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Brighton Rock

Graham Greene

3.70 · Rating details · 19,507 ratings · 1,200 reviews

Pinkie, a boy gangster in pre-war Brighton, is a Catholic dedicated to evil and damnation. In a dark setting of double crossing and razor slashes, his ambition and hatreds are horribly fulfilled, until Ida determines to convict him for murder.

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Paperback, Penguin Twentieth-Century Classics, 256 pages

Published November 5th 1991 by Penguin Classics (first published 1938)

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The Hobbit or There and Back Again by J.R.R. Tolkien

Men's Milestone Fiction (2006 British poll)

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Dec 23, 2016 Supratim rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: classic, thriller, fiction

A great story! Fine writing!

Let me begin by saying that this novel draws some materials from Greene's A Gun for Sale. Since I have not read this novel, I do not know the exact relationship between the two books, but I can tell you that this book can be read as a standalone.

The edition I read featured an introduction by Jim Coetzee - the introduction though insightful about Greene's writing and religious beliefs, revealed a bit too much about the plot. I would suggest that you read the story and ...more

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Oct 06, 2010 Ahmad Sharabiani rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 1001-book, crime-mystery, literature, classic, 20th-century

605. Brighton Rock, Graham Greene
Brighton Rock is a novel by Graham Greene, published in 1938 and later adapted for film in 1947 and 2010. The novel is a murder thriller set in 1930s Brighton. The title refers to a confectionery traditionally sold at seaside resorts, which in the novel is used as a metaphor for the personality of Pinkie, which is the same all the way through. There are links between this novel and Greene's earlier novel A Gun for Sale (1936), because Raven's murder of the gang b 605. Brighton Rock, Graham Greene
Brighton Rock is a novel by Graham Greene, published in 1938 and later adapted for film in 1947 and 2010. The novel is a murder thriller set in 1930s Brighton. The title refers to a confectionery traditionally sold at seaside resorts, which in the novel is used as a metaphor for the personality of Pinkie, which is the same all the way through. There are links between this novel and Greene's earlier novel A Gun for Sale (1936), because Raven's murder of the gang boss Kite, mentioned in A Gun For Sale, allows Pinkie to take over his gang and thus sets the events of Brighton Rock in motion.
تاریخ نخستین خوانش: روز هشتم ماه دسامبر سال 2002 میلادی
عنوان: صخره برایتون؛ نویسنده: گراهام گرین؛ مترجم: مریم مشرف؛ تهران، ثالث؛ روایت، 1380؛ در 404 ص؛ چاپ دوم 1388؛ شابک: 9789646404151؛ موضوع: داستانهای نویسندگان انگلیسی، سده 20 م
پسر هفده ساله‌ ای که نماینده «شر» است، بر اثر حادثه‌ ای، با دختری شانزده ساله به نام: «رز»، که مظهر خیر است، برخورد می‌کند. پسر با تمام وجود، نیمه ی دیگر خود را می‌خواهد، یک چند از او می‌گریزد، سرانجام با او پیوند می‌خورد. چندی نیز او را دفع می‌کند، و عاقبت در او گره می‌خورد. از طرفی، در برابر «رز و پسر»، «آیدا آرنولد» قرار دارد، که سمبل ارزش‌های خاکی، و خوشی‌های زمینی هست. آیدا آرنولد، کوشش دارد، آنچه خود آن را عدالت می‌پندارد، یک تنه در جامعه‌ ای تباه و فاسد، به اجرا درآورد. هر یک از قهرمانان داستان، به امری که بدان دچار شده، عمل می‌کند. پسر از نگاه خویش، وظیفه‌ ای را انجام می‌دهد، که از او خواسته شده، که همان جنایت است. این سرنوشتی است، که برای او تعیین شده، و اینکه: آیا هر تلاشی، برای تغییر آن، به منزله ی نوعی سرپیچی و عصیان، در برابر حکم ازل نیست؟ پرسش دشواری که نویسنده در برابر خوانشگر قرار می‌دهد، به عبارتی چه کس مسئول است، و تصمیم‌ گیری درباره درست و نادرست، برچه پایه‌ ای صورت می‌گیرد. از نظر «آیدا آرنولد»، پاسخ به این پرسش چنین است: «بر اساس عدالت، و رفتاریکه آسیبی به دیگران نرساند». اما او آسیب را به میل خود تفسیر می‌کند، و با اینکه هرگز اجازه نمی‌دهد، که هیچ چیز، حتی عرف و سنت، آزادی او را محدود کند، خود، آزادی «رز» را از او می‌رباید، و به جای او، درباره ی زندگی‌ ایشان تصمیم می‌گیرد. بخش بزرگی از رخدادهای داستان، به روابط یک گروه گانگستری اختصاص دارد، و طنز تلخ «گرین»، در این اثر، متوجه فساد در دستگاه اجرایی، و قضایی انگلستان است. سرمایه‌ داری روزافزون، همراه با قطبی شدن اقتصاد، بر آنست تا گروه‌های کوچک دزدان، کلاهبرداران، و آدم‌کشان را، در گروه بزرگ گانگستران جای دهد، و از این راه: پلیس، دولت، و قانون را، در اختیار بگیرد. ا. شربیانی ...more

