The Power and the Glory (Penguin
Classics) by Graham Greene
Literature At Its Best
How does good spoil, and how can bad be redeemed? In his penetrating
novel The Power and the Glory, Graham Greene explores corruption and
atonement through a priest and the people he encounters. In the 1930s
one Mexican state has outlawed the Church, naming it a source of greed
and debauchery. The priests have been rounded up and shot by firing
squad--save one, the whisky priest. On the run, and in a blur of alcohol
and fear, this outlaw meets a dentist, a banana farmer, and a village
woman he knew six years earlier. For a while, he is accompanied by a
toothless man--whom he refers to as his Judas and does his best to ditch.
Always, an adamant lieutenant is only a few hours behind, determined to
liberate his country from the evils of the church. On the verge of
reaching a safer region, the whisky priest is repeatedly held back by his
vocation, even though he no longer feels fit to perform his rites: When he
was gone it would be as if God in all this space between the sea and the
mountains ceased to exist. Wasnt 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? As his sins and dangers increase, the broken priest
comes to confront the nature of piety and love. Still, when he is granted a
reprieve, he feels himself sliding into the old arrogance, slipping it on like
the black gloves he used to wear. Greene has drawn this man--and all he
encounters--vividly and viscerally. He may have said The Power and the
Glory was written to a thesis, but this brilliant theological thriller has far
more mysteries--and troubling ideals--than certainties. --Joannie Kervran
Stangeland
Personal Review: The Power and the Glory (Penguin Classics)
by Graham Greene
The man with a prayer is a dead man.
Not many people would start off a review of a Graham Greene novel with a
paraphrase from a Clint Eastwood movie, but I am just a drifter on the high
plains of literature. This is no doubt a powerful novel with the same theme
of man's relation to God that suffuses many of Greene's other works. In a
Mexico where state control had broken down, local satraps carried out
projects of their own, taking national policy to extremes. So, in Tabasco, a
warlord decreed that all priests must be expelled, forced to marry, or killed;
all churches would be closed or destroyed. A few priests dared to stay
behind in secret, defying the tyrant, ministering to the suffering masses (or
continuing to bilk them---from an atheistic point of view) The main
character here is a priest, driven from pillar to post, hunted like a bandit
(indeed he is paired with a gringo killer in terms of police priorities), riding a
mule through the jungles and swamps, hiding out with reluctant villagers,
fearing betrayal at every step, but never giving up. He recognizes that he
is a sinner (alcoholic, father of a child) but though he is human, he is yet
divine through his soaring spirit, which slowly emerges and arises through
his fear. Whether Greene could really get inside a Mexican priest's head is
another question. I'll leave it to Mexicans to decide. A cold-blooded police
lieutenant hunts the priest, swearing to kill him. He too is human, not a
cardboard baddie, he has hopes for the new generation who will never be
subservient to the wiles of `the Church'. A couple minor English characters
appear from time to time: though well-drawn, I felt they were superfluous in
a parable-style tale like this. Pain and martyrdom, sacrifice, duty,
contradiction and consistency---all these in God's name or in the name of
no God, but Fate. The priest escapes to Chiapas, a more moderate state,
but returns at the behest of a debased informer, knowing his certain doom
full well, accepting his Fate (even though dreading it) like Christ. The
police lieutenant understands the priest's humanity at the end, but carries
out his duty. The power wins out, but the glory lives on. A great book
which carries a lot of suspense within its pages.
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