The Heart Of The Matter
The Heart Of The Matter by Graham Greene was my Book Club's choice this month. It is the third Graham Greene novel I have read after The End Of The Affair and The Human Factor. Having read those novels, I had some idea of what to expect here, and indeed the novel shares a number of deep similarities to The End Of The Affair.
Having since googled this, four of Greene's novels, including Heart Of The Matter and End Of The Affair examined Catholic themes with Heart Of The Matter being the final one. Some at my Book Club could not understand why the protagonist becomes so deeply religious towards the end, but I, having grown up in modern Catholicism with an awareness of its history, could.
The unforgiving Catholicism on show here, in the days of the Tridentine Rite and prior to the Second Vatican Council is one I think not easily understood by a lay reader, which I think makes the book lose something in translation to the non-religious or non-Catholic.
Aside from this issue the novel covers a number of other themes. First and foremost it is a novel about Colonials and Colonial society. Various Brits abroad, largely public school educated, despairing of the heat and disparaging of the natives, illustrating as they go via their behaviour the levels to which the British Empire damaged various nations and their peoples with their sense of paternalistic right and entitlement.
Our protagonist is Scobie, and our colony is a "West African State" later revealed by Greene to be Sierra Leone. Scobie is that rare thing, an honest man who likes the people and seeks to do the job well, something which makes he and his wife objects of unpopularity and scorn. As the novel turns, and Scobie is forced to act in an unprincipled way, his popularity increases, a remark perhaps aimed by Greene at the corrupt nature of those who enter Foreign Service.
It is a very male book set in a man's world and I found myself frustrated that we only see women in this book in the way Scobie views them, as needy and a burden. The two main female characters Helen and Louise are two-dimensional with only merest hints that they are more than Scobie is allowing them to be. Other men like Wilson, Bagster and Harris are priggish and annoying, and perhaps in some respects, stereotypes.
Despite this the prose itself is engaging, though the novel does not really become consistently readable until perhaps mid-way through. It has dated, but is also an interesting portrait of its time, both historically speaking and in terms of comparative literature.
It is an interesting book, and I enjoyed certain lines of prose very much, but this being my third Greene, I feel like I've got a certain handle now on the type of novel he wrote and can't say I'm eager to read his complete works.
Verdict 7/10
Showing posts with label Infidelity. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Infidelity. Show all posts
Tuesday, 3 June 2014
Thursday, 17 January 2013
Book #10 A Perfectly Good Man by Patrick Gale
A Perfectly Good Man
Length Of Time In Possession : 9 months
Last July I read, really enjoyed, and highly recommended Notes From An Exhibition by Patrick Gale, the story of bipolar artist Rachel Kelly and her family.
My second Patrick Gale novel then is A Perfectly Good Man, it is not a sequel to the former but shares some crossover characters and has a similar literary device, building up a portrait of a mans life by taking snapshots of all the different people involved at different ages.
The good man in question is Barnaby Johnson, a local vicar in Cornwall whose story is told through his own eyes, as well as the eyes of his family and one or two parishoners. Each section introduces the character and the age they were in the time period this section covers. Dorothy at 24. Lenny at 20, Barnaby at 8 and so on. This tactic, also employed in Notes From An Exhibition is a device I really enjoy from Gale it really works, and so eventually we can see all of Barnaby's story from childhood to retirement.
There is something about the way in which Gale writes that I find completely engrossing, I get really involved in the world of the characters, but I also get a real sense of place and atmosphere.
Like "Notes" I felt this strong sense of the best of Christianity coming through the prose, forgiveness, acceptance, compassion and love. Barnaby may not be perfect, or indeed always good, he is flawed like all men, but he does the best that can be hoped for even with his mistakes. This is made even more clear by the juxtaposition of Barnaby to Modest, Modest has also made mistakes, Modest in some ways seeks to atone, but Modest will never be a good man, because his "good deeds" mask a less honourable intent, even when he tries to delude himself that this is not so.