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Aug 25, 2018 Orsodimondo rated it really liked it · review of another edition

LIBERO ARBITRIO
Il protagonista di questo romanzo, pubblicato nel 1938 e considerato il primo romanzo del ciclo cattolico di Greene (Greene si convertì dal protestantesimo al cattolicesimo romano), è Pinkie, che, a dispetto del nome innocente, è uno spietato capobanda mafioncello, predisposto all’omicidio e al male in genere, antieroe per eccellenza, con l’idiosincrasia per il contatto fisico (sesso, ovviamente, incluso), credente e cattolico, ma alla sua maniera, creativa e fantasiosa: visto che ...more

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Sep 30, 2011 Richard Derus rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Rating: 4.25* of five

The Publisher Says: In this classic novel of murder and menace, Graham Greene lays bare the soul of a boy of seventeen who stalks Brighton's tawdry boardwalk with apathy on his face and murder in his heart. Pinkie, the boy with death at his fingertips, is not just bad, he worships in the temple of evil, just as his parents worshipped in the house of God. Crime, in his dark mind, is a release so deep and satisfying that he has no need for drink or women or the love of his fel Rating: 4.25* of five

The Publisher Says: In this classic novel of murder and menace, Graham Greene lays bare the soul of a boy of seventeen who stalks Brighton's tawdry boardwalk with apathy on his face and murder in his heart. Pinkie, the boy with death at his fingertips, is not just bad, he worships in the temple of evil, just as his parents worshipped in the house of God. Crime, in his dark mind, is a release so deep and satisfying that he has no need for drink or women or the love of his fellows. He is an astounding character, sinister and fascinating—"a chilling specimen of the Adolf Hitler type," in the words of J. M. Coetzee.

Originally published in 1938, Brighton Rock is a novel of profound psychological mystery and chilling suspense. This Graham Greene Centennial Edition features a new introductory essay by Nobel laureate J. M. Coetzee.

My Review: Charles "Fred" Hale, aka newspaper columnist "Kolley Kibber," is in Brighton to hand out paper-chase prizes to loyal readers of his paper. He's also running as fast as he can from someone who means to kill him. Why? We aren't told. Who? That's made very plain within the first thirty pages. Well, there goes the suspense, right? Not right.

In a vain effort to live to fight another day, Hale hooks up with Ida, a blowsy pub-crawling broad with a heart of gold and a steely sense of right and wrong. Her trip to the public convenience to wash up a bit before her bit of fun with Hale allows the killer time enough to deal with Hale...permanently.

Ida, once she figures out the gentleman (!) who stood her up (and after she washed and everything!) in Brighton is the murder victim in her next morning's paper, determines that Hale will be avenged despite his lack of family, his murder being ruled a natural death, and her own complete lack of detective experience. The fun of the book, the bulk of the story, is in Ida circling closer and closer to the party we know to be the killer, and the multiple characters trailing in his wake slowly falling to his amoral, sociopathic self-preservation response. In the end, triumph changes Ida. The consequences of her victory over the forces of evil are such that she undergoes a sea change of feeling and desire. Justice never comes without a price. Never. Everyone involved in the story pays. Some with their lives.

Moralistic, yes; marvelously written, oh my yes! Greene's characters are, as in others of his work that I've read, mouthpieces for a worldview. He elevates them from the dreary, tiresome leadenness of Message Characters by imbuing them with a sense of humor as black as the world they inhabit, the world of carneys and racing touts and waitresses trapped forever in second-rate diners and gangsters whose souls are so dead to beauty that they can't see anything but violence as a solution to any and every problem.

It surprised me how often I laughed as I read on in this grisly, blood-soaked bagatelle. And yes, I meant "bagatelle" -- light, airy, almost inconsequential read that "Brighton Rock" is. I was completely delighted by the tone of the book, I was half in love with Ida, I was even sad for the killer and his parched, wounded soul.

A marvelous entertainment, then, and one whose substantial moral manages to keep itself underneath the story being told, supporting it. As it should be. Well made, worthwhile fiction. One expects nothing less from Graham Greene, no? ...more

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Nov 02, 2008 Fabian rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Recommends it for: Anyone who skipped on the Greene

Recommended to Fabian by: Discarded book bin at Del Valle H.S.

