I first read one of Ved Mehta's autobiographical stories a long time ago in the New Yorker, and didn't stop until I read them all. Ved Mehta turned blind at a very young age, went to a school for the blind in India, then came to the USA, went to Oxford and later became a staff writer for the New Yorker. His autobiography starts off with the biographies of his mother and father, who had a totally different background. And then he takes off with his own story. And that's an impressive story. He not only gives you a deep look into his own life, he also tells the story of India (the partition of India and Pakistan is the background of this particular book) and gives you a fresh look at American and European culture. These are books that make you laugh, that make you cry, and The Ledge between the Streams sometimes sent shivers down my spines. You'd think this writer would be famous all over the world, and I would have expected him to get the Nobel Prize for literature (I'm serious!), but some of his books are out of print and they have hardly been translated. So grab your chance and buy this book! You'll agree with me and tell other people about it, and give this great writer some credit!

One of the weaknesses of Sherry's biography of Graham Greene is the additional information which has come to light since he began writing. This, in part, explains the fact that between the publication of the first and second volumes, the size of the work had expanded to three volumes with the second volume being far more detailed than the first.

In writing this work, West has come at it with the view that his readers would likely be familiar with the other biographies and makes frequent reference to them (including scathing rebuttals to claims made in Shelden's travesty of a biography). This ends up creating a work which helps fill in the gaps that were unavoidable in Sherry volume 1 and makes this an essential companion to Sherry's work for the serious Graham Greene scholar (or fan).

What can you say about a story that resonates with meaning, dips into a deep mythological well, reads like ancient scriptures AND is hysterically funny? Find it, read it, and re-read it. I have the print version in a short story anthology called STRANGENESS, edited by Thomas Disch and Charles Naylor. The audio version featuring Derek Jacobi succeeded beyond my expectations in bringing to life the unbelievably rich texture of this stunning story. Book discussion groups take note: this is a great one for discussion and dissection!

After I read this book, I kept thinking about Scobie and his struggles with his faith or lack of it. When I was reading the novel, I didn't appreciate it as much as I do now. The complexities of his relationship with his wife, his job, and his faith have kept me thinking of different scenarios, things he could have done. Perhaps what I like best about Graham Greene's writing is that he doesn't dictate your feelings. You are free to make your own judgments of the characters. In fact, it is very easy to make arguments one way or another about what the characters believe because he doesn't spell it out for you as if you were a child. By not overwriting the characters, there is some mystery, as in real life. Can you ever truly know another person wholly? Also recommended: The End of the Affair by Graham Greene, which is even more complex and mysterious.

This is the first Graham Greene book that I have read, and it definitely will not be my last. The Heart of the Matter is the tragic story of being the ultimate martyr. Scobie, who is the protagonist, has an overwhelming sense of duty to everyone but himself. Set in a claustrophobic African city Scobie's honesty and sense of justice seems to bring out the worst in everyone else. He is often accused of sleeping with the locals or taking bribes from the Syrians, all of which is not true. His largest responsibilty is his wife, Louise who he feels unhappiness is his own fault and therefore must fix it by sending her to South Africa. In order to do that he has to borrow money from a well known diamond smuggler Yusef. Throw into the mix a jealous letter censor named Wilson who is in love with Louise. Not to mention his lover Helen who has her own needs and demands.

Many comparisons are drawn between Scobie and Christ in terms of sacrifice. The only difference is no one asked for Scobie's sacrafices and they provide for his unnecessary demise. While the book is heartbreaking in its failed human relations it is also beautiful and filled with insight into human greed, lust, jealousy and regret.

Graham Greene's "The Heart of the Matter" is a powerful story about the choices a man has to make with regard to love, duty, and honor -- his responsibilities to his wife, his job, and God. There are heavy religious overtones to this novel, but they never feel preachy or compromise the strength of the drama.

The main character is Major Henry Scobie, the deputy-commissioner of police in a British-occupied West African state during World War II. He's an honest cop on a force that is given to corruption: Some officers routinely take bribes to overlook diamond-smuggling operations, many of which are masterminded by a sly Syrian named Yusef, who manipulates his friendship with the officers through favors and blackmail.

