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3.89 AVERAGE
3.89 AVERAGE
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
dark
reflective
slow-paced
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Going to go against the grain and just say that this book did not connect with me. Maybe it's because it was written decades ago or just the content. Either way it just didn't land.
In some ways, this may have worked better as a novella or short story, but as a full blown novel, it felt overly stuffed with description and irrelevant side comments.
I will say the ending saves some of it for me, but the beginning and middle is a lot to slog through.
In some ways, this may have worked better as a novella or short story, but as a full blown novel, it felt overly stuffed with description and irrelevant side comments.
I will say the ending saves some of it for me, but the beginning and middle is a lot to slog through.
In the 1930s Mexico of Graham Greene’s classic novel, God and religion have been outlawed and any priest who hasn’t escaped or relinquished his faith has been hunted down and killed. The last surviving priest who still practices religious rites is not only running for his life, but self-destructing under the weight of both his outlaw situation and his past.
I was fascinated by this unnamed main character, a ‘whiskey priest’ who drinks endlessly and is struggling to come to terms with the mortal sin he has committed and feels he can never be absolved of. Even as he runs and hides and does all he can to avoid capture and be able to continue serving his faith, he is buried deep in his own emotional upheaval and the heavy judgment his faith imposes.
The whiskey priest has many fascinating musings during his journey, but the most profound to me is this:
"That was another mystery: it sometimes seemed to him that venial sins -- impatience, an unimportant lie, pride, a neglected opportunity -- cut you off from grace more completely than the worst sins of all…in his innocence, he had felt no love for anyone; now in his corruption he had learnt."
Before he committed his mortal sin, the whiskey priest had no empathy for anyone. His faith was a pulpit to stand on. Now, “in his corruption,” he sees what the grace of God and Catholic piety really mean, and his faith becomes a rock to cling to.
Though Greene’s novel was widely criticized by members of the Catholic clergy when it was first published for being ‘anti-Catholic’ and offensive. For me, though, and many others, including Pope Paul VI who met Greene in 1965, the novel celebrates piety and faith in their pure and empathetic forms.
Greene's novel is full of gorgeous description of the decaying Mexican towns and the cold and mountainous countryside. Greene wrote his novel in short and very powerful scenes that pack a psychological punch. They are uncomfortable and beautiful at once. When the priest helplessly watches the policemen drink down his wife, I was livid with anger on his behalf. When he meets an elderly man in prison who takes comfort in being near him, I was moved by the connection they quickly formed.
The end of the whiskey priest’s story is both triumphant and tragic and verifies the power and the glory of the whisky priest’s Catholic faith. This is a short novel and a quick read, but it is profoundly affecting. I highly recommend this novel to anyone who has struggled to understand their own identity and sense of purpose: namely, everyone. Greene’s explorations of humanity and emotion are not often matched in their impact.
Themes: religion vs. state, Mexico, martyrdom, Catholicism, police corruption, prohibition of alcohol
I was fascinated by this unnamed main character, a ‘whiskey priest’ who drinks endlessly and is struggling to come to terms with the mortal sin he has committed and feels he can never be absolved of. Even as he runs and hides and does all he can to avoid capture and be able to continue serving his faith, he is buried deep in his own emotional upheaval and the heavy judgment his faith imposes.
The whiskey priest has many fascinating musings during his journey, but the most profound to me is this:
"That was another mystery: it sometimes seemed to him that venial sins -- impatience, an unimportant lie, pride, a neglected opportunity -- cut you off from grace more completely than the worst sins of all…in his innocence, he had felt no love for anyone; now in his corruption he had learnt."
Before he committed his mortal sin, the whiskey priest had no empathy for anyone. His faith was a pulpit to stand on. Now, “in his corruption,” he sees what the grace of God and Catholic piety really mean, and his faith becomes a rock to cling to.
Though Greene’s novel was widely criticized by members of the Catholic clergy when it was first published for being ‘anti-Catholic’ and offensive. For me, though, and many others, including Pope Paul VI who met Greene in 1965, the novel celebrates piety and faith in their pure and empathetic forms.
Greene's novel is full of gorgeous description of the decaying Mexican towns and the cold and mountainous countryside. Greene wrote his novel in short and very powerful scenes that pack a psychological punch. They are uncomfortable and beautiful at once. When the priest helplessly watches the policemen drink down his wife, I was livid with anger on his behalf. When he meets an elderly man in prison who takes comfort in being near him, I was moved by the connection they quickly formed.
The end of the whiskey priest’s story is both triumphant and tragic and verifies the power and the glory of the whisky priest’s Catholic faith. This is a short novel and a quick read, but it is profoundly affecting. I highly recommend this novel to anyone who has struggled to understand their own identity and sense of purpose: namely, everyone. Greene’s explorations of humanity and emotion are not often matched in their impact.
Themes: religion vs. state, Mexico, martyrdom, Catholicism, police corruption, prohibition of alcohol
Simply amazing. The priest and the Mexican lieutenant are among the best characters ever, I think. Especially the priest-you follow his tortuous real and inner journeys, understand his vocation, his faith, his flaws and his emotional and mental discoveries. There's much criticism of the church and the government, and many wonderful scenes and characters. Sometimes I just had to mark an especially wise paragraph or a beautiful description with knock-out metaphors. On top, I read some of it sitting by a river called Laziness River.
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
One of those books I just didn’t get. I think when it is a deeper read you can’t listen to it.
Close reads did this book so I was going to try and follow along hit it didn’t happen.
Close reads did this book so I was going to try and follow along hit it didn’t happen.
Perfect title for an examination of the weaknesses of both organized religion and organized atheism. While I probably sympathized with the antagonist (a lieutenant bent of eradicating the abuses of religion by eradicating religion itself in early 20th century Mexico) more than your average bloke because of my strong antipathy for all things irrational and faith-based, I think the general audience is supposed to at least have a little sympathy for the lieutenant. While Greene obviously had to side with the weak-willed priest and his religion more than the murderous lieutenant and his anti-religious fascism, he did a fabulous job showing how the humans involved in such an ideological battle still have to get through the day and go to sleep at night.
Graham Greene may be my favorite writer and this may be my favorite book. The book is technically perfect (is there any writer who is more efficient, in the best sense of that word, than Greene?). This book about a doomed whiskey priest is one of the most profound and beautiful I have ever read.