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The Power and the Glory

by Graham Greene, John Updike (Introduction)

3.98 of 5 stars 3.98 · rating details · 11,424 ratings · 811 reviews

In a poor, remote section of southern Mexico, the Red Shirts have taken control. God has been outlawed, and the priests have been systematically hunted down and killed. Now, the last priest strives to overcome physical and moral cowardice in order to find redemption.

Paperback, 240 pages

Published February 25th 2003 by Penguin Classics (first published 1940)

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Mar 20, 2010 Megha rated it 5 of 5 stars

Recommended to Megha by: Ben Harrison

Shelves: reviews, kickass

This little gem turned out to be quite a surprise. It is indeed powerful and it is glorious. Greene's writing seems really simple and is easy to read, and yet is so full of meaning. I am still soaking it all in.

As the lead character, the 'whiskey-priest', moves from one place to another, Greene takes us along on a journey taut with suspense and tension. However, it is really his moral journey which is the most captivating. We not only witness the priest's struggle to escape, we also get to look...more
This little gem turned out to be quite a surprise. It is indeed powerful and it is glorious. Greene's writing seems really simple and is easy to read, and yet is so full of meaning. I am still soaking it all in.

As the lead character, the 'whiskey-priest', moves from one place to another, Greene takes us along on a journey taut with suspense and tension. However, it is really his moral journey which is the most captivating. We not only witness the priest's struggle to escape, we also get to look into his tormented soul and his ambivalence. He is constantly torn between following what his religious faith has taught him while his worldly sense seems to make more practical sense. He feels guilty for his sins, but he loves the fruit of his sin. He almost wishes that he be caught so that he could be rid of the fear and the misery. But doesn't his faith teach him that it is his duty to save his soul? He has sinned and is immoral, but he is also full of compassion and love for fellow human beings.
A question that haunts the priest and the reader throughout is whether he will find redemption and if his soul will achieve salvation? Or do immoralities and sins always overshadow a man's goodness? Greene makes it so easy for one to understand his characters. The priest, with his virtues and his flaws, feels like a very real person. It is not at all difficult to imagine such a person walking some part of this earth in flesh.

While we read the thoughts and the convictions of the priest, the lieutenant serves as the opposing voice. Both have some ideals which I do not completely agree with, but I also don't consider either of them to be totally wrong. I also liked that the priest and the lieutenant, though rivals, are able to see the good in each other and have mutual respect. Through these two characters, Greene brings forth the impermanence of beliefs through which one defines what is "right". Life can always take such turns that one's firmly believed ideals cease to make sense anymore.

As the journey proceeds and we encounter various places and characters, Greene also reveals the misery, poverty, disease and utter desolation that has engulfed these wastelands. He captures the feeling of the place and the moment with just the right words. Through his words, you can almost feel the oppressive heat or the thundering rainstorm or the tranquility and freshness of an early morning. Different characters that we meet give a sense of how bleak and despairing their life is. There is a person who cannot shirk off the idea of death, there is another with a desperate cheerfulness who has to constantly remind himself that he is happy. There are several instances where we see the difference between the world-view of adults and children. Adults who have known better times and have only those memories to draw any happiness from. While the only world their children have seen is this world of misery. These children haven't known what happiness, hope or faith means. They have matured before they have aged. All the playfulness and innocence of childhood has been drained away.

Another frequently encountered theme is that of abandonment. The words 'abandoned', 'abandonment' crop up very often..be it a man who has abandoned his family, a child abandoned by her father, a man deserted in the forest. However, what Greene is really hinting at is the abandonment of this land and its people. They are cut-off from the rest of the world to rot in suffering, while the world and civilization outside progress. The future holds no promises, all hope and faith has vanished. Life has ceased to have any meaning, God himself has ceased to exist. Death is an everyday affair for them and life is just a duty to be performed from day-to-day without ever knowing its joy and charm.

She said: "I would rather die."
"Oh," he said, "of course. That goes without saying. But we have to go on living."

"She was one of those garrulous women who show to strangers the photographs of their children: but all she had to show was coffin."

For the most part the novel is bleak and grim, but it speaks of hope as well.

"It is one of the strange discoveries a man makes that life, however you lead it, contains moments of exhilaration: there are always comparisons which can be made with worse times:even in danger and misery the pendulum swings."

Greene also reminds us of how peace and beauty can exist in the smallest of moments, which people often fail to notice until it has been left far behind.

