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A review by raulbime
Brighton Rock by Graham Greene
4.0
I discovered this book by chance. I was in the library, casually browsing titles and I saw it. Greene is a writer I have wanted to read for sometime, and I even own a copy of [b:The Quiet American|3698|The Quiet American|Graham Greene|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1388187216l/3698._SY75_.jpg|1469913], and impulse drove me to get it off the shelf and borrow it. Typically I plan out my reads weeks, and even months, in advance so this was new for me. From its description it sounded like a fascinating crime story, and a good fit while I was reading two other—lengthy and great—books (Morrison's essays and Eliot's Middlemarch).
The story revolves around a group of mobsters in Brighton. The young and teenaged Pinkie takes over as leader of this group and begins his leadership with a murderous streak. After the mob killed a man named Fred, also named Hale, Pinkie is pursued by a woman called Ida, who had formed a casual friendship with Fred, and whose mission is to find out what truly happened to Fred.
This is a crime story that focuses more on origins and motivation and persuasion than it does the sordid and loathsome details of the crimes themselves. Good and evil are explored, neither is treated as an innate force that compels otherwise unwilling individuals to act as they do, but are instead traced back to the earlier stages of development and the writer does a terrific job humanizing all the full-fleshed characters in this story.
This was a really good read and a great introduction to this writer. I was thoroughly impressed how in a mere sentence or two, the writer could sufficiently paint a scene as well as a series of actions important to the plot. It certainly won't be the last of his books I'll read.
The story revolves around a group of mobsters in Brighton. The young and teenaged Pinkie takes over as leader of this group and begins his leadership with a murderous streak. After the mob killed a man named Fred, also named Hale, Pinkie is pursued by a woman called Ida, who had formed a casual friendship with Fred, and whose mission is to find out what truly happened to Fred.
This is a crime story that focuses more on origins and motivation and persuasion than it does the sordid and loathsome details of the crimes themselves. Good and evil are explored, neither is treated as an innate force that compels otherwise unwilling individuals to act as they do, but are instead traced back to the earlier stages of development and the writer does a terrific job humanizing all the full-fleshed characters in this story.
This was a really good read and a great introduction to this writer. I was thoroughly impressed how in a mere sentence or two, the writer could sufficiently paint a scene as well as a series of actions important to the plot. It certainly won't be the last of his books I'll read.