A near perfect noir. The Cohen Bros. looked at this type of literature for the basis for "Fargo." Just like that movie, this book takes you inside a world of misfits and fragmented members of a clandestine group: very disorganized mobsters. The bad guys are protagonists & the heroine is (unlike the Frances McDormand character) a cross between Ignacious from "Confederacy of Dunces" and the Wife of Bath! Her old style dogma of enjoying life, no matter how bad a "Christian" this might make you, ...more

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Aug 02, 2017 Michael rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

A lurid, compelling, and profound look at a small-time criminal enthralled with evil, the young woman he deceives, and the detective who hunts him down. Wonderfully chilling.

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Oct 12, 2011 Richard Derus rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Book Circle Reads 144

Rating: 4.25* of five

The Book Report: Charles "Fred" Hale, aka newspaper columnist "Kolley Kibber," is in Brighton to hand out paper-chase prizes to loyal readers of his paper. He's also running as fast as he can from someone who means to kill him. Why? We aren't told. Who? That's made very plain within the first thirty pages. Well, there goes the suspense, right? Not right.

In a vain effort to live to fight another day, Hale hooks up with Ida, a blowsy pub-crawling broad wit Book Circle Reads 144

Rating: 4.25* of five

The Book Report: Charles "Fred" Hale, aka newspaper columnist "Kolley Kibber," is in Brighton to hand out paper-chase prizes to loyal readers of his paper. He's also running as fast as he can from someone who means to kill him. Why? We aren't told. Who? That's made very plain within the first thirty pages. Well, there goes the suspense, right? Not right.

In a vain effort to live to fight another day, Hale hooks up with Ida, a blowsy pub-crawling broad with a heart of gold and a steely sense of right and wrong. Her trip to the public convenience to wash up a bit before her bit of fun with Hale allows the killer time enough to deal with Hale...permanently.

Ida, once she figures out the gentleman (!) who stood her up (and after she washed and everything!) in Brighton is the murder victim in her next morning's paper, determines that Hale will be avenged despite his lack of family, his murder being ruled a natural death, and her own complete lack of detective experience. The fun of the book, the bulk of the story, is in Ida circling closer and closer to the party we know to be the killer, and the multiple characters trailing in his wake slowly falling to his amoral, sociopathic self-preservation response. In the end, triumph changes Ida. The consequences of her victory over the forces of evil are such that she undergoes a sea change of feeling and desire. Justice never comes without a price. Never. Everyone involved in the story pays. Some with their lives.

My Review: Moralistic, yes; marvelously written, oh my yes! Greene's characters are, as in others of his work that I've read, mouthpieces for a worldview. He elevates them from the dreary, tiresome leadenness of Message Characters by imbuing them with a sense of humor as black as the world they inhabit, the world of carneys and racing touts and waitresses trapped forever in second-rate diners and gangsters whose souls are so dead to beauty that they can't see anything but violence as a solution to any and every problem.

It surprised me how often I laughed as I read on in this grisly, blood-soaked bagatelle. And yes, I meant "bagatelle" -- light, airy, almost inconsequential read that Brighton Rock is. I was completely delighted by the tone of the book, I was half in love with Ida, I was even sad for the killer and his parched, wounded soul.

A marvelous entertainment, then, and one whose substantial moral manages to keep itself underneath the story being told, supporting it. As it should be. Well made, worthwhile fiction. One expects nothing less from Graham Greene, no?

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. ...more

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Jun 14, 2018 David Schaafsma rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction-20th-century

"The sinner is at the very heart of Christianity. Nobody is so competent as the sinner in matters of Christianity. Nobody, except the saint."—Charles Peguy. This is the epigraph to Graham Greene's novel The Heart of the Matter (1951)

“It didn't matter anyway. . . he wasn't made for peace, he couldn't believe in it. Heaven was a word: Hell was something he could trust.”—Pinky, in Brighton Rock

Brighton rock is hard sticks of candy that are traditionally mint-flavored generally found at seaside holi ...more

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Feb 22, 2012 Jason Koivu rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: crime, fiction

I'd just finished a book about 1940s/50s Cuba, in which Graham Greene is mentioned as having visited and enjoyed a place where "one could obtain anything at will, whether drugs, or women, or goats". Since I've been meaning to read more Greene, I figured now would be a good time for Our Man in Havana.

A couple days pass, things come up, apparently my memory is shit, and for some reason I start reading Brighton Rock. Hey, why the fuck not?! I'm an idiot...

This book has very little to do with Cuba. ...more

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Nov 27, 2014 Edward rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, uk-ireland, own, 4-star, graham-greene

Introduction & Notes

--Brighton Rock

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Jan 25, 2015 Lisa rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: audio

This book is a multi-layered and rather startling portrayal of gangster life in the thirties in Brighton, England. This is not a cheery read so be prepared to feel out of sorts.