If you haven't read Notes From An Exhibition I recommend doing so first, not because it's necessary, Perfectly Good Man isn't a real sequel, but because when the two novels do become linked through their characters, it was pleasurable already knowing who they were and so much about them.
In the end, this novel moved me enough to have a tiny cry when I finished it, this doesn't happen often for me. This is a really good book and I urge you to put it on your own "to read" list.
Destination : Ebook storage
10/10
Length Of Time In Possession : 9 months
Last July I read, really enjoyed, and highly recommended Notes From An Exhibition by Patrick Gale, the story of bipolar artist Rachel Kelly and her family.
My second Patrick Gale novel then is A Perfectly Good Man, it is not a sequel to the former but shares some crossover characters and has a similar literary device, building up a portrait of a mans life by taking snapshots of all the different people involved at different ages.
The good man in question is Barnaby Johnson, a local vicar in Cornwall whose story is told through his own eyes, as well as the eyes of his family and one or two parishoners. Each section introduces the character and the age they were in the time period this section covers. Dorothy at 24. Lenny at 20, Barnaby at 8 and so on. This tactic, also employed in Notes From An Exhibition is a device I really enjoy from Gale it really works, and so eventually we can see all of Barnaby's story from childhood to retirement.
There is something about the way in which Gale writes that I find completely engrossing, I get really involved in the world of the characters, but I also get a real sense of place and atmosphere.
Like "Notes" I felt this strong sense of the best of Christianity coming through the prose, forgiveness, acceptance, compassion and love. Barnaby may not be perfect, or indeed always good, he is flawed like all men, but he does the best that can be hoped for even with his mistakes. This is made even more clear by the juxtaposition of Barnaby to Modest, Modest has also made mistakes, Modest in some ways seeks to atone, but Modest will never be a good man, because his "good deeds" mask a less honourable intent, even when he tries to delude himself that this is not so.
If you haven't read Notes From An Exhibition I recommend doing so first, not because it's necessary, Perfectly Good Man isn't a real sequel, but because when the two novels do become linked through their characters, it was pleasurable already knowing who they were and so much about them.
In the end, this novel moved me enough to have a tiny cry when I finished it, this doesn't happen often for me. This is a really good book and I urge you to put it on your own "to read" list.
Destination : Ebook storage
10/10
Book #8 Tender Is The Night by F.Scott Fitzgerald
Tender Is The Night
Length Of Time In Possession : 18 months
Tender Is The Night is the story of young, inexperienced actress Rosemary Hoyt and what happens after she is dragged into the social whirl of Dick and Nicole Diver whilst recuperating from pneumonia in Europe.
In my original post explaining the 2013 Challenge, I explained that the goal this year was not to reach 100 books or to complete every book I embarked on but to clear my backlog of unread books by whatever means necessary, whether that meant deciding not to read a book or giving up on it.
Tender Is The Night becomes my first incomplete book of the year. I just don't have any interest at all in spoilt, rich, society Americans, I didn't like The House Of Mirth and I didn't like the Great Gatsby either.
Whenever you fail to appreciate a really critically popular novel or novelist as I never have with F Scott Fitzgerald, a sense of embarrassment or personal incompetence sometimes follows, a sense that you are wrong or ignorant and this is never comfortable. But it shouldn't be really. It should be OK to take a really well liked author and say "You know what? I'm just not a fan" without feeling ashamed of it.
Of all the novels in all the world, no person will like them all. The best part of literature is about the effect it has on its reader, how it resonates with you and what you take from it, how it changes you for the better, and no matter whether that book is EL James or Charles Dickens what matters in the end is your experience and how that book helped you. People should feel less embarrassed to say how they feel about books lest they be sneered upon.
I didn't like Tender Is The Night and I couldn't finish it.
Destination : ebook storage
Length Of Time In Possession : 18 months
Tender Is The Night is the story of young, inexperienced actress Rosemary Hoyt and what happens after she is dragged into the social whirl of Dick and Nicole Diver whilst recuperating from pneumonia in Europe.
