What I like of Mr. Graham Greene is the way he describes the humanity values in life. Greene explains really well the absurd of being a "good man" (or a man of God) with all the responsabilities and all the insatisfaction. He doesn't use any strange word or any surrealist scene, he just describes with all the accuracy what Scobie is feeling in each particular moment of his adventure. Here, my extract of The Heart of the Matter", for instance, I loved how he describes the meaning of the word "truth" in such a war.
"...always at this region at about this time they began to sepak the truth at each other. The truth, he thought, has never been of any real value to any human being -it is a symbol for mathematicians and philosophers to pursue. In human realtions kindness and ties are worth a thousand truths. He involved himself in what he always knew was a vain struggle to retain the lies."
Also, this extract is quite interesting, taking about sin:
" Despair is the price one pays for setting oneself an impossible aim. It is, one is told, the unforgivable sin, but it is a sin the corrupt or evil man never practises. He always has hope. He never reaches the freezing-point of knowing absolute failure. Only the man of goodwill carries always in his heart this capacity for damnation."
On other hand, I think Greene constructs sentences using some creative comparisons that touched me. By the way, I didn't finish the book, but I can assure it wasn't because his vocabulary or his writing level. Also, I have to say I thought he wrote another kind of novels. With regard to what I dislike, I think I didn't enjoy so much the scenary where the action happens, sometimes got me bored.
In summary, for my taste, he is not Faulkner or Conrad, but he is okay.
Hopefully, I'll see you all tomorrow.
Many thanks,
Esther.