It starts with 'Fred' Hale who knows he's to be killed but tries to keep someone by his side to prevent it happening - his chosen mate to this end is Ida who is a brassy sort but with a good sense of right and wrong.
When she discovers that the date she thought had stood her up has been found dead she suspects foul play an This book is a multi-layered and rather startling portrayal of gangster life in the thirties in Brighton, England. This is not a cheery read so be prepared to feel out of sorts.

It starts with 'Fred' Hale who knows he's to be killed but tries to keep someone by his side to prevent it happening - his chosen mate to this end is Ida who is a brassy sort but with a good sense of right and wrong.
When she discovers that the date she thought had stood her up has been found dead she suspects foul play and sets about finding the proof to bring someone to justice.

It's not easy though - Pinkie is the young leader of a gang who knows what happened to Fred and furthermore is hell-bent on making sure the truth does not surface...and if this means engaging the affections of a girl called Rose then so be it.

This book is beautifully written in that it captures Brighton at that time and the feelings of all the characters involved perfectly, but it does not make for pleasant reading.

(view spoiler) It is a very sad depiction of what happens to people starved of love and affection. Greene shines a spotlight on ordinary people whose lives have sunk so low that all they can aspire to is violence and envy.

This book was brilliant and compelling all the way but it was not comfortable or happy at all. The characters were superbly drawn but difficult to like - even Ida who set herself in the role of heroine, well I'm not sure she achieved that at all...in the traditional sense! But then there's nothing traditional about Brighton Rock. It is unique - superb but horrid!

...more

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Jul 30, 2008 Kelly rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, brit-lit, 20th-century-early-to-mid, owned, give-me-seven-years

"I know one thing you don't. I know the difference between Right and Wrong. They didn't teach you that at school."
Rose didn't answer; the woman was quite right: the two words meant nothing to her. Their taste was extinguished by stronger foods- Good and Evil. The woman could tell her nothing she didn't know about these- she knew by tests as clear as mathematics that Pinkie was evil- what did it matter in that case whether he was right or wrong?

That's pretty much the book right there.

This is a f ...more

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Jan 29, 2019 Algernon (Darth Anyan) rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: 2019, favorites

Hale knew, before he had been in Brighton three hours, that they meant to murder him. With his inky fingers and his bitten nails, his manner cynical and nervous, anybody could tell he didn't belong – belong to the early summer sun, the cool Whitsun wind off the sea, the holiday crowd.

The quintessential noir story: which one to pick? When I first started reading crime stories, I would point without hesitation at Chandler and/or Hammet. Much later, I settled on the French school, starting with J ...more

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Oct 22, 2017 Nancy Oakes rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: uk-fiction

Between the cover blurb and that amazing first line, I was fully expecting a crime novel here, but it didn't take too long before I discovered that this book goes far beyond the reach of a thriller and deep into the zone of existential and metaphysical complexity, turning it into a novel that I will never, ever forget.

http://www.readingavidly.com/2017/11/...

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Apr 23, 2008 Dfordoom rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: crime-mystery

Graham Greene's Brighton Rock tells the story of a young leader of one of the infamous razor gangs in 1930s Brighton who murders a journalist and then finds that his attempts to avoid any possibility of arrest lead him into ever-increasing complications and violence. A woman who had befriended the journalist sets out to bring his killer to justice. This is a remarkably dark and pessimistic novel. It’s a crime novel, but Greene has other agendas as well in this book. Greene was a Catholic, but he Graham Greene's Brighton Rock tells the story of a young leader of one of the infamous razor gangs in 1930s Brighton who murders a journalist and then finds that his attempts to avoid any possibility of arrest lead him into ever-increasing complications and violence. A woman who had befriended the journalist sets out to bring his killer to justice. This is a remarkably dark and pessimistic novel. It’s a crime novel, but Greene has other agendas as well in this book. Greene was a Catholic, but he was an interesting sort of Catholic. One assumes he gained some kind of comfort from his religion, and one assumes it gave him the strength to go on living after his early struggles with depression, boredom and obsessive thoughts about suicide, although sometimes it’s difficult to see that exactly the attraction was. Greene was fascinated by evil, and he was fascinated by the harm that religion could do, as well as the good. Pinkie, the teenage gangster who is the main character in Brighton Rock, is thoroughly evil, and it is a particular kind of Catholic upbringing that has made him evil. Pinkie is obsessed with guilt and disgust over sex, and when he feels the stirrings of sexual desire the guilt and disgust spill over into self-hatred and anger. Pinkie does not try to justify his actions, he does not try to pretend that he is a good person forced to do evil things. He welcomes his damnation, he glories in it. He is certainly offered the chance of redemption, but he struggles against it. Ida Arnold seems to represent the life force, she represents good without hypocrisy. Interestingly enough she is the most positive and decent character in the book, and she appears to have no religious beliefs. Like I said, he was an interesting kind of Catholic! In contrast to Pinkie’s horror of sex, Ida accepts sex as part of life and attaches no moral significance to it. The third main character is Rose, an innocent who becomes involved with Pinkie as a result of having been a witness to events that could implicate Pinkie in murder. Greene’s great strength as a novelist was that he was not only concerned with moral issues, he was capable of dealing with such issues in a complex way and without being tempted by simplistic explanations. Brighton Rock is an outstanding book by a great novelist. ...more