Scobie's wife, Louise, is miserable; she is lonely and feels ostracized by the other officers' wives in the community. She would like to leave and go to South Africa for a while, but Scobie can't leave his post to go with her or afford to send her because he's been passed over for promotion to commissioner. His last resort to scrape together the money is to borrow it from Yusef, which puts him squarely under Yusef's thumb.

After Louise's departure, Scobie meets a girl named Helen whose husband drowned when their ship was attacked. He falls in love with her despite the fact that she's young enough to be his daughter and mocks his piety. He wonders if adultery can be a sin if the love is genuine, but this is not just a cynical attempt to rationalize his infidelity. Adding to the conflict is a clerk named Wilson who is in love with Louise and, while he pretends to be Scobie's friend and moral compass, acts a sort of dual role as watchdog and betrayer.

Like the protagonist of Greene's "The Power and the Glory," Scobie's character is defined by the fact that he is a devout Catholic who is contritely aware of his sins. Although he believes that suicide would be eternal damnation, he poses a crucial question for himself: Would it be better to kill himself for the sake of honor than to live shamefully, insulting God by kneeling before the altar while living adulterously?

I see Scobie as a "white knight" type of character -- a cavalier, a protector, someone who was born to be a policeman, someone who is sworn to follow the moral code of Christianity. When he fails in this task, or believes that he fails, he is forced to question the validity of continuing his mission; that is, his life. After reading so many novels about people with moral uncertainties, I find a fresh perspective in this man who draws courage from his convictions and acts accordingly.

This is Brown, the narrator of "The Comedians", describing his outlook: "I had left involvement behind me...I had dropped it... I had felt myself not merely incapable of love-many are incapable of that-but even of guilt. There were no heights and no abysses in my world-I saw myself on a great plain, walking and walking on the interminable flats." In my judgment, Brown's outlook is a big shortcoming in this book. While "The Comedians" eventually centers on one of Greene's ironically heroic characters, there's not much juice (even with an affair) since the story is told by dull Brown. Bottom line: This is a good story with some personally and politically heroic characters. But this is not Greene's best work.

The novel opens on a cruise ship steaming toward Haiti. We meet a diverse group of characters who are revealed through the device of setting them in a game of cards on board ship.
Brown, the primary character and narrator is returning to Haiti to reclaim a hotel he inherited and through his eyes we see the political changes occurring in the country and are made aware of the ominous threat of the Tonton Macoute secret police that hangs over the entire story adding dramatic tension.
Jones , his fellow passenger is revealed to be a con-man who gets by on his ability to make others laugh (one of the comedians) . Smith a failed presidential candidate from the US is naively seeking to establish a vegetarian center in Haiti seemingly oblivious to the turmoil all around him.
Brown's romance with the wife of a diplomat provides a subplot that mirrors the theme that everyone is deceiving someone. The comedians all prove to be actors playing on a stage filled with political violence and the everpresent threat of more to come.
This was a very engaging novel and if not Greene's most well known book it may be one of his best. I enjoyed it and highly recommend it for it's memorable characters and stunning evocation of a country approaching chaos.

This is one of the most powerful novels ever written. I think it was the best work of Graham Greene. In this book Greene was able to achieve a very masterful dialog, and he developed so powerful an memorable characters. We can witness how the internal struggle of the main characters intermingles with the power struggle in the country and the problems of the time. This is a very strong book that should be read and known.

This is the second book by Graham Greene that I have read, and found it to be a wonderful book. The symbolism, while at times a bit too obvious, aids Greene in communicating his message - that being, as other's have said, the struggle between "good and evil". While the character's of Pinky, the 17 year old gangster, and Rose, the 16 year old girl who becomes embroiled in Pinky's life, are used to contrast good and evil, Rose and Ida Arnold are utilised by Greene to juxtapose innocence and experience, another of the novel's central themes. I would recommend this book to anyone who appreciates the talent's of Greene, and for those who search for more than just a "story" when they read.

I enjoyed BRIGHTON ROCK. I had never read anything that Graham Greene wrote before picking up this volume, and I was very impressed by so many aspects of it. On the surface, it's simply a gangster story set around the racetrack of a bustling English vacation town in the 1930s. But there are so many little touches and details that Greene adds that all raise this story up and make it more than just another exciting and gory tale of mob violence.