"It was nearly like peace, but not quite. For peace you needed human company-his alone-ness was like a threat of things to come. Suddenly he remembered - for no apparent reason - a day of rain at the American seminary, the glass windows of the library steamed over with central heating, the tall shelves of sedate books, and a young man - a stranger from Tucson - drawing his initials on the pane with his finger - that was peace. He looked at it from outside: he couldn't believe he would ever again get in."

There is so much more I have to say about this novel, I could never cover it all in a review. Let me just say it is so very human.

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Jul 30, 2009 Jen rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: anyone

Recommended to Jen by: Montambo

Shelves: lit-fic, spirituality-religion

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I like books that have more questions than answers. But the questions have to be good, like this:
"... she unhooked the child and held the face against the wood...Did she expect a miracle? And if she did, why should it not be granted her?...The priest found himself watching the child for some movement. When none came, it was as if God had missed an opportunity. Why, after all, should we expect God to punish the innocent with more life?"

The Power and the Glory started off slow and stifling. The...more I like books that have more questions than answers. But the questions have to be good, like this:
"... she unhooked the child and held the face against the wood...Did she expect a miracle? And if she did, why should it not be granted her?...The priest found himself watching the child for some movement. When none came, it was as if God had missed an opportunity. Why, after all, should we expect God to punish the innocent with more life?"

The Power and the Glory started off slow and stifling. The air is hot, and the sound of a fly hovering around your ear is about all you get. There is no water. A scraggly guy shows up and talks to a mediocre dentist. Ho hum. Then the scraggly guy is off, somehow needed at a dying person's side. Somewhere in the jungle lightning cracks. The air shifts. The world of the book cracks open and the ground rumbles. And suddenly, tiny razor cuts of prose start to sting. You're alive, the book's alive, the scraggly man is alive. The pain is an exquisite reminder of reality and humanity. The scraggly man is Christ in the stranger's garb. Hunted, maligned, but pressing onward, riding a donkey, shunned by his own family and surrendered to forces beyond himself that he only wishes he could fight fairer and without drops of whiskey.

Obviously, I see this man being shown as a fool for the divine- a holy fool-the biblical kind of foolishness that somehow, like many Old Testament prophets, hits square on the center of truth and blackens the eye with true humility despite, because of, or combined with crazy assed behavior like being covered with matted animal skins, mouths dirty with smeared honey and locust tidbits. Am I reading too much into Greene? Consider this, the sacrificial servant passage:

"If he left them, they would be safe:and they would be free from his example:he was the only priest the children could remember. It was from him they would take their ideas of the faith. But it was from him too they took God - in their mouths. When he was gone it would be as if God in all this space between the sea and mountains ceased to exist. Wasn't it his duty to stay, even if they despised him, even if they were murdered for his sake, even if they were corrupted by his example? He was shaken by the enormity of the problem: he lay with his hands over his eyes: nowhere, in all the wide flat marshy land, was there a single person he could consult...."

But this is not the only thing to see through Greene's looking glass. There's more- that right and wrong/good and evil is not a black and white road as the Catholic Church seemed to at times imply, but a gray path through a hard wilderness- that evil people can do very good things and good people can do very bad things. The sinner and the saint come in unlikely bodies and their spirits cross. And this is reality and it is also the most fantastical fantasy.

Authors who deal with religious themes often include characters that, to use the lyrics of a CAKE song, "shine like justice." Greene's whiskey priest character doesn't do this. He wrestles with the divine, like Jacob with the angel the whole night through and when he awakes he finds that, like Jacob, he is limping. The priest doesn't float a foot off the muddy ground blessedly sermonizing to all he meets full of the awareness of his own power among the people, sanctified with a golden ring over his head. He walks through the mud, for years hides out among them, plodding along through life shitting and eating and fucking just like everyone else, making mistakes and trying to find meaning in the mess of it all. Greene takes characters, gives them flesh, feeds them on the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and then watches them fall like the rest of us mortals. And the way that they fall! There are serial killers who use their last dying gasps of air trying to save someone else, law breakers who remain smug in false piety and feel comfortable enough passing judgement on those who share the same shitbucket, poser priests who have sold their shepherd staffs and flocks for the wolfish clothing of easy survival and governmental compliance, a conflicted lieutenant who would see his own noble theories and principles violently enforced, and a Judas figure who doesn't even have the good sense enough to hang himself from the nearest tree. And the whiskey priest shares communion with all of them, sharing the bread and the wine in equal amounts.

