The Power and the Glory (The collected edition, #5) (The Viking critical library)

by Graham Greene

The last priest is on the run. During an anti-clerical purge in one of the southern states of Mexico, he is hunted like a hare. Too human for heroism, too humble for martyrdom, the little worldly 'whisky priest' is nevertheless impelled towards his squalid Calvary as much by his own compassion for humanity as by the efforts of his pursuers. A baleful vulture of doom hovers over this modern crucifixion story, but above the vulture soars an eagle -- the inevitability of the Church's triumph.

• ISBN10: 0670569798
• ISBN13: 9780670569793
• Publish Date: 22 February 1946
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 1 October 2014
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Viking Books
• Format: Paperback (US Trade)
• Pages: 276
• Language: English

Reviews

[brokentune]

"The wall of the burial-ground had fallen in: one or two crosses had been smashed by enthusiasts: an angel had lost one of its stone wings, and what gravestones were left undamaged leant at an acute angle in the long marshy grass. One image of the Mother of God had lost ears and arms and stood like a pagan Venus over the grave of some rich forgotten timber merchant. It was odd – this fury to deface, because, of course, you could never deface enough. If God had been like a toad, you could have rid the globe of toads, but when God was like yourself, it was no good being content with stone figures – you had to kill yourself among the graves."

It may have been the subject matter but this book was hard to follow and such a relief to finish.

Saying that, it is not a book I would have abandoned.

The Power and the Glory - as remote as it may have been to anything I can relate to - was strangely compelling because the story of a secular regime oppressing people by outlawing religion (or anything else that posed as an opposition) - seemed to reflect much of the time it was written in.

And of course, I am glad to see that Greene has by this time (1940) moved on from writing insipid thrillers.

(Review first posted on BookLikes.)