The plot is perhaps the weakest element of the book, but this is not a story that revolves around its plot. The plot points are merely the catalysts that propel these wonderful characters forward. We meet Pinkie, a mere seventeen-year-old, who has found himself in the unenviable task of becoming the head of a criminal organization that is embroiled in a power-struggle with an even larger, better-funded gang. In his world, Pinkie is fighting not only for dominance in his gang, but also battling for territory and control in the town of Brighton. However, he also encounters a strange conflict from an unlikely source: a fun-loving, cheerful, iron-willed woman by the name of Ida.

Ida comes into the story by the most unlikely of coincidences, and is determined to investigate what she feels is a grave injustice. She plays a great foil to Pinkie's character, even though the two of them rarely meet. The only downside that I saw to this fascinating person was the fact that after her fantastic introduction she seems to be coasting through the rest of the novel on autopilot. For a normal book, this would be perfectly expected, but Greene set the bar very high for himself here, especially with this character's motivation, and it just seems a bit jarring when not everything maintains an equal level of excellence.

Greene brings in quite a lot of thought to this novel. Religion, love, spirituality, and death are not things that one expects to undergo detailed analysis on the pages of a crime thriller, yet Greene approaches all of these with maturity and understanding. Each character (bar a handful) is given believable motivations. There are some plot pieces that are predictable, but that only means that I was daring the characters not to go the way that they did, and genuinely upset when they did unfortunate things, even though I had anticipated them. Greene draws on so many ideas to breath life into his novel. He places familiar concepts into irregular characters, and unfamiliar concepts into regular characters; the results are often wonderful and thought provoking.

As I mentioned, I'd not read a Graham Greene novel prior to this, but I certainly plan on doing so in the future. Greene packed quite a bit of careful thought into this intelligent thriller, and the outcome is as exciting as it is reflective. Gripping and spellbinding, this is definitely worth reading.

Brighton Rock is the first Graham Greene book I read, and after buying all his books, this is still my favourite. I'm English by birth, and know Brighton well, and I am ever impressed by the evocation of a place exactly as I remember it. I find Pinky a truly disturbing character, and his Rose one of the most sad yet courageous heroines in modern literature. Mr. Greene is so good at drawing "small part" characters, and recreates so well the world of the petty criminal, and the unpleasant, hopeless characters who inhabit it. I have always felt Graham Greene to be the master of the written English language - his books contain neither one word more, nor one word less than they need to. Definitely my favourite author, and this my favourite of his considerable body of work.

Greene was inspired by Ford Madox Ford's masterpiece of 1915, The Good Soldier, when he wrote The End of the Affair in 1951. Ford called his 'the saddest story', and indeed, Greene's work is nearly as sad.

The love-story between Bendrix and Sarah is told in weaving, unchronological prose, moving from past to future, rarely staying in the present. As Bendrix loses Sarah, in the end, not to husband Henry, but to God, Bendrix's bitterness is firmly compounded, and the sadness of this story is not just the death of a lover, but the death of Bendrix's hope. There are hints at the end of the novel that Bendrix, who finally acknowledges God in his very hatred of Him, will come to share the faith that made Sarah's last days of life make some sense. But this is questionable.

I strongly recommend this book to readers who likes Greene's detective fiction and his entertainments, but who crave a thinner book with a thicker theme. It should be noted that the novel should be taken more seriously than the recent film made of the book, directed by Neil Jordan. While Jordan's film was beautiful to watch, and the acting superb, the story was altered almost unrecognisably towards the end, and the assumption on the part of Jordan that the book was really about Greene and his mistress (Catherine Walston), coloured the film and destroyed much of its authenticity.

Like all of Greene's works, this novel is largely problematic in theological terms, but as Greene works with paradoxes and rarely in terms of black and white, this is what we have come to expect, and love.