The story distills itself by the end, culminating in a powerful and heady sip of the inevitable. The whiskey priest manages to "work out his own salvation with fear and with trembling" and abide by the Pauline exclamation that the meaning of death is the same as the meaning of life ("To live is Christ and to die is gain.") It is my understanding that the title also expresses this, through a small bit of the Lord's Prayer: "To thine be the Power and the Glory forever, amen." But, like the whiskey priest, I am open to others' interpretations.

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Jun 02, 2011 Kemper rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2011, classic-lit, 100, sky-cake

One thing I know after reading this, All the Pretty Horses and Joe Lansdale’s Captains Outrageous, I ain’t going to Mexico any time soon.

Graham Greene’s classic account of a priest living on the run in a Mexican state after socialists have taken political control and are trying to abolish the Catholic Church is a grim tale of human nature at it’s best and worst. The unnamed priest is a drunk who isn’t particularly brave and has committed sins big enough to register fairly high on he Catholic G...more

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Jul 27, 2009 Dave Russell rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: novels

That was another mystery: it sometimes seemed to him that venial sins—impatience, an unimportant lie, pride, a neglected opportunity—cut off from grace more completely than the worst sins of all. Then, in his innocence, he had felt no love for anyone: now in his corruption he had learnt...

There is a key scene which takes place in a prison after The Priest is arrested for the less serious crime of possessing brandy and not the more serious crime of treason, for which he is also deemed guilty by...more That was another mystery: it sometimes seemed to him that venial sins—impatience, an unimportant lie, pride, a neglected opportunity—cut off from grace more completely than the worst sins of all. Then, in his innocence, he had felt no love for anyone: now in his corruption he had learnt...

There is a key scene which takes place in a prison after The Priest is arrested for the less serious crime of possessing brandy and not the more serious crime of treason, for which he is also deemed guilty by the authorities. There he meets a woman whom he describes as "complacent" in her piety. His own struggle with complacency forms the core thrust of this story.

Before religion was outlawed The Priest led a rather comfortable, albeit bland existence. Reading his description of his old life I was reminded of Dante's Inferno specifically the Uncommitted, the lukewarm who chose neither good nor evil. They are condemned to a sort of eternal twilight existence outside of Hell. An eternity of waiting outside the velvet rope.

It's only after he is on the run does his life take on any dimension--he is unrecognizable from his photograph from those earlier days. It's while on the run that he encounters true sin, the kind that gets you past the velvet rope and into the second or third circle of Club Inferno: He fathers a child out of wedlock, an unpardonable sin because he is not truly sorry for it. He loves his daughter.

Here's the paradox: it's through a sin which will condemn him to Hell according to the Church rules that he comes to understand true love and humility:

This was the love he should have felt for every soul in the world: all the fear and the wish to save concentrated unjustly on the one child.

But in the end he is incapable of it:

He prayed, "God help them," but in the moment of prayer he switched back to his child beside the rubbish-dump, and he knew it was for her only that he prayed. Another failure.

This is what makes the ending so fascinating for me. Throughout the novel the struggle of The Priest is contrasted with the struggle of The Lieutenant, a misguided and often brutal reformer who is capable of small acts of kindness nonetheless. The Lieutenant is not one of the complacent ones. In his own way he is saint, one of "Hell's Saints" to use a phrase from The End of the Affair.

Even though The Priest cannot achieve saintliness, there's reason to believe that he may win a victory over The Lieutenant after all. In a world where suffering and sin is almost unavoidable, "Saintliness" (by the Church's definition) may not be necessary after all. Such a wonderful ending and such a humane vision. (less)

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Aug 01, 2009 Kim rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: cultured

~~3.68 stars.~~ 3.85 stars

So, my first jaunt into book club territory. What do I bust in with? The Power and the Glory. What an idiot I am.

I have to say that this is probably not a book that I would have picked if left to my own devices. My first introduction into Greene was The End of the Affair and that’s only because I’m a sucker for a good ‘woe is me’ story. Bitterness and anger to unknown deities? Rock on! But, put into this context - in this setting - I have to admit that I felt a bit lost....more

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Jan 12, 2013 Chiara Pagliochini rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: letteratura-inglese

I migliori romanzi sono quelli che mi lasciano come sono adesso: perplessa, moralmente scossa, vagamente isterica. Sono i migliori non tanto per il piacere che suscita la loro lettura o l’affetto che si prova per un personaggio o magari una scrittura fascinosa. Sono i migliori perché agiscono come un pungolo sulla mia coscienza, perché svitano e riavvitano i miei circuiti come un cavatappi. Controversi, grotteschi, disturbanti, si insinuano a un livello che è al di sotto della coscienza psicolog...more

