Stephen Hayes reviewed The Heart of the Matter by Graham Greene
None
4 stars
I'd read it before but it was so long ago that I'd forgotten most of it except for the fact that this book was where I first encountered and learned the meaning of the word "angina". The first time I read it was during the second year of the Second Vatican Council, so the kind of Roman Catholicism that is portrayed was still current -- that crystal-clear hard-edged certainty of being able to know the precise instant when you were damned for all eternity. Since Vatican II Roman Catholicism has developed fuzzier edges, and a somewhat softened legalism.
Graham Greene was one of a number of Roman Catholic English authors who flourished in the first half of the 20th century -- a number that included Evelyn Waugh, G.K. Chesterton, Hillaire Belloc and J.R.R. Tolkien. One wonders what they all made of Vatican II. Someone told me that Tolkien, to the …
I'd read it before but it was so long ago that I'd forgotten most of it except for the fact that this book was where I first encountered and learned the meaning of the word "angina". The first time I read it was during the second year of the Second Vatican Council, so the kind of Roman Catholicism that is portrayed was still current -- that crystal-clear hard-edged certainty of being able to know the precise instant when you were damned for all eternity. Since Vatican II Roman Catholicism has developed fuzzier edges, and a somewhat softened legalism.
Graham Greene was one of a number of Roman Catholic English authors who flourished in the first half of the 20th century -- a number that included Evelyn Waugh, G.K. Chesterton, Hillaire Belloc and J.R.R. Tolkien. One wonders what they all made of Vatican II. Someone told me that Tolkien, to the end of his life, made the responses to the Mass, in whatever language it was, in Latin, loudly.
In [b:The Heart of the Matter|3692|The Heart of the Matter|Graham Greene|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1385263150l/3692.SY75.jpg|3266950] Scobie is a policeman in an unnamed West African British colony during the Second World War. His wife is disappointed because he was overlooked for promotion. He compromises his integrity because he doesn't want to hurt what he imagines other people's feelings to be, but one compromise leads to another, and, too late, he realises he is on a slippery slope with no clear way back.
