The Tenth Man

An early effort by master writer Graham Greene, The Tenth Man is a startlingly honest story adorned with psychological depth, emotional tension, and compassionate humanism. Beginning in a prison camp, three men of thirty draw lots to determine who must die. One of the men selected, a lawyer, then trades his own death lot to another in exchange for great wealth and property. The one who dies then gives his acquired wealth to his family. The story progresses to reveal a sister filled with hate at the man who lived and caused her brother to die. Her naivety is charming as is her warm heart that cannot sustain the hate she demands of herself. The once wealthy lawyer returns to his place of residence, masking his identity, and proceeds to work as a servant. In his humility and shame he finds love, sensitivity, and mostly courage to seek out an opportunity to sacrifice himself for others. The events of the story move rapidly, with the impetus for the dramatic conclusion being caused by greed and evil. Sentences such as "If one had possessed a God's-eye view of France, one would have detected a constant movement of tiny grains moving like dust across a floor shaped like a map," are wonderfully descriptive and cause the reader to see the events in a global imagery. Other expressions like, "When it happens you know what you've been all your life," are momentous and create a powerful sense of human depth that drives the book from beginning to end. Greene's prose and characterizations are intelligent, perceptive, rich, and meaningful without becoming contrived or shallow. Many books are page-turners, causing a reader to rush quickly to the end. The Tenth Man, however, is a page-reflector, forcing the reader to enjoy the journey and the pathway toward the conclusion. A gripping read, The Tenth Man is highly recommended for its content, historical perspective, and mostly its demonstration of the forces of good and evil that reside in everyone. This moving story is not easily forgotten and most readers will be changed by the experience.

I needed book for class. Would not arrive in time for a paper due on a friday; book was ordered on tuesday. Seller immediately responded to e-mail and provided full refund in a down to earth way.

Graham Greene is one of my favorite writers. In such novels as THE HEART OF THE MATTER, OUR MAN IN HAVANA, THE HUMAN FACTOR, THE HONORARY COUNSUL and THE POWER AND THE GLORY, he presents ordinary men whose lives unexpectedly acquire a profound moral dimension or political significance. While questionable motivation--that is, naïveté, loneliness, or self-hatred--often impels his characters to act, Greene's plots also force the unforgettable Henry Scobie, Jim Wormold, Maurice Castle, Dr. Plarr, and the whiskey priest to make a choice. Then, they are on paths without return and with, at best, ironic reward. In THE TENTH MAN, Greene gives us Jean-Louis Chavel, a lawyer in a Gestapo prison who, according to my dust jacket, "offers his fortune and house to anyone who will take his place before a firing squad." Then Greene follows "this survivor on his postwar return to the home he has surrendered." As is usual with Greene's novels, there are several memorable and fully achieved characters--in this case, Chavel, Carosse, and Therese Mangeot--who bump against the limits of their principles or the shallowness of their illusions. As usual, the story is told in a spare style and has layers of conflict and believable emotion, which Greene explores to reveal amazing connections and parallels between dissimilar characters. As the book jacket says: Watch Chavel..."discover the humanity and courage that [earlier] failed him." Highly recommended!

One of Greene's "entertainments," this short novel written in 1944 was hidden away for nearly forty years before being discovered in the MGM files. Written as the idea for a film, the novella is a fine example of Greene's style, as finished and polished as any of his more complex novels. Set in France during the war, the story concerns a group of thirty Frenchmen imprisoned by their German occupiers and then told that they must decide for themselves which three of the thirty men will be executed. One of the men who draws a marked ballot for his own death is a wealthy lawyer with considerable property who offers his entire fortune to any man who will take his place. One young man accepts, drawing up legal papers which give his newly acquired property to his sister and mother before he is executed. The remaining three parts of the novel deal with the return of the now-penniless former owner to "his" house after the war, where he meets the dead man's sister and works as a servant under a new name; the arrival of an imposter who claims to be the former owner; and the showdown between the former owner and the imposter. As is always the case with Greene, the dialogue is taut, revealing character and plot simultaneously, with no extraneous chat. The main character, like so many others Greene depicts, is a weak man whose bad choices, in this case his decision to buy his own life, have led to the complications which become the story. Living a lie, Chavel/Charlot faces a crisis of morality in which he must decide what, if anything, he can do to redeem himself to atone for the life-or-death decision he forced upon another man. The imposter who arrives at the house claiming to be the former owner is described as resembling a devil, and the showdown between him and the real former owner is seen as the struggle between goodness and evil. Filled with ironies and absurdities, the novel maintains considerable suspense until the dramatic, tour de force of an ending. Too short to allow for much character development, the novella conveys a strong message within an exciting little morality tale filled with sharply observed details--simple without being simplistic. Mary Whipple

This short "entertainment" lacks the intensity of a major novel, but the tightly constructed plot makes this book worth the read. Graham Greene combines his fantastic prose with a few fantastic twists. What whould happen if you could trade all of your possesions for a second chance at life? Greene takes a stab at this very intiguing question, and throws in enough curveballs to keep you guessing until the end.True, the characters may be flat, but the story is vivid, creative, and well worth a look.