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Feb 27, 2008 Adam rated it 5 of 5 stars

The “whisky priest” is on the run from the law from the law in Mexico. Set in period in Mexico’s history where priests where being shot and the Catholic Church was illegal, this book plays like the New Testament mixed with an existential western. Grim and suspenseful, stocked with cinematic imagery in a gothic and decaying Mexico, this book is masterpiece from the first page on. While my personal beliefs are nearer to the nihilistic lieutenant (kind of a Miltonic devil type character) chasing th...more

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Jan 23, 2009 Karlan rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: adult

The novel sets the scene of heat, poverty, misery on the first page. In Mexico, there was a time when Catholicism was banned in certain states, and priests who did not renounce their religion were executed. One priest escaped capture for years and the suspense about his fate builds throughout the book. The minor characters are interestingly depicted. It is a powerful, dramatic story which critics have called Greene's "masterpiece".

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Jan 15, 2009 Anne Broyles rated it 5 of 5 stars

Even though the reader knows what is going to happen to a flawed "whiskey priest" on the run in a Mexican state (1930s) that has outlawed religion, by the end, there is so much in this rich novel. Phrases leapt out of the pages on this my second or third reading (first time, in high school)that summed up so much of life, faith, relationships, humanity. I underlined something on many pages. Little gems like:

"His conscience began automatically to work: it was like a slot machine into which any coi...more

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Sep 17, 2012 Bucket rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 1001-read-06-08-and-10-editions, culture, diversity, life-and-death, literary, religion, reviewed, tragedy

In the 1930s Mexico of Graham Greene’s classic novel, God and religion have been outlawed and any priest who hasn’t escaped or relinquished his faith has been hunted down and killed. The last surviving priest who still practices religious rites is not only running for his life, but self-destructing under the weight of both his outlaw situation and his past.

I was fascinated by this unnamed main character, a ‘whiskey priest’ who drinks endlessly and is struggling to come to terms with the mortal...more In the 1930s Mexico of Graham Greene’s classic novel, God and religion have been outlawed and any priest who hasn’t escaped or relinquished his faith has been hunted down and killed. The last surviving priest who still practices religious rites is not only running for his life, but self-destructing under the weight of both his outlaw situation and his past.

I was fascinated by this unnamed main character, a ‘whiskey priest’ who drinks endlessly and is struggling to come to terms with the mortal sin he has committed and feels he can never be absolved of. Even as he runs and hides and does all he can to avoid capture and be able to continue serving his faith, he is buried deep in his own emotional upheaval and the heavy judgment his faith imposes.

The whiskey priest has many fascinating musings during his journey, but the most profound to me is this:

"That was another mystery: it sometimes seemed to him that venial sins -- impatience, an unimportant lie, pride, a neglected opportunity -- cut you off from grace more completely than the worst sins of all…in his innocence, he had felt no love for anyone; now in his corruption he had learnt."

Before he committed his mortal sin, the whiskey priest had no empathy for anyone. His faith was a pulpit to stand on. Now, “in his corruption,” he sees what the grace of God and Catholic piety really mean, and his faith becomes a rock to cling to.

Though Greene’s novel was widely criticized by members of the Catholic clergy when it was first published for being ‘anti-Catholic’ and offensive. For me, though, and many others, including Pope Paul VI who met Greene in 1965, the novel celebrates piety and faith in their pure and empathetic forms.

Greene's novel is full of gorgeous description of the decaying Mexican towns and the cold and mountainous countryside. Greene wrote his novel in short and very powerful scenes that pack a psychological punch. They are uncomfortable and beautiful at once. When the priest helplessly watches the policemen drink down his wife, I was livid with anger on his behalf. When he meets an elderly man in prison who takes comfort in being near him, I was moved by the connection they quickly formed.

The end of the whiskey priest’s story is both triumphant and tragic and verifies the power and the glory of the whisky priest’s Catholic faith. This is a short novel and a quick read, but it is profoundly affecting. I highly recommend this novel to anyone who has struggled to understand their own identity and sense of purpose: namely, everyone. Greene’s explorations of humanity and emotion are not often matched in their impact.

