Rating: 
Summary: Priest on the run
Review: In a nameless state in southern Mexico, a militantly atheistic lieutenant has declared war against religion. Prayer is outlawed, worshippers are incarcerated, churches have fallen into disuse, and priests are being hunted down and murdered. "The Power and the Glory" is the story of one of the remaining priests who is running for his life and fighting to survive in the hostile environment that was once his parish. There's a price on his head: The lieutenant knows he's out there and is gunning for him.The priest is not given a name. He is a self-admitted bad priest who has an illegitimate daughter, likes to drink (hence he is called a "whisky priest"), and puts his own interests ahead of the needs of others. When the lieutenant's "Red Shirts" invade villages in which they think the priest has stayed and take hostages when the villagers withhold information on his whereabouts, the priest could give himself up to save these people, but his selfish pride refuses to allow him to suffer the humiliation of surrendering to the Red Shirts. Despite his transgressions, the poor people he encounters in the villages value his presence and expect him to carry out the duties of his office such as performing Mass and hearing confessions. The priest is trying to escape to a neighboring "safe" state, and along the way he meets a symbolically serpentine two-toothed mestizo (half-caste Mexican) who suspects the priest's identity and is tempted to turn him in for the reward money. Greene plots this novel with a traditional conflict and resolution, so it's inevitable that the priest has a final confrontation with the lieutenant, in which each man eloquently defends his position. There is a parallel between the events portrayed in this novel and the persecution of the early Christians by the ancient Romans, and therein lies a simple but powerful message: that freedom of religion is a basic human right that should extend beyond geographical and political boundaries.
Rating:
Summary: A uniquely English sense of humour
Review: Perhaps not many readers will see Greene's novels as an expression of a very black sense of humour, although most will pick up on his extraordinary ability to express the potential for heroic transformation that lurks in the most futile act of the tiniest, most insignificant buffoon. So whilst other reviewers will express an appreciation of this wonderful, moving novel's treatment and theme, I want to take some time to emphasize how amusing I found it, what a joy to read, how it made me laugh. From the absurdly close brushes between the priest and those who hunt him, through the intricacies of plot that leave the reader breathless at the priest's hair's-breadth escapes, to the sheer thigh-slapping bravado of the communion wine scene, which is also a very tragic scene indeed, this is a novel whose comic touches might easily be overlooked by the pious or the over-reverent. Those looking for something to feel pious about, those looking to see how a great novel is written, are in for a treat. But don't forget to laugh at the funny bits. This is a tragicomic novel. The turning point would not work if it did not appear like the blackest, meanest joke a god ever played on a priest, and the redemption would not be so powerful if the final pages did not read so much like a derisive parody of the Passion. A great humanist novel. A great, funny, humanist novel written by a doubting Catholic. If this review helped you to see the funny side of Graham Greene, you might like to read Catch-22 by Joseph Heller, another great tragicomic novel.
Rating: 
Summary: The Power & the Glory
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: Probably the greatest novel I have ever read
Review: Many of the other reviewers mention that you do not have to be Catholic to enjoy this book, and I agree. However, you do have to be Catholic to fully appreciate it. The whiskey priest is a symbol of God working through fallen humanity, and despite fallen humanity. The faith that envelops this book is not a personal faith expressed through feelings or emotions, but a revealed faith, which exists, not matter what one does, or how one feels about it. The whiskey priest, a horrible sinner, stays and ministers not because of a feeling of responsibility, but because of an understanding of WHAT he is. He is a priest - he must do what a priest must do, even if he is unworthy of it. He could not stop being a priest any more than a fish could live on land. In his conversations with those he encounters, this is a running theme: You cannot escape God, because He IS. In this vain, I do not know how a non-Catholic could fully appreciate the scene where the priest searches for the wine, and then if forced to drink it, every last drop, with his unknowing pursuers. The wine was needed for the Mass, and nothing could substitute for it - the earthy realities of Catholicism permeates the whole affair. Finally, the real story of the priest is not so much his, but the story of those he encounters. We follow the priest, and those he meets, and then, in an appropriately strange pacing, meet up with them. The priest changed them - he brought them salvation - not through his own manner, but because he was the instrument of God (the death of one character really upset one friend. I told her, "But she went to heaven", and she still didn't get it). At the end, that is what the book is about: "the valley of tears" that life is. If you read it thinking of this world, it is a depressing book. If you read it with your "eyes on the prize", it is a book filled with hope.
Rating:
Summary: Makes you think
Review: Regardless of what your faith, this wonderfully written novel makes you think as well as tells you a great story. The whiskey priest is a controversial character -- as the other rviews here demonstrate-- but he is nonetheless on of the great characters of literature. This book is absolutely worth reading, if only so that you can judge for yourself. For those who are interested in understanding more about what Greene rally meant in the whiskey priest's character, try reading his novel Monsignor Quixote, whose main character is a cross between Don Quixote and the whiskey priest.
Rating: 
Summary: Read "The End of the Affair" first
Review: I discovered Graham Greene on my mother's bookshelf, and he is my new favorite writer. I have decided to read most, if not all, of his work, but I suggest that new Greene readers NOT start with "The Power and the Glory" because while it is Greene's writing style at its best, the story itself is not all that interesting or fascinating. I would read this book maybe second or third after "The End of the Affair," which is the best book I have read in five years. Enjoy--
Rating:
Summary: Is there a truer plot?
Review: Is there a truer plot- one that strikes closer to home - then a human being struggling between what he thinks is moraly right or wrong? We, like the whisky priest, wander through life from village to village afraid we will be caught by some authority who will condemn our actions. Eventually, we come to grips with what we are doing and we decide whether our action is worthy of pursuing till death. Sometimes it is, like the whisky priest decided his action was, sometimes it is not. However, we all hope that some great authority will see our action for what it is, release us, and punish the truly guilty man instead. Graham Greene wrote about life in general, not just one man's life.
Rating:
Summary: Should be read every ten years or so
Review: Having been stimulated into dusting off my Graham Greene section by the appearance in theaters of "The End of the Affair", I picked up "Power & Glory" for the first time in probably a decade or so. And learned once again how masterfully Greene can tell not just a story, but one with a lesson in it as well. In the re-reading I find Greene's story here to be, just like the first time, one which a part of me wants to put down at first--who wants to read about a drunken loser of a priest?--but another part insists that I keep going, following the rites and passages the priest (and the reader) keep. P&G allows us a glimpse at the beauty and awful power of redemption and punishment in a relationship with the divine. If one is not humble at the end, then one should start again.
Rating:
Summary: One of best novels of the 20th century. Period.
Review: Sadly, Greene was shut out of winning the Nobel after P&G because a single judge on the selection committee bore him an old political grudge and swore that the novelist would "never win while I'm alive." Greene's ability to explore the largest of human themes through the medium of his unforgettably fallible characters is never better than here. And the crystalline prose ain't bad either.
Rating:
Summary: Tragedy with the Seeds of Triumph Within
Review: Graham Greene's tale of the alcoholic, lustful, vow-breaking priest who can't run away from his duty to the Church is moving and thought-provoking. The priest wages a fantastic internal battle with his own sin and cowardice as the totalitarian state hunts him down for refusing to stop giving the sacraments and taking confessions. This book is spectacular and belongs in the all-time canon of books exploring the theme of true redemption.
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