The Power and the Glory (Penguin Twentieth-Century Classics)

Rating:
Summary: "Blessed are the poor in spirit."
Review: Originally published in 1940, Penguin Classics has not yet reissued a centenial edition of Graham Greene's masterpiece, THE POWER AND THE GLORY. Greene (1904-1991) converted to Catholicism in 1926, and later reported on religious persecution in Mexico in 1938, which provides the historical background for his novel. Following civil war in central-western Mexico, the government banned Catholocism and its practice in the southern states of Tobasco and Chiapas. An army of government thugs--anticlerical "Red Shirts," enforced the ban by executing priests.

Set in Tobasco the 1930s, THE POWER AND THE GLORY follows the last remaining priest on his flight from the fascist Red Shirts pursuing him, to his ascent to martyrdom. Greene's anonymous hero is an outlaw and a gentle "whisky priest" (p. 79), with a love for brandy. In fact, he has broken most of his vows, and even fathered an illegitimate daughter. Although he no longer finds prayer meaningful, Greene's whiskey priest continues to perform rites as a fugitive from the state until he is betrayed by a Judas-like, toothless mestizo, and is tortured along the way by the inner knowledge that, "when he was gone it would be as if God in all this space between the sea and the mountains ceased to exist. Wasn't it his duty to stay?"

Readers don't have to be Catholic or even religious to appreciate this book. Greene's novel not only offers readers a religious parable that transcends its written pages, contrasting God's power and glory against twentieth century secular materialism, but it also offers a source of comfort for anyone feeling out of step with their country's politics.

G. Merritt

Rating:
Summary: A Subtley Wonderful Book
Review: The Power and the Glory is just wonderful. Yet it is wonderful in a subtle way, unlike any other book I have ever read. When Greene introduces you to the "Whisky Priest" - you are never told his name - he tells you nothing about him that you do not need to know right then, and then you learn the rest as the priest runs from the atheists with guns (i.e. Marxists) who have taken over the region of Mexico in which he lives. It is almost like being hypnotized - you don't realize it, but the more you read about this poor fellow you become engrossed in his life, you almost become him.

Perhaps the most charming thing about "the priest" - as he is almost ubiquitously referred to - is that he is a bad priest, and although he knows he hasn't lived up to his calling, he makes no pretense about being anything else, anything but a bad priest. He drinks alcohol too much and falters in so many ways (I'll save the details for reading the book). Yet while he never tries to defend his failure to live up to expectations, in the end he is, as Penguin's edition says on the back of the book, "nevertheless impelled toward his squalid Calvary as much by his own compassion for humanity as by the efforts of his pursuers."

Read this book. You will be mesmerized by it.

Rating:
Summary: Efficient but Not Very Memorable
Review: You'll love it! Wait... maybe you won't. I really don't know you well enough to recommend books to you over the intranent and at this stage of our relationship.

Rating:
Summary: Heroic? It is for you to decide
Review: This novel by Graham Greene had me a little confused throughout it. The characters are coming and going a lot and you can get lost in the thick storyline. The book takes you through the adventures of a whiskey priest on the run from authorities. Churches are outlawed in his state and he is trying to make it to safe territory. The author's attention to detail is evident throughout the book, which in some cases added to the story, yet in others seemed to drag it out too long. The one thing that kept me interested in this book was wanting to get to the big ending. The novel kept my mind wondering what was going to happen next. One chapter would have you thinking one thing and then a few chapters later you were thinking just the opposite. Overall this book was good. It kept me interested most of the time, but occasionally seemed to get to wordy and I would get lost in the details. I would recommend this book to someone who is not looking for that same old happy ending adventure story.

Rating:
Summary: Unromantic Passion
Review: The Power and the Glory, is one of the best books I have ever read. Greene takes the raw passion of life and puts it in ink on the page. This novel tells the story of a priest shortly after a civil war in Mexico. A quick backstory, after the civil war southern provinces of Mexico, Tobasco and Chiapas, became very skeptical of the Roman Catholic church and tried to take it away from the people. The preist is the only one left in the province, and throughout the story is on the run from the law. The preist who considers himself a failure must rediscover himself in the midst of being a fugitive. The epic quest every man takes of trying to find himself. Greene uses uncoated realism throughout the book. He puts no sugar on top and leaves no stone of the heart unturned. Every person should read this book to experience the true unromantic nature of the book.