Themes: religion vs. state, Mexico, martyrdom, Catholicism, police corruption, prohibition of alcohol(less)

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Jul 11, 2011 Daniel Villines rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

If you are looking for Graham Greene, be assured that a part of him resides within The Power and the Glory. In the tradition of some of his previous works he does not hesitate to perform invasive exploratory surgery on the human condition in order to uncover more than a few basic human truths. As such, there is no sense of Hollywood within these pages.

The interesting part of this book is his protagonist. Greene all but creates the common man within his pages, complete with pitiful self attribute...more

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Aug 03, 2009 Ben rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: read-in-2009, religion-spirituality, darkness, memorable-characters

My first Graham Greene novel was The End of the Affair and it rocked my world, and affected me in some profound ways. It was the perfect novel for me at the time, and I am forever indebted to Mr. Greene for giving me that enlightening experience.

Going into this, I knew better than to expect the same magnitude of visceral reaction that I had with The End of the Affair, but nonetheless, because the connection I had with the aforementioned was so strong, I couldn't help but have decently high expec...more

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Jul 29, 2008 Jesse Cone rated it 3 of 5 stars

For years I’ve heard that I should read Graham Greene’s The Power and the Glory, and I finally picked it up this week. The previous week I had the pleasure of watching the BBC miniseries version of Evelyn Waugh’s “Brideshead Revisited” which left me profoundly moved yet quite unsatisfied. Waugh was a great admirer of Greene, a fellow Roman Catholic novelist, and at one time defended three of Greene’s novels (including The Power and the Glory) from a bishop’s condemnation.

The Power and The Glory...more

For years I’ve heard that I should read Graham Greene’s The Power and the Glory, and I finally picked it up this week. The previous week I had the pleasure of watching the BBC miniseries version of Evelyn Waugh’s “Brideshead Revisited” which left me profoundly moved yet quite unsatisfied. Waugh was a great admirer of Greene, a fellow Roman Catholic novelist, and at one time defended three of Greene’s novels (including The Power and the Glory) from a bishop’s condemnation.

The Power and The Glory is much like Brideshead in its incessant bleakness, but in an greatly dissimilar setting. As opposed to the height of British civilization, the novel is set in a barren and sun-scorched part of Mexico. The book circles like a vulture around the exile of an unnamed whiskey priest - with an illegitimate child whom we get to meet for the few precious moments the priest gets to spend with her.

Our unnamed priest is stuck in a Mexican state that has banned both the Roman Catholic Church and alcohol, so our poor protagonist is unable to participate in both his vice and his sacred duty. He’s the last priest in the region other than a cowardly priest who capitulated to the demands of the state, and as such has married and refuses even to offer up even the most necessary of public prayers, or hear confessions.

In the tenth year of the priests’ fugitive state the governor, discovering that a priest is still in his province, offers a 700 peso reward for the priests’ capture (as opposed to the 500 pesos offered for an American bank robber and murderer). The most attractive character of the book, an ordered and cleanly lieutenant, is determined to catch the “treasonous” priest who epitomizes everything he despises about life. Of all the characters in the book, only the lieutenant seems to have any purpose or direction. The majority of the book is spent as the priest moves from impoverished town to impoverished town; partly wanting to escape across the border - or die - but feeling compelled to offer what only a priest can offer. As he hauls his confused and haggard carcass around the police take hostages from the villages he’s been to; shooting those who have helped him. The pious despise him because of his sins, and the rest for all the trouble he brings. He wishes he could turn himself in, but he’s bound by a sense of divine duty: “It’s not about what you want, or what I want…”

While the book maintains a cool sort of distance from the priest, the real meat of the book is the intimate spiritual struggle that accompanies his ceaseless scramble from place to place. It’s as if the only thing that keeps him from settling into despair is the movement from place to place: peace and home might still be somewhere, and the process of elimination just keeps moving along.

He has no illusions of being a saint or a martyr, but his own sin and poverty have broken through enough of his pride to allow him to love in some way everyone he meets - though they are not saints either. Even the miserable fang-like half breed that continually plays the part of his Judas he holds in high regard, and when the times come when he wants to be captured, he refrains because he wouldn’t want to encourage someone to sin by betraying him.

There are really only two things that the priest thinks he is good for (even his prayers he thinks useless): the absolution he offers people at the end of confession, and serving the Eucharist. These graces are totally unmerited, “putting God in someone’s mouth” is a tremendous gift, and for this reason his identity as a priest is never compromised. The good life, decency, peace, and piety, in this world are all illusions, but the Eucharist… well that’s the center of reality, or at least the center of this man’s meaning.