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Jan 11, 2011 Jen rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: lit-fic, i-hate-you-mommy, its-not-easy-being-greene, spirituality-religion

“A Catholic is more capable of evil than anyone.”
Brighton Rock

I signed this paper saying I would sleep with a writer. Actually, the document in question wasn’t profession specific, but name specific. I swirled my J and ‘en’ and ‘nifer’ next to a guy named Christopher. But, as it turned out, the guy I agreed to sleep with for pretty much life became an editor and a writer. And ever since he started writing at night instead of sleeping adequately, I’ve had this problem. The problem is that afte “A Catholic is more capable of evil than anyone.”
Brighton Rock

I signed this paper saying I would sleep with a writer. Actually, the document in question wasn’t profession specific, but name specific. I swirled my J and ‘en’ and ‘nifer’ next to a guy named Christopher. But, as it turned out, the guy I agreed to sleep with for pretty much life became an editor and a writer. And ever since he started writing at night instead of sleeping adequately, I’ve had this problem. The problem is that after he’s done writing and re-writing, writing, and re-writing, I’m kind of duty-bound to read and comment on what he’s been working on. And, although it doesn’t happen too often, I will admit that at times I’ve had to be pretty damn creative with my remarks and facial expressions. When I’m pushed to critique what I didn’t absolutely love I usually resort to asking questions. And that is what I’m going to do in this review of Brighton Rock.
So, Graham, I love you. I also want to state for the record that you are dead and so I am in no way obligated to feel guilt over that love or what I have to write in this space. Yes, I know that you were Catholic and believed in an afterlife in which it might be possible for you to punish me for this, but I’m not too worried because we both know that you’ve already had your humanly lapses in judgment and I don’t think that after all we’ve been through that you’ll begrudge me mine.
I didn’t love Brighton Rock. I know. I’m sorry. Perhaps I shouldn’t have started out our relationship with The Power and the Glory and The End of the Affair because now I expect too much from you all the time. What were you thinking about when you called people polonies? What about this: “He was watching the woman with an expression of furious distaste?” Was your plan all along to make evil look like two a.m. without the moon and goodness to like to laugh, sing, and have ample bosom? If so, it was a little obvious at times what you were doing, only because you’ve done this kind of thing before, better. You make such a good case for the sinner saint, letting Ida’s irreverent grace towards herself and the innocent shine and allowing the absence of that same grace damn Pinkie and his vehement religious streak:

“He thought, it’s not my fault they get me angry so I want to do things: if people would leave me in peace…His imagination wilted at the word. He tried in a half-hearted way to picture ‘peace’ – his eyes closed and behind the lids he saw a grey darkness going on and on without end, a country of which he hadn’t seen as much as a picture postcard, a place far stranger than the Grand Canyon and the Taj Mahal. He opened them again and immediately poison moved in the veins…”

“Men always failed you when it came to the act. She might just as well have been to the pictures…But it did no one any harm, it was just human nature, no one could call her really bad – a bit free-and-easy perhaps, a bit Bohemian…She knew what was right and what was wrong. God didn’t mind a bit of human nature – what he minded – and her brain switched away from Phil in pants to her mission, to doing good, to seeing that the evil suffered…”

But can a Catholic really contain the potential for more evil than anyone else? And is Pinkie rotten because he is rotten or rotten because he is a rotten Catholic? It’s all a bit too Flannery O’Connor without enough shocking violence. At any rate, the priest gives the line I like best: “You can’t conceive, my child, nor can I or anyone the…appalling…strangeness of the mercy of God.” And it seems like perhaps you hoped for some of that strange mercy yourself, but were unable to believe in it fully? I only write this, dear, because you end the book with Rose (someone whose chief sin seems to be desiring and pursuing love recklessly, with no regard to the cost) earnestly attempting to believe in mercy for Pinkie and herself. And it’s clear, so very clear to the reader, that all her search will uncover is an ugly, hateful truth that will do nothing but scar. But I love you anyway, Greene, and will continue reading to the end of everything. I guess I’m Ida with a little bit of Rose mixed in too.
...more

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Feb 03, 2017 Bill Lynas rated it really liked it · review of another edition

A dark, wet & windy day (like today!) is probably the ideal time to stay indoors & listen to this BBC full cast audio version of Graham Greene's classic story Brighton Rock. I must admit that I really like this novel. I've probably read Brighton Rock too many times & I even enjoyed the 1947 & 2010 film versions. This audio adaptation & is well cast, & the only things missing are Greene's prose & one of my favourite closing lines of any novel I've ever read.

