an ideologically driven police lieutenant), a Judas and even a Barabbas.
However, this priest is an alcoholic haunted by the knowledge that he's got an illegitimate child out there, he's not at all the immaculate martyr of saints tales. Green underscores the Christian message that all human beings are fallible in spite of a striving for something more. But as the "whiskey priest" moves towards his own Calvary, his devotion and humility transforms him into the holy man he believed himself incapable of being.
The Power and the Glory is written in an accessible style, and is appropriate for all readers. I first came across it as assigned reading in a high school English class, and enjoyed re-reading it many years later. I like the elegant plot, which mirrors the ministry of Christ but stays just unpredictable enough maintain suspense. Green was a convert to Catholicism, and he writes with the white-hot zeal of a convert that is engaging even if I don't entirely share his views (being an Orthodox Christian).
That said, I have some small reservations about the book that keep me from considering it a perfect classic. Green's non-fiction account of his journey to Mexico reveals some casual racism against Mexicans, and this comes across to some degree in the novel as well. Like Joseph Conrad in Nostromo (or the film The Last King of Scotland), he tells much of the story through foreigners (British, American, German), assuming readers need solid European characters because they can't sympathize with masses of "dagos". This back-and-forth between the Mexicans and the Europeans prevents one from really becoming immersed in the setting.
Still, a fine novel and clearly influential to later authors, from John Updike (read his introduction to the Penguin edition) to Gene Wolfe in The Book of the New Sun.
challenging
dark
informative
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
challenging
dark
reflective
sad
medium-paced