It would be wrong to say that I didn’t like the book - I appreciate it tremendously - but I have some trouble agreeing to the reality that Graham Greene spins. First of all, I have to agree with RCC theologian Hans urs von Balthazar that the pervasiveness of sin in Greene’s world is misleading. Saints are real, but they are not the sort that Greene has ever met. Though I appreciate the heavy theme of the glory of suffering, there’s a sickness to this thread, due to the immoderation of the theme. The victorious Christian life is not either the pietisitic pride of Greene’s Mexican spinsters, or the collapsing despair of his fugitive priest. And these are the only options available in this world.

“Blessed are the poor in spirit” is certainly true, but “Thou preparest a table for me in presence of mine enemies” is also true. I found Greene’s depiction of the worthlessness of a purely pietistic faith convicting, and some true beauty in the weeping, sweating, and suffering priest. But there is more purpose to the Christian life than suffering. There are walks in the cool of the day with God; the are green pastures that He makes us lie down in.

The sacramental life cannot be overemphasized, but the sacraments can be mistakenly pulled from their context. They Holy Mysteries are nothing if not life-giving. True they are the greatest instance of our unmerited relationship with Christ, but how can one separate them from the life of prayer? I think of the Russians - they know pain - but there is a joy in Dostoevsky and a mirth to Tolstoy that Greene cannot seem to take seriously. As blessed Chesterton would say, mirth is perhaps the one thing that we should always take seriously.
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Sep 20, 2011 Michael William West rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

It's almost surreal that this could have an average rating of less than 4.00. An enormously dense, beautiful, shimmering deconstruction of a religious psyche in the ideal oppressive atmosphere, the whiskey priest never quite earning your sympathy in spite of the relentless suspension of the trigger that is bound to be pulled, the narrative hangs, sweating, winking, a moist finger against the warm metal, prepared to fire throughout. It is one of the greatest masterpieces of English fiction of all...more

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Nov 16, 2012 ☽ Moon ☯ 佛月球 Будда Луны rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Inasmuch as Jesus is teaching about love, poverty and humility to gain eternal life and enter the Kingdom of God as against a world enamored by hate, greed and vanity,Graham Greene shows The Power and the Glory of the true meaning of His teachings with man's innate weakness, his powerless eternal struggle against his duality as he is helplessly caught in the net of Universal polarity...

"That is why I tell you that heaven is here: this is a part of heaven just as pain is a part of pleasure... Pr

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Apr 13, 2011 jeremy rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction

i am not certain which is more striking: the moral hypocrisy of the church (as evidenced by the whisky priest) or self-righteousness under the guise of authority (as demonstrated by the lieutenant). while i did enjoy greene's novel, i was moved more by steinbeck's to a god unknown as a work that explores belief, faith, and unerring devotion.

he stood with his hand on his holster and watched the brown intent patient eyes: it was for these he was fighting. he would eliminate from their childhood ev...more

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Jan 14, 2011 Emir Never rated it 4 of 5 stars

When I visited my mother on her birthday, January 1, this year, I also inspected the books below the wooden stairs of her house, the home of my youth. There, gathering dust in the wooden shelf, are several books I and my brother owned. A cursory inspection and flipping through some of the books rendered my hands grimy, a testament to the sad state of the small collection that only one of my nephews bothers to read. Among the books, two or three Graham Greene novels share the dust and despair, al...more When I visited my mother on her birthday, January 1, this year, I also inspected the books below the wooden stairs of her house, the home of my youth. There, gathering dust in the wooden shelf, are several books I and my brother owned. A cursory inspection and flipping through some of the books rendered my hands grimy, a testament to the sad state of the small collection that only one of my nephews bothers to read. Among the books, two or three Graham Greene novels share the dust and despair, all, unfortunately, unread.

Such disregard can be forgiven by virtue of one's youth-- I hope. (We bought books almost randomly; we feasted on Grishams, Sheldons, Pattersons and a sprinkling of "serious" stuff that made their way to our shelf.) The fact that Greene made it to our shelf is a credit for his authorial fecundity.

Now almost 30, while my wife was gripped with birth pangs, I read The Power and the Glory, a gift from a GR friend.