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Nov 18, 2009 Krok Zero rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: summer-2011

William Gibson wrote something not long ago -- well, tweeted something, actually -- that has haunted me unexpectedly. Speaking of the sea change in American culture brought by World War II, Gibson noted that "WWII Americans looked like us; 1935 Americans seriously didn't." Somehow, this statement is totally accurate. If the past since WWII is a foreign country, the past before WWII is an alien planet.

Graham Greene wasn't an American, of course, but the same mysterious principle applied across th William Gibson wrote something not long ago -- well, tweeted something, actually -- that has haunted me unexpectedly. Speaking of the sea change in American culture brought by World War II, Gibson noted that "WWII Americans looked like us; 1935 Americans seriously didn't." Somehow, this statement is totally accurate. If the past since WWII is a foreign country, the past before WWII is an alien planet.

Graham Greene wasn't an American, of course, but the same mysterious principle applied across the pond. Greene's Brighton Rock is a pre-war novel by a writer primarily known for his postwar output, and as such it is constructed from cultural and verbal materials shockingly different from those composing his later efforts. This strangeness enhances the sense of alienation and ineffable evil afflicting Pinkie Brown, the teenage killer, wannabe gang-leader, and perverse poster-boy for Catholicism at the center of the story. Greene was at least to some degree a devout Catholic himself, but my reading of Brighton Rock paints an awfully ugly picture of the faith: it can conceive only of Good and Evil, not of Right and Wrong; if you resign yourself to damnation -- as do Pinkie and his accidental girlfriend Rose, one of the most tragic characters in any literature I know of -- then you're bound by no code, unburdened by any conscience, capable and willing to execute any misdeed. No one toggled between a ripping good yarn and deeper thematic resonances better than Greene, and to read Brighton Rock is to see him discovering this methodology under the circumstances of exquisitely intense material. The prose is thicker, more of an obstacle than in other Greene, owing to the nature of pre-war discourse -- as foreign as the physical appearances in the photos troubling William Gibson -- but by no means unbeautiful.

I've not yet seen either the 1947 film version (evidently very good) or this year's remake (out soon in the U.S. and receiving tepid reviews so far), both of which apparently alter the ending in a manner that arguably improves on Greene's (I read spoilers for the films), although the final sentence of this book is pretty amazing. As a gangster drama, a romantic tragedy, and an (unintentional?) attack on Catholic values, and certainly on various other levels as well, this deserves its rep. ...more

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Jan 23, 2011 Sketchbook rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites

Truman Capote calls this, "An incredibly beautiful, perfect novel." Why argue? He then adds, "It has the greatest last four paragraphs of any modern novel I can think of."

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Jun 23, 2012 Toby rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: black-as-night, lit

Greene's most famous work is a game of two halves

I think it might be fair to say that this one is only as famous as it is because of the excellent film noir starring the old man from Jurassic Park. That was a shocker for me I can tell you, Father Christmas as a stone cold killer. It's a fine book, an early entertainment with an obvious study of the effect of the Catholic church on man. But I was at the midway point when I realised that it was suddeny becoming less enjoyable to read. Greene start Greene's most famous work is a game of two halves

I think it might be fair to say that this one is only as famous as it is because of the excellent film noir starring the old man from Jurassic Park. That was a shocker for me I can tell you, Father Christmas as a stone cold killer. It's a fine book, an early entertainment with an obvious study of the effect of the Catholic church on man. But I was at the midway point when I realised that it was suddeny becoming less enjoyable to read. Greene starts to get bogged down in his dissection of dogme and loses his way. As Leah says, for an early work it's brilliant but he just hadn't developed his skills as far as needed to tell this story AND get his message across in an entertaining way.

Fred Hale, enemy of teen gangster Pinkie is in Brighton and scared for his life. Ida Arnold, brassy middle aged woman is out for a good time. The two meet and share a connection but before anything can come of it Pinkie and his gang have loosed Fred off this mortal coil. A decision of natural death is arrived at and Ida won't take this for an answer. An entertaining game of cat and mouse ensues as Ida starts to unravel the murder whilst Pinkie and his gang set out to remove the loose ends.