Thank God for the Contemporary Lit professor who made us read "The End of the Affair." Since that first, blissful reading, I've reread this novel at least six times, and I always end up giving away my copy to a fellow reader. The story seems so simple: Bendridx, a self-absorbed bachelor writer, has an affair with Sarah, the wife of Bendrix's friend, Henry. The relationship sparks love inside of Bendrix, and reawakens passions in Sarah, until a bomb falls, leading Sarah to make a deal with God: if God lets Bendrix live, she'll give him up forever. After Bendrix's miraculous recovery, Sarah keeps her promise, even as she tries to disbelieve in God: if, after all, there is no God, then her deal doesn't count. The harder she seeks atheism, the stronger her faith becomes, even to the point where miracles appear to happen in her presence. The characters in this novel--and the myriad relationships between them--are seamlessly drawn. Also, Greene handles the combination of past and present tenses, plus excerpts from Sarah's diary, with a master's touch and clarity. Best of all, you can take "The End of the Affair" on any level you want, from a simple wartime romance to a complex spiritual fable, and it succeeds regardless. One of Greene's contemporaries is quoted on the jacket, calling "The End of the Affair," one of the best novels of our time "In this or any language." That author's name is William Faulkner. Heady praise for one of the Twentieth Century's best novels.

I decided to read this book before watching the film, but now I don't think I can bear to watch the film. Why? Because this was one of the most beautiful pieces of writing I have ever read, and I want to keep it as I remember it. His writing is simply mind blowing..Greene let's us peer into the minds of Bendrix and Sarah Miles, and let's us decide what is the truth. I expected a basic tragic love story,and it has turned out to be anything but basic. It is a complicated tale of many individuals struggling to "find themeselves" and to solidify their set of beliefs..whether it be about love, religion, faith, or hatred. It is a about a love that is so intense that it swings between the desire to destroy and to protect ( the pendulum that Sarah mentions...)Graham Greene's characters are some of the most fascinating in literature: Sarah Miles, Bendrix, Henry, Smythe...they are all consuming characters. It is almost written like a mystery; the reader keeps discovering the truth about each enigmatic personality. This is the perfect book to read on a rainy afternoon ( read it with a pencil! ); it is a short and brilliant read.

More successful than most of Greene's "entertainments," this comic spy tale set in pre-Castro Cuba concerns an insignificant little man-a vacuum cleaner salesman to be precise-who, against his better judgment, becomes MI6's "man in Havana." A longtime Havana resident, Englishman Jim Wormold is divorced, but the custodian of his beautiful, Catholic teenage daughter, Millie. One day he is approached by Hawthorne-a hilariously daft MI6 agent, whose speech is littered with upper crust slang-who shanghais him into becoming a spy. Although he is resistant to the whole notion, his best friend (a German named Hasselbacher), suggests he simply manufacture his sources and intelligence and take the ample money. Millie's expensive tastes and his own devotion to her result in his succumbing to this temptation, and he spends a few happy weeks inventing subagents and fake intelligence. For the first time in years he's doing something interesting, and no longer has money worries-in the funniest bit, he submits drawings of vacuum cleaner parts as sketches of a new Cuban weapons installation.

Of course, this being Greene, complications arise. He is sent reinforcements from the London office, and must scramble to keep them in the dark as to his deception. At the same time, his inventions seem to be taking on a life of their own as people start dying around him, and somebody seems to think he's a real spy. Integral to all this is the ever-present Captain Seguras, a policeman of some renown as a sadist who seeks Millie's hand in marriage. Although a deep melancholy and tragedy lurks in the background, and there's a rather lame love injected, it remains a delightfully absurd tale, one of Greene's better efforts. One is rather reminded of Joseph Conrad's classic, The Secret Agent, in which an ordinary shopkeeper receives payment as a spy for doing nothing-payments which allow him to keep the company of a beautiful woman-and whose misguided scheme ultimately crumbles around him.

Our Man in Havana by Graham Greene is a witty tale of Jim Wormold a vacuum cleaner sales man living in Cuba with his Catholic daughter Milly. In the novel Milly befriends a certain Captain Segura who is known for his ruthless torture of prisoners. While spending time with Segura, Milly ventures to a country club where she soon discovers a love for horses and the urgent need to have one of her own. Shortly after asking Wormold for her own horse, which would be quite a burden on a modest vacuum cleaner salesman, Wormold is confronted by a British Intelligence officer Hawthrone. Mr. Hawthorne subsequently makes a proposition to Wormold that if he were to spy on the Cuban government for the British there would be a handsome benefit of $... upwards a month. Mr. Hawthorne later meets with Wormold to discuss what his spying in Havana will consist of. It is explained to Wormold that by using book code he will need to recruit other agents and file reports in London. Wormold is named Agent 59200/5. As Agent 59000/5 he begins by filing false reports of agents he's recruited and military constructions based on vacuum cleaner designs. Soon London is highly interested in the activities in Havana and sends Wormold a secretary named Beatrice. After her arrival officials in Havana are alerted that spies are present in their community. A chaotic witch hunt begins to suppress the individuals responsible at all costs. The characters Wormold created are suddenly real life people, in real life trouble. Wormold, his friends, and his family are suddenly thrown into a great deal of danger.