In The Power and the Glory, Greene trains his eyes on the travails of a "whisky priest" as he evades authority to exercise his vocation, and, inexorably, his vice. As the story progresses, Greene unfolds the humanity of the agent of God and the "children of God" around him--persecutors, supporters, oblivious characters. In Greene's Mexico, life hustles and bustles while death, ever present, hovers like vultures, always waiting; salvation lies among the damned, or damnation settles among the saved; faith is always on the brink of the precipice, swayed by the winds, but always affirmed by the earth it hinges on; humanity is reduced to inhumanity--as snatching a bone from a hungry dog, or taking a lump of sugar from a dead boy's mouth-- or perhaps humanity's scope is enlarged to include it. Greene limned his characters to illuminate their humanity, especially the priest's, so that his struggles are imbued with commonality set apart only by his office. The breath of reality makes one wince and pay attention, the contrasting elements so deftly weaved betrays a sure hand, the enriching thoughts the whole yarn elicits gives the novel its compelling power and glory.

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Aug 20, 2009 Jeremy rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This one started off - I wouldn’t say slow, but a bit confusing and I was thinking I’d have to chalk it up as a good reading experience. There is no question about it that Graham Greene was a great writer and even as I was thinking I might not enjoy the plot, I was still digging what the man had to say. The underlying message. This was just written so much differently than the other two books I had read by him. Then when the focus turns to the Whiskey Priest and his flight things began to come t...more This one started off - I wouldn’t say slow, but a bit confusing and I was thinking I’d have to chalk it up as a good reading experience. There is no question about it that Graham Greene was a great writer and even as I was thinking I might not enjoy the plot, I was still digging what the man had to say. The underlying message. This was just written so much differently than the other two books I had read by him. Then when the focus turns to the Whiskey Priest and his flight things began to come together for me. And each subsequent part of the book kept building into something quite precious of a read.

Greene puts us into a corner where we have no choice but to judge the priest and the choices he is making. My first reaction was to think of how selfish he was and how ironic that he should be a religious leader. With each passing scene, I started to realize that the priest was flawed, but no more so than myself or any other human. He was placed into flight by unfair laws and forced to make choices that nobody should have to make. It made me wonder about our laws and which ones I have broken and how I have justified doing so. And what it would be like to live in a country where one is condemned for practicing religion. And how desolate life would be if my choice in reading was limited to what a zealout leader chose for me. Are there people that live in the same boundaries as myself that feel that their own choices are being constricted by the governing laws and how fair those laws are depending upon which angle you are viewing them from? Clearly this story made me think about a lot of things. This is what Graham Greene can do for you. He was able to make me savor the writing, become entrapped into the narrative, question humanity and learn about a piece of history that I wasn’t truly aware of.

Beyond all of those things I find that the three books I have read by Greene are all strikingly different in tone and point of view. Perhaps it is because they were written at different points in his career and life experience but I found it quite refreshing. At the beginning of this particular work he used a few seemingly random characters and stories to build the main storyline and theme. I was baffled when he appeared to have abondoned those characters and side stories but was very pleased how he brought everything back together in the end.(less)

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Sep 04, 2012 umberto rated it 4 of 5 stars

Part of this novel extracted to read in an English literature course first introduced me to know Graham Greene and I enjoyed reading him more.

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Dec 07, 2008 Golden rated it 4 of 5 stars

I read this on the recommendation of my friend Nate. I’d never heard of Graham Greene before and decided to do some research on his works. I’m glad Nate turned me on to him because this is a great book. It’s a wonderful study of a man (a priest) who is good and immoral. It implicitly asks the question over and over again: “is it possible to be both?”.

I love it because I think that’s who we are. Most of us want to be good and try to be good, but we all have flaws and weaknesses. The protagonist’...more

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Dec 11, 2008 Lynn rated it 1 of 5 stars

I am almost done with this book yet I find that I just dont care about it and am treating it more like a chore to complete...we will see.
I have in the meantime started reading another book therefore this one just might go on the shelf next to The Blind Assassin which I didnt finish either.
Welp, I finished it. I finally decided to pick it up and just get to the end. The end was a little bit better that the meat of the book. Perhaps I just was reading this book at the wrong time. I do feel that t...more

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Jan 11, 2012 ASongForSimeon added it · review of another edition

"[…]questa è un’altra differenza tra noi. È inutile che lavoriate per il vostro scopo, a meno che non siate un uomo buono voi stesso. E non ci saranno sempre uomini buoni nel vostro partito. E allora si avrà di nuovo tutta la vecchia fame, le violenze, l’arricchirsi ad ogni costo. Ma il fatto ch’io sia un codardo, e tutto il resto, non ha molta importanza. Posso mettere Dio lo stesso nella bocca di un uomo, e posso dargli il perdono di Dio. Anche se ogni prete della chiesa fosse come me, non ci...more

