A review by bibliomaniac2021
Brighton Rock by Graham Greene

dark tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

Finished the re-read of "Brighton Rock," which I must have read decades ago. More acute study of a childish psychopath than a thriller, or "entertainment" to use GG's category. Didn't impress me as much as the first time I read it. One of the problems is that I know the story through the film (probably more famous than the book) whose resolution is different. Also, claims of BR being a masterpiece don't seem so justified, since it's a crime novel elevated into a literary novel, an experiment that I think failed. Some fine writing in passages like the attack at the racecourse, and Greene is very adept at creating the turgid, murky, seedy atmosphere of inter-war Brighton (Kemptown pubs etc), but sometimes it's difficult to keep the pages turning. Amusing in parts like the attack on crematoriums - early on in the novel- which Greene sees as symbols of surburbia and the encroaching middle- class- Greene would be snobbish of this since he was a product of the English upper-middle. Perhaps the major reason for my disaffection is the permeation of the book with Catholic ideology which threatens to turn the book into a long lecture on hell and damnation. Still, for all that, good, delineation of character  from the odious young gangster Pinkie to the doxy Ida, stern symbol of impending justice. I would be inclined to award this novel 4 stars, just short of a masterpiece, no matter what the critics might say.