In my original post explaining the 2013 Challenge, I explained that the goal this year was not to reach 100 books or to complete every book I embarked on but to clear my backlog of unread books by whatever means necessary, whether that meant deciding not to read a book or giving up on it.
Tender Is The Night becomes my first incomplete book of the year. I just don't have any interest at all in spoilt, rich, society Americans, I didn't like The House Of Mirth and I didn't like the Great Gatsby either.
Whenever you fail to appreciate a really critically popular novel or novelist as I never have with F Scott Fitzgerald, a sense of embarrassment or personal incompetence sometimes follows, a sense that you are wrong or ignorant and this is never comfortable. But it shouldn't be really. It should be OK to take a really well liked author and say "You know what? I'm just not a fan" without feeling ashamed of it.
Of all the novels in all the world, no person will like them all. The best part of literature is about the effect it has on its reader, how it resonates with you and what you take from it, how it changes you for the better, and no matter whether that book is EL James or Charles Dickens what matters in the end is your experience and how that book helped you. People should feel less embarrassed to say how they feel about books lest they be sneered upon.
I didn't like Tender Is The Night and I couldn't finish it.
Destination : ebook storage
Sunday, 19 August 2012
Book #73 Swimming Home by Deborah Levy
Swimming Home
In Swimming Home by Deborah Levy, another contender for this years Booker, popular poet Joe Jacobs is on holiday with his wife, daughter and a couple they are friends with in Nice, when their privacy is intruded upon by one Kitty Finch who they find floating naked in their pool.
At first it all seems like an honest mistake, Kitty regularly holidays here too and has just got her dates confused, that's all, she's happy to go to a hotel, Isabel Jacobs, Joe's wife offers to put her up when no hotel can be found. But it doesn't take long for either Joe or Isabel to discover she is just another fan looking for the poet's attention.
What would make the book lose its general credibility is the group tolerance of Kitty, a clearly unbalanced individual, but Levy sidesteps the issue of Kitty's continued presence by giving the lead characters of Isabel, Joe, and Nina reasons to want her to remain.
If mentally unbalanced Kitty has intruded upon their lives and is manipulating them as their neighbour, who has dealt with Kitty's psychological problems before suggests, so too are they using Kitty, manipulating her; Nina idolising her, hurting her mother by choosing this stranger over her at a pivotal moment in her life, Joe has no interest in helping her develop as a poet, he wants what he gets from all his groupies & rather than Isabel being Kitty's victim, Kitty is Isabel's, invited in and thereby exploited to do exactly what Isabel needs her to do.
Swimming Home is really compulsive to read, an active page turner and its really accessible as a novel, there are great moments in the prose which I really, really liked such as this description of psychiatrists :
Swimming Home comes from a very, very small publishing house called And Other Stories, which relies on subscribers to exist, so it's a triumph, a really great thing to see one of its books up for the Booker. Like many however I could have done without the fawning Tom McCarthy introduction, I skipped it because it was fawning but I am told it gives away aspects of plot which is an unforgivable thing to do to a reader 8/10
In Swimming Home by Deborah Levy, another contender for this years Booker, popular poet Joe Jacobs is on holiday with his wife, daughter and a couple they are friends with in Nice, when their privacy is intruded upon by one Kitty Finch who they find floating naked in their pool.
At first it all seems like an honest mistake, Kitty regularly holidays here too and has just got her dates confused, that's all, she's happy to go to a hotel, Isabel Jacobs, Joe's wife offers to put her up when no hotel can be found. But it doesn't take long for either Joe or Isabel to discover she is just another fan looking for the poet's attention.
What would make the book lose its general credibility is the group tolerance of Kitty, a clearly unbalanced individual, but Levy sidesteps the issue of Kitty's continued presence by giving the lead characters of Isabel, Joe, and Nina reasons to want her to remain.