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Sep 01, 2009 Alec added it

The Power and the Glory, by Graham Greene was an odd but deep read. The book demonstrates that by combining duty and sheer willpower together, one can defeat their fear and anxious feelings. This empowers the individual with the compassion and strength to fulfill their duty to the end, regardless of possible consequences.
The book’s theme is demonstrated within the priest’s journey throughout the book. He starts by simply trying to escape from the “red shirts” occupied town. Eventually, he reache...more

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Jan 25, 2009 Beth rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: world-portals

About the last priest in southern Mexico, running for his life. Fascinating journey through the small towns, villages, mountains, banana plantations...

Well-written with a distinct style of repeatedly revealing characters (exposing the reader to this in "ah ha" moments later). The work is wrought with worldviews; would need a second read (or third read, etc.) to explore the depths of dogma, belief, conviction: rehearsed, rejected, cherished.

The fact the book is titled, "The" Power and "the" Glory...more

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Jan 25, 2009 Matt rated it 4 of 5 stars

Favorite passages:

He brought up his bile again and shot it out into the hard sunlight. (p. 7)

He had the kind of dwarfed dignity Mr. Tench was accustomed to - the dignity of people afraid of a little pain and yet sitting down with some firmness in his chair. (p. 13)

The good things of life had come to him too early - the respect of his contemporaries, a safe livelihood. (p. 17)

She was very young - about thirteen - and at that age you are not afraid of many things, age and death, all the things whi...more

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Jan 15, 2009 John rated it 5 of 5 stars

This is the story the great novelist Graham Greene was born to tell. Himself a man more haunted than blessed by his belief in Christ, Greene’s legacy as one of the twentieth centuries’ premier novelists (not to say simply “Catholic novelists”) would have been secure if "The Power and the Glory" had been his only work. With this novel, Greene brings all his considerable talent, craft, and gift for suspense to bear on a story that penetrates the heart of one tortured man’s mystery. For all its dar...more

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Nov 20, 2008 Lisa rated it 5 of 5 stars

I recently read The End of the Affair, which also describes the difficulties and graces in believing in God, though this masterpiece focuses more on the forgiveness of sins and our ability to believe in that salvation. Set in a militaristic socialist state in Mexico which has forbidden Catholicism, The Power and the Glory describes the struggles of those who believe, as well as of those who don't.

The book begins with brief vignettes of particular characters (a dentist, a neglected daughter, t...more

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May 04, 2013 Adam rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction

Having read and loved Greene’s light-hearted Our Man in Havana and several short stories, I was surprised by the heaviness that was apparent as soon as I opened this book. I was seduced by the Penguin Clasics edition cover and decided to purchase it for a quarter at a garage sale, and I’m so thankful I did! This random find became a great read. This is beautiful story-telling and complex and ironic ethical drama. Amidst a bleak setting in 1930’s Mexico, a drunk priest is on the run, outlawed und...more

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Mar 28, 2013 Balam Abello rated it 5 of 5 stars

The Power and the Glory by Graham Greene, 1940. I have read Graham Greene before. So when I saw the title of the book I was captivated by it. However, the book had nothing to do with what I had imagined. Nevertheless I am very glad I read it.

Greene’s prose is masterfully done so that once the reader has read a few pages he/she is trapped and will not be able to put the book down. Such was my case as well.

It takes place during 20th Century Mexican revolutionary war. Our hero is a young Catholic p...more

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Jan 05, 2013 Alan Annand rated it 4 of 5 stars

Over the years, I’ve read all of Graham Greene’s books. His writing is impeccable, and his characters are often trapped in some backwater of life, whether literal or figurative, in which faith struggles against despair.

This novel centers on a “whisky priest”, hunted and hounded by Marxist “Red Shirts” in the service of an anti-clerical Mexican government that in certain states has driven the Catholic Church into hiding. This sounds like SF, but actually happened in the mid-1930s.

As do many Gre...more

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About Graham Greene

Graham Greene was an English novelist, short story writer, playwright, screenplay writer, travel writer and critic whose works explore the ambivalent moral and political issues of the modern world. Greene combined serious literary acclaim with wide popularity.

Although Greene objected strongly to being described as a “Catholic novelist” rather than as a “novelist who happened to be Catholic,” Catho...more

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“Hate is a lack of imagination.” — 141 people liked it

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