After reading the fast paced novel I was please that Greene was able to keep my attention for the duration of the piece. The unusual story of a misconstrued spy leads to not only action and excitement, but humor and wit. The novel drips with dramatic irony as the reader can see where the events are heading, but Wormold remains oblivious. By applying such a great contrast in characters Green is able to create conflicts among conflicts as the motives of all the characters intertwine. Besides the entertainment value the piece also carries a wonderful message of love for one's family and the desire to protect them at all costs. The novel surprises the reader on a consistent basis providing for an enjoyable reading experience. Greene does not lack detail, but does not spend time detailing unnecessary subjects. His descriptions of scenes and the feelings of characters is parallel to none. Graham Greene uses a fantastic arrangement of love, action, wit, and humor to create both an enjoyable and imaginative story. After reading the novel it is easy to understand why it is considered a twentieth century classic.

Gleefully combining the raucous humor of absurdity with slyly subtle wordplay and caustic satire, Greene entertains on every level, skewering British intelligence-gathering services during the Cold War. Setting the novel in the flamboyant atmosphere of pre-revolutionary Havana, where virtually anything can be had at a price, Greene establishes his contrasts and ironies early, creating a hilarious set piece which satirizes both the British government's never-satisfied desire for secrets about foreign political movements and their belief that the most banal of activities constitute threats to national security.

Ex-patriot James Wormold is a mild-mannered, marginal businessman and vacuum cleaner salesman, whose spoiled teenage daughter sees herself as part of the equestrian and country club set. Approached by MI6 in a public restroom, Wormold finds himself unwillingly recruited to be "our man in Havana," a role which will reward him handsomely for information and allow him some much-needed financial breathing room. Encouraged to recruit other agents to provide more information (and earn even more money), he chooses names at random from the country club membership list and fabricates personas for them, featuring them in fictionalized little dramas which he churns out and forwards to his "handlers." Always careful to fulfill their expectations exactly, Wormold becomes a more and more important "spy," his stories become more creative, his "enemies" find him and his "agents" to be dangerous, and his friends and the real people whose names were used as fictional agents begin to turn up dead.

Skewering British intelligence for being such willing dupes of a vacuum cleaner salesman who never wanted to be an agent in the first place, Greene betrays both his familiarity with the inner workings of the intelligence service, of which he was once a member, and his rejection of Cold War politics. In a conclusion which will satisfy everyone who has ever become impatient with political maneuvering, Greene carries the absurdities of power to their limits, orchestrating a grand finale which shows British politicians at their most venal--and most ridiculous. Ascerbic in its humor and delightfully refreshing in its choice of "hero," this novel is Greene at his very best. Mary Whipple

A magnificient story about a priest outlawed during a insurrection in Mexico during the 1930's. The "whisky priest", according to other reviews travelled his area in Mexico performing his duties as a Priest. I disagree. He was represented as truly "human" man, who happened to be a priest, who could NOT do his duties particularly during trying and difficult times. When it came to escaping the territory and possibly living in a comparativly free (religiously speaking) area he did feel enough responsibilty toward his religion, not to leave. This cost him his life. To me he was a real person, weak and again, very human, ending up with more integrity than he began. Many other interesting characters in this book well worth reading about. Lots of religious discussion here. Graham Greene is a wonderful author.

I really don't know how to review this novel; there is simply too much the novel has to say to cover it all her in a short review. Anything I write will be totally inadequate. I can only say that The Power and the Glory is certainly one of the greatest novels written in the Twentieth Century.