If mentally unbalanced Kitty has intruded upon their lives and is manipulating them as their neighbour, who has dealt with Kitty's psychological problems before suggests, so too are they using Kitty, manipulating her; Nina idolising her, hurting her mother by choosing this stranger over her at a pivotal moment in her life, Joe has no interest in helping her develop as a poet, he wants what he gets from all his groupies & rather than Isabel being Kitty's victim, Kitty is Isabel's, invited in and thereby exploited to do exactly what Isabel needs her to do.
Swimming Home is really compulsive to read, an active page turner and its really accessible as a novel, there are great moments in the prose which I really, really liked such as this description of psychiatrists :
Or this quote about knowledge :A bad fairy made a deal with me, give me your history and I will give you something to take it away
knowledge would not necessarily serve them, nor would it make them happy. There was a chance it would instead throw light on visions they did not want to see
Swimming Home comes from a very, very small publishing house called And Other Stories, which relies on subscribers to exist, so it's a triumph, a really great thing to see one of its books up for the Booker. Like many however I could have done without the fawning Tom McCarthy introduction, I skipped it because it was fawning but I am told it gives away aspects of plot which is an unforgivable thing to do to a reader 8/10
Saturday, 4 February 2012
Book #12 The End Of The Affair by Graham Greene
The End Of The Affair
The End Of The Affair is a post-war novel by hugely respected 20th Century writer Graham Greene.
The novel's protagonist Maurice Bendrix is a semi-successful writer looking back upon his affair with Sarah Miles, a civil servant's wife.
Bendrix recieves a hint from Henry, his ex lover's husband that he is afraid she is unfaithful, though their relationship has passed, the jealous passion that then consumes Bendrix sees him engage a private detective to monitor Sarah's movements.
The End Of The Affair is a love story I suppose but succeeds far much more as a story of jealousy. The sections where Bendrix reflects angrily on the loss of Sarah and his hatred for anyone who has ever had her before or since are by far the best written, the most achingly human, the most identifiable.
Personally , I felt that the reflections upon faith and religion, perhaps controversial in their day, somewhat missed the mark. It could be that they have merely dated and therefore should be viewed within their historical context. I'm sure that they provided a lot of debate in the papers of the day.
I have to say that the relationship between Bendrix and Henry, though at times poignant really did push the realms of plausibility and realism on occasion.
Additionally for a book which at 160 pages is not really a book I would expect to spend more than an afternoon on, I read it with several pauses in between, it wasn't terrible compelling, even though the writing itself was very sophisticated, as one would expect.
Funny, I kept imagining Ralph Fiennes as Bendrix as that's who played him in the movie which I haven't seen. He makes a perfect imaginary Bendrix though, so I think I may try and catch the movie sometime. 8.5/10
The End Of The Affair is a post-war novel by hugely respected 20th Century writer Graham Greene.
The novel's protagonist Maurice Bendrix is a semi-successful writer looking back upon his affair with Sarah Miles, a civil servant's wife.
Bendrix recieves a hint from Henry, his ex lover's husband that he is afraid she is unfaithful, though their relationship has passed, the jealous passion that then consumes Bendrix sees him engage a private detective to monitor Sarah's movements.
The End Of The Affair is a love story I suppose but succeeds far much more as a story of jealousy. The sections where Bendrix reflects angrily on the loss of Sarah and his hatred for anyone who has ever had her before or since are by far the best written, the most achingly human, the most identifiable.
Personally , I felt that the reflections upon faith and religion, perhaps controversial in their day, somewhat missed the mark. It could be that they have merely dated and therefore should be viewed within their historical context. I'm sure that they provided a lot of debate in the papers of the day.
I have to say that the relationship between Bendrix and Henry, though at times poignant really did push the realms of plausibility and realism on occasion.
Additionally for a book which at 160 pages is not really a book I would expect to spend more than an afternoon on, I read it with several pauses in between, it wasn't terrible compelling, even though the writing itself was very sophisticated, as one would expect.
Funny, I kept imagining Ralph Fiennes as Bendrix as that's who played him in the movie which I haven't seen. He makes a perfect imaginary Bendrix though, so I think I may try and catch the movie sometime. 8.5/10
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