The setting for Brighton Rock is Brighton Beach of the 1930s, specifically the criminal underbelly of the town, where rival gangs compete for control of the race track. Pinkie, a 17 year old who desperately wants to take charge of his gang after the boss is killed, murders an informant working for their opponents. Rose, a mousy waitress at a local restaurant, falls deeply in love with Pinkie; so deeply that she will do anything for him, including conspire to hide his crimes. They are both Catholic, and the tension between their ingrained beliefs and anti-religious needs creates moral ambiguity and a deep tension throughout the book.

Greene shrewdly probes the nuanced distinctions between Good and Evil and Right and Wrong as the two main characters stumble through their haphazard lives. The despair is relieved by.other characters, like the unsinkable, bosomy Ida Arnold who battles to get Rose away from Pinkie, and Pinkie's gang members, a scruffy assortment of hard drinking and occasionally sympathetic types.

It's been a long, long time since I read Graham Greene, and I'm sorry I stayed away. His writing is smart and profound and makes me think hard. Although there are no heroes in this book, I came to care about the scruffy couple wrestling with tough moral choices like we all do all the time.