The opening half is a pure joy to read, I felt certain this was heading for a 5 star review. Ida Arnold gets a lot more game time in the novel than in the movie and she's a brilliant character despite her obvious nature as a caricature of the British working class woman. Her affection for all things esoteric plays off against the Roman Catholic position of Pinkie who firmly believes in the fire and brimstone of Hell but isn't sure somewhere as wonderful as Heaven exists. In some ways it's a tale of good vs evil and right vs wrong but thanks to Greene's skill (and most likely his own doubts about his Catholic faith) the lines blur, positions alter and nothing (as in the real world) is that clear cut.

The young girl Rose, who is a witness that Pinkie must take care of, is perhaps the most complex of all the characters floating around the dirty underbelly of gentile Brighton. Despite the repeated assertions of everyone else involved that she is an innocent simpleton she is a conflicted young girl who questions everything and yet sticks to her passions and decisions despite knowing she's wrong.

The shift point occurs as Ida is less involved in the story and Greene focusses more on Pinkie, it no longer works as a tale of wits, a mystery, a noir investgation but a study of morality and Pinkie's mind is not one you really want to see in to. He's one of those guys with one thought and one thought only.

I'm glad I've finally read this but it's not one I'll go back to. Although now I have read it I can happily criticise the abomination that was the recent movie adaptation with even greater confidence. What a complete waste of the great source material and the wonderful original movie. Shame on you Helen Mirren. ...more

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Feb 20, 2009 Robert rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Shelves: general-fiction

OK, I admit defeat. If I had not chosen to read this whilst ill I imagine I would have got through it, since it is short by modern standards. As it is I just can't stand to spend more time around these characters that I uniformly can't empathise with and mostly find irritating or down-right unpleasant. There is a character one is supposed (I assume) to like and root for but I find her as annoying as the other two major protagonists. Ultimately I just find these people boring. So, I give up havin ...more

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Aug 03, 2011 Hadrian rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: british, fiction, mystery

One of Greene's better novels, and one that works on multiple levels. If you want a good British thriller, you'll get it. If you want a deep exploration of morality, good and evil, and sin, you'll get that too. He's written such a wide array of books that it's hard not to find one that you'd like.

Recommended for those who like good books of all types.

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Jul 18, 2008 Alan rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: novels, read-in-2011

ordered this from the library so's I can read it for the Greene group thingie, but have read it back in the 60s (as a teenager). Wonder if my star count will go down (it can't go up)?
...finished this on Saturday and went straight out to watch the film. Won't file my review until what is it - Feb 20th, but just to say
a) my star count has not gone down
b) the new film is worth watching but seek out the original, it's better. Rose is very good in the new film however...

..Feb 20th - had to go out for ...more

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Feb 21, 2019 Roberto rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 1001, uk

Non giudicare

Graham Greene è uno scrittore tra i più tormentati, che pone la riflessione sulla natura e inevitabilità del "male" al centro di quasi tutti i suoi libri.

Anche questo romanzo del 1938 quindi, un dei più noti e il primo dopo la sua conversione al cattolicesimo, non fa eccezione.

E' un giallo, sotto certi aspetti. Tuttavia lo è solo nella sua struttura più esteriore, utile per rafforzare il contenuto più religioso. I due aspetti, quello del giallo e quello meditativo, sono in realtà b ...more

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Mar 02, 2012 Drew rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: british-lit, greeneland, boulder-public-library

This was an epilogue to my Graham Greene phase from six months or so ago; I couldn't find a copy until now. And it's weird to read it after having read a bunch of his later, more accomplished work. Brighton Rock isn't as polished; you won't find too many sly jokes or profound philosophical thoughts in it. But it's amazing to see how complex his attitude towards Catholicism was even at that point in his career (or, more accurately, since every Catholic's attitude towards Catholicism is complex, h This was an epilogue to my Graham Greene phase from six months or so ago; I couldn't find a copy until now. And it's weird to read it after having read a bunch of his later, more accomplished work. Brighton Rock isn't as polished; you won't find too many sly jokes or profound philosophical thoughts in it. But it's amazing to see how complex his attitude towards Catholicism was even at that point in his career (or, more accurately, since every Catholic's attitude towards Catholicism is complex, how complexly he was able to articulate said attitude).

So Pinky, the main character, who is often and somewhat annoyingly referred to as The Boy, has just inherited a kind of gang from this guy Kite, whom I desperately want to believe is the inspiration for DFW's narcotics salesman/addict Trent Kite (can't back this up, as we don't learn much about Greene's Kite). And he rules with an iron fist, because he has to; he's 17, and wants nothing more than to be taken seriously. His ambition knows no bounds, but his competence leaves a lot to be desired.

