A review of 'The Heart of the Matter' by Graham Greene
Note: The following review was originally published at Amazon.co.uk on 18th. September 2015.
Link to original review: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/customer-reviews/R37GEX7ZPLHAWF?ref=pf_ov_at_pdctrvw_srp
Graham Greene's classic novel relates the tragic story of 'Scobie', a senior police officer in a west African colony. A devout and faithful Catholic, and a policeman of unreproachable integrity and honesty, 'Scobie' slowly descends into petty malfeasance as a result of his disillusionment with his chosen vocation and his love for a woman. The novel has an ominous feeling to it from the beginning - you just know this is not going to end well.
I found this a deeply moving story. Greene's evident preoccupation with guilt and sin (which I assume is the result of his own Catholic faith) will perhaps grate a little with today's reader, inculcated as we are in looser contemporary mores and norms. The surd Scobie is a metaphor for the Fallen Man, which lies at the centre of Christian morality. Those who are the most honest have the further to tumble as they go through life's ordinary experiences.
Yet, Scobie's sins are really more indiscretions, which he is suborned by an authority figure to commit, and I feel do not deserve the opprobrium the character inflicts on himself. Far from being a lesson in the dangers of moral aberration, I see this novel as a salutary warning about the poison that is religion and its guilt-inducing morality.
I found this a deeply moving story. Greene's evident preoccupation with guilt and sin (which I assume is the result of his own Catholic faith) will perhaps grate a little with today's reader, inculcated as we are in looser contemporary mores and norms. The surd Scobie is a metaphor for the Fallen Man, which lies at the centre of Christian morality. Those who are the most honest have the further to tumble as they go through life's ordinary experiences.
Yet, Scobie's sins are really more indiscretions, which he is suborned by an authority figure to commit, and I feel do not deserve the opprobrium the character inflicts on himself. Far from being a lesson in the dangers of moral aberration, I see this novel as a salutary warning about the poison that is religion and its guilt-inducing morality.
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