The novel is the story of a priest in Mexico in a state which has outlawed Christianity. The priest is trying to get out of the state and away from the athiestic lieutenant who's attempting to capture him, but the priest's Christian duty keeps calling him back into the state and into danger. The priest is also waging a war within himself. He is a good man but definitely a sinner, and he struggles to cure himself of his vices and struggles to believe that he can gain salvation.

The Power and the Glory assaults the reader on all levels. Greene explores so many aspects and paradoxes of Christianity. He looks at the great beauty that can be found in sin. He looks at how love and hate can be so similar. Greene reveals how the priest's life has had great meaning even thought the priest may not realize it. Greene reveals man as living in a "Wasteland," and he also reveals the way to find meaning in it. The characterizations of all of the characters really carry the novel. There are so many insights that can be gained from reading about the priest, the lieutenant, and the mestizo. The Power and the Glory is truly a magnificent novel which should be taught and studied everywhere.

The other reviewers say it better than I can, so I won't bother with praising this classic. I will, however, simply say that I found myself very frustrated throughout the reading. This means that the book was gripping and pulled me in, touching my pride about right and wrong. How true it is that humble love is the most powerful force in the universe! How true it is that I so often want the will of God to be my own. The outlaw priest of this book taught me once again that only those who live the prayer "Thy will be done" have the right to speak to others about the will of God. Very much worth reading! Enjoy!

Greene's "The Quiet American" describes the brief, but astoundingly full relationship between Thomas Fowler, a British war correspondent-slash-expatriate, and Arden Pyle, an innocent and naive American desk soldier in 1950's Vietnam. The novel tells of how Pyle tries to usurp the affections of Phuong, a local woman from a tired, but comfortable relationship with Fowler.

Simultaneously, Pyle is engaged in secretive dealings with a local thug in an attempt to drive French and Vietminh forces out of power - in an effort to establish a puppet government friendly to American interests.

Graham Greene shows why he is one of the single greatest authors of the 20th century. His understanding of cultures and grasp of the current of his contemporary geopolitics is astounding from one novel to the next. In this light, "The Quiet American" is an interesting fictional look at Vietnam in the years preceding the Vietnam Conflict.

The book is yet another of Greene's profound first-person confessionals in the manner of "The End of the Affair" and is well worth a read.

This book is one of the best examples of Graham Greene's gift of weaving a personal story, usually centered around a rather ordinary and unattractive character, into the events of a country in conflict. Resist the temptation to read too much about the U.S. effort in Vietnam into Greene's description of the French-Vietminh conflict; it's a great novel, not a prophetic political analysis. What does apply is Greene's scorching characterization of Alden Pyle, the title character, a young Foreign Service officer (or more likely an intelligence operative under diplomatic cover) who too enthusastically applies his classroom-only theories to a nation and culture he does not understand, with terrible consequences. As the protagonist/narrator, Fowler, remarks, in one of Greene's perfectly turned phrases, "I never knew a man with such good motives for all the harm he did." Working in Washington, I've met Alden Pyle's near-clones all too many times. So, apparently, did Robert McNamara, who said in his book, _In Retrospect_, that one of the biggest causes for the U.S. debacle in Vietnam was that the analysts
who really knew Southeast Asia had too much trouble making
their views heard at the decision level. Doctrine, often inapplicable, prevailed over knowledge. This book should be required reading for prospective diplomats,
intelligence analysts and military officers about to be posted overseas. Ignorance and arrogance make a dangerous mixture, anywhere, any time.

So slim yet such a nugget of gold. Manages to analyze Vietnam and show the stupidity of America's involvement with it, while ostensibly telling a love-triangle crime & punishment story complete with a French Raskolnikov. After one reading, you can read it again, taking Pyle for America's government itself, Phuong for the Vietnamese people (they make dangerous bedfellows :), and Fowler for Greene himself. The magnificent use of a few words to characterize people and places is world class. This book is maybe the best novel of the 20th century, certainly of the '50s. Must-read for any literate American. Too bad it didn't mention that Vietnam had been fighting China for 1000 years and could never become its puppet in a 'domino theory'; all the Viets wanted was to get the colonialists out, and mistook America for such. A neutral unified VN would have been accepted by Ho Chi Minh, as McNamara now admits, but nobody knew to propose it, because the VN assumed everybody knew their history and never talked about it :) Even today, America is VN's natural ally against Chinese imperialism.