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3.89 AVERAGE
3.89 AVERAGE
This actually was a pretty good book. The beginning was slow but once you get to part 2 and 3 it really picks up. I never learned about the laws against Catholic priests in Mexico in the early 1900's so I'm really glad that I got to read this for school.
challenging
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Set during the Red Shirt raids of Mexico in the 1930s, police lead simultaneous manhunts against a murderous American criminal and the last priest left in the state. The men are considered equally offensive at a time when every trace of liquor and religion are being removed from the land, consequences be dammed. As each character personally battles with God and the law to different extremes, the author uses this context to philosophize about religion and the value of human life.
I read this as a teen, and other than the phrase "whiskey priest," I don't know what I got out of it. This time, an adult and a recovered alcoholic, I can tell you I've neither read a better account (fictional or not) of a drunkard at rock bottom, nor a more wrenching story of the desire for absolution and redemption.
Greene in his time was a fabulously good, and successful writer. I ripped through a number of his books as a kid. I may have to go back to his oeuvre to reacquaint myself with his work, there's so much more there than I could have gotten, and he's entertaining.
Greene in his time was a fabulously good, and successful writer. I ripped through a number of his books as a kid. I may have to go back to his oeuvre to reacquaint myself with his work, there's so much more there than I could have gotten, and he's entertaining.
A novel of faith in which a priest with many flaws (including alcoholism and a child out-of-wedlock) flees religious persecution in southern Mexico. He questions both his worthiness as a priest and as a potential martyr, especially considering that villagers are captured, tortured, and killed so as not to give away his identity as a priest during the purge. As with other Greene novels I've read, I found the novel to be slow at times and not quite as good as I has hoped it might be, considering the plot (which sounds great) and the acclaim of the work. Also, this feels like the type of novel that would have been required reading in my Catholic school days, so perhaps my judgment is marred by that! I find that I enjoy Greene's self-described "entertainments" more than his Catholic novels. I also happened to be reading Endo's [b:Silence|25200|Silence|Shūsaku Endō|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1327991351s/25200.jpg|1796157] at the same time (a coincidence) which has a similar plot about a priest questioning his faith while he watches others suffer persecution so as to protect him. The ending was pretty predictable, so I mostly kept flipping pages so as to reach the end. I'm still fascinated with Greene's work and will continue reading his books, but maybe I'll try some of his crime fiction next.
This. Wow. So complex, beautiful, perfect.
I remember trying to read this once for class, but it just wasn't my time to read it. It was so lovely to have the luxury of time to gobble this up over a month.
I remember trying to read this once for class, but it just wasn't my time to read it. It was so lovely to have the luxury of time to gobble this up over a month.
An online book discussion is starting up and this is the first choice of the group. I had thought that this was the one about Michelangelo (what book am I remembering? Help me) but this is set in Mexico during the times of the atheistic state. While I've spent a lot of time reading about Russia during their similar trials, I've not spent much time with Mexico and it offered a lot of food for thought. I was immediately absorbed into this beautiful, sad, flawed priest's journey and his struggles.
I was assigned this book for class, but failed to get past the first two chapters due to time constraints that week. However, they struck me so much that I added the book to goodreads and promised myself I'd return to it after the semester ended. I am so, so glad I did.
The writing of this novel is intensely moving, and even from a complete outsider standpoint to Catholicism and Catholic theology, it was incredibly compelling. So many episodes physically hurt me because I could feel along with the characters. I really appreciated how Greene did not write a saint; that the whiskey priest was genuinely bad despite and because of his constantly saying so. I ended up reading the entire book in less than 24 hours because it was so compelling. It is a small masterpiece.
The writing of this novel is intensely moving, and even from a complete outsider standpoint to Catholicism and Catholic theology, it was incredibly compelling. So many episodes physically hurt me because I could feel along with the characters. I really appreciated how Greene did not write a saint; that the whiskey priest was genuinely bad despite and because of his constantly saying so. I ended up reading the entire book in less than 24 hours because it was so compelling. It is a small masterpiece.