He commits a gruesome (but left-undramatized) murder near the beginning of the book, making the rest of it a Crime-and-Punishment sort of thing, but with a twist: he marries a potential witness so that she won't have to testify against him. (Enter Catholicism, Greene's obsession.) Pinky's seduction scenes with Rose constitute some of the most uncomfortable scenes in the book. He's a bit of a psychopath, so he never believes the sweet nothings he so unconvincingly tells her. We see his fraud, but she doesn't, because she's a 16 year old girl.

I won't give anything more away, and though I've spoiled a few things, I've certainly done better than preface-writer-extraordinaire JM Coetzee and whoever wrote the teaser on the back, who would have totally ruined it had I read those things first.

But I was going to say some sort of not-so-profound something about Greene's Catholicism stuff. So you have the first aspect of it, that the Church is a maniacal patriarchy that breeds misogyny and racism and hatred. Pinky's a virgin and a teetotaler, the former of which because he is totally disgusted by women. And I, at least, was pretty convinced that this could have come about because of the influence of the Church. The result of all this of course being a hopeless double bind - can't live with sin, can't live without it - further compounded by the fact that suicide itself, the ultimate "I don't want to play this game" statement, is a mortal sin. Not that anybody gets punished for it. By the way, the idea that there may or may not be a Heaven, but that Hell is definitely real, is pervasive in Brighton Rock.

Greene's not ready to give up on it yet, though. Observe his feminist atheist Good Samaritan gumshoe, Ida Arnold. She's the foil to Pinky in all those ways and one more: she's an incurable bawd, always DTF. But I can't help but notice that Greene's descriptions of her aren't always that charitable: she's not particularly attractive, with weird teeth and a crazy laugh. More importantly, she has very definite ideas of Right and Wrong (sic) and she's perfectly willing to impose those idea(l)s upon other characters, for their own Greater Good. This doesn't ultimately sound that much different from religion, does it? Is Greene saying there's no real alternative, that atheism is just as dangerous? Maybe, although Ida certainly doesn't murder anyone.

Ida ties into another aspect of Catholicism: that of the repository of secret knowledge. I mean, the history of the Church is powerful and its rituals intoxicating. So it's no surprise that Pinky and Rose both look at Ida and say, "She doesn't know". I don't think Greene disagrees with this; Ida clearly can't know firsthand of the double-binds that control the lives of even (maybe especially) less devout Catholics.

I thought I was going to try to boil this stuff down into a précis of Greene's feelings about religion and moralism and all that, but I'm realizing that would be so reductive as to be worthless. I mean, the guy has a whole body of work devoted to it, so maybe I should just shut up. ...more

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Aug 03, 2011 Darwin8u rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2012, aere-perennius

Greene's Catholic novels are amazing. His prose rips the scabs off humanity and the reader is left at once holding both the pain of sin and the healing of faith all at once. It doesn't matter if you are Catholic, Mormon, agnostic or an atheist ... Greene's struggles with faith and the ambiguities of existence are about as large a tribute to man as you are likely to find.

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Sep 25, 2018 BAM The Bibliomaniac rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: audiobooks, classic-literature, library, 1001-books-to-read-before-death

Classics Cleanup Challenge #15
Audiobook #163

This is a great story but a terrible audiobook

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Dec 01, 2011 Lawyer rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 20th-century, crime, good-and-evil

Graham Greene's "Brighton Rock" is classified as one of his entertainments as opposed to his more serious works. But make no mistake about it, "Brighton Rock" gives the reader plenty to ponder, if you consider it more than the thriller as many have treated it.

Brighton Rock is that stick candy embedded with the letters "Brighton." As the confection diminishes, the letters remain clearly legible. Although the book may bear the name of a popular confection, there's nothing sweet about the story Gre ...more

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Jan 28, 2011 Joselito Honestly and Brilliantly rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

There are only human beings here. No ghosts, demons, haunted houses, strange creatures, aliens or mysterious apparitions. Just human beings. But I've never read any novel more horrifying than this.

Here's a frail-looking boy with a feminine name: Pinkie. He doesn't drink, smoke or gamble. Just seventeen years old and still a virgin. But he is the leader of a small gang and he kills.

Then here's a sixteen-year-old, equally frail, waitress, Rose. She loves Pinkie. She knows something which could imp ...more

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Jan 13, 2017 Oziel Bispo rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Brighton Rock é um livro excelente o primeiro que leio de Graham Greene . É um livro que eu achei diferente pois é quase todo escrito sob o ponto de vista de um adolescente delinquente e sanguinário de apenas 17 anos chamado Pinkie . Pinkie com a morte de kite assume o controle de uma gangue na cidade de Brighton e para se vingar da morte de Kite mata o jornalista Hale. Com esse assassinato vários enredos irão se desenvolver no livro: A paixão inocente e diabólica de uma garçonete pelo bandido P ...more

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About Graham Greene

Graham Greene

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Henry Graham Greene, OM, CH 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 Ca ...more