The Power and the Glory

Most Christian novelists aren't out to convert, not to the same extent that random lunatics on streetcorners are, but it's figures like Greene and Flannery O'Connor who have made the best argument, to me, for the validity of the religious life. It's best expressed in a work of art because it's so fragile and abstract. Which is not to say that 'The Power and the Glory' is some kind of one-track propoganda pamphlet; just the opposite. It depicts a complex reality in which the idea of God keeps re-emerging, as the only answer to the bizzare problems the characters are faced with; Greene's strength, and the strength of most great authors, is that they don't have to manipulate reality to get their characters to say what they want them to say. The vision of sickness and longing, ruin and folly; everything somehow points in one direction. I read that Greene claimed this novel to be 'written to a thesis,' and even though it's so much more complex than morality plays like Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, I see that.

No, he's not a gunslinger, he's one of the most unforgettable characters in literature. It's a story about good and evil without a single false note of sentimentality. Dostoevsky would have loved it. The humor is macabre, ironic, and serves as a great counterpoint to the action. Too many instances to mention, though the passage where a mother reads a sanitized version of the suffering of the Ever So Brave Saints to her child, while a real martyr is being led to the firing squad is outstanding.The setting is Mexico in the 30's when Christianity was outlawed. The Mexican revolution which began in 1910 and wound down by the 40's claimed over one million civilians murdered by both sides. Or, to be more accurate, by every side; since there were lots of armed bands of 'patriots' willing to shoot or torture whoever disagreed with them. Into this mayhem of chaos Greene sets a priest, the last in his province, who is fleeing incognito trying desperately to reach the border.In another twist of irony, Greene's novel was privately condemned by The Vatican curia. (A pubic denunciation would have given him publicity. ) The curia's objection being that the priest is a sinner (Yeah --So?) Greene later recounted how he was summoned to Westminster where a very embarassed cardinal read him the letter of condemnation. Embarassed because he knew what it took some time for the curia to discover, that this is one of the greatest novels of the century.Granted the "Whiskey Priest" as he is called, is hardly a heroic figure. His moniker comes from tipping the bottle much too frequently. He's also fathered an illegitimate child who hates him, and whose love he wants more than anything in the world. He's a fairly nice inoffensive guy who likes to do sleight of hand tricks to amuse his friends, enjoys prestige and creature comforts, "The Whiskey Priest" is a bit of a weakling and a coward. In other words, he could have gone out on double dates with St. Peter. . .And, like his famous predecessor, because he is a priest, his office overwhelms all his weaknesses. After he makes his escape and finds himself drifting into a respectable torpor, he meets a 'Judas' and thanks God that he must go back, even if it means his death.A remarkable tale of reluctant heroism.

I really don't know how to review this novel; there is simply too much the novel has to say to cover it all her in a short review. Anything I write will be totally inadequate. I can only say that The Power and the Glory is certainly one of the greatest novels written in the Twentieth Century.The novel is the story of a priest in Mexico in a state which has outlawed Christianity. The priest is trying to get out of the state and away from the athiestic lieutenant who's attempting to capture him, but the priest's Christian duty keeps calling him back into the state and into danger. The priest is also waging a war within himself. He is a good man but definitely a sinner, and he struggles to cure himself of his vices and struggles to believe that he can gain salvation.The Power and the Glory assaults the reader on all levels. Greene explores so many aspects and paradoxes of Christianity. He looks at the great beauty that can be found in sin. He looks at how love and hate can be so similar. Greene reveals how the priest's life has had great meaning even thought the priest may not realize it. Greene reveals man as living in a "Wasteland," and he also reveals the way to find meaning in it. The characterizations of all of the characters really carry the novel. There are so many insights that can be gained from reading about the priest, the lieutenant, and the mestizo. The Power and the Glory is truly a magnificent novel which should be taught and studied everywhere.

I am only now discovering Graham Greene; this was the second of his works that I've read. It is not a book to be taken up for a little light entertainment; I'm still digesting it, you might say. It stays with a person. Superficially, it is about government oppression and man's inhumanity to man; more specifically, it is about love and its dual power to transform and destroy. Read it on whatever level you choose; basically, it is about a Roman Catholic priest struggling with his faith and intense guilt while trying to elude the forces of a government that has declared his religion illegal. I came away from it moved and disturbed, which in my opinion (humble tho' it be) is the purpose of literature: to create a mirror for the reader herself. What flaws do I posess that masquerade as virtue, what overpowering desire truly motivates my actions? In this novel the main character, the whiskey priest, takes flight not only from his persecutors but also from himself; in the end he finds he can only redeem himself by returning. And there I find another question to haunt me...did the priest indeed find redemption in the end?