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kindlereads's review against another edition
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.0
I finished this drivel hoping there would be something worthwhile in the end. There wasn't. I wanted to smack everyone for being so appallingly stupid and I couldn't wait for Scobie to kill him self and get it over with. I kept muttering "Get on with it." to the book.
sidharthvardhan's review against another edition
4.0
"The Church knows all the rules. But it doesn’t know what goes on in a single human heart."
That seems to be key theme of book, there is no knowing what goes on in a heart and no tying it down with rules of morality. Scobie is a good guy by most accounts whose conscience is troubled by his catholic beliefs. It is almost invariably the good people that feel guilt which proves it is stupid. But what's amazing is that his wife seemed to not know him at all in the end. It is a fact that despite his highly objective (to the point of being boring) and honest diary keeping habit and his regular confessions, no one in the end seem to really know him.
Thus his shocked everyone. And he probably won't have killed himself if it wasn't for catholic bug.
And this quote is just wow:
That seems to be key theme of book, there is no knowing what goes on in a heart and no tying it down with rules of morality. Scobie is a good guy by most accounts whose conscience is troubled by his catholic beliefs. It is almost invariably the good people that feel guilt which proves it is stupid. But what's amazing is that his wife seemed to not know him at all in the end. It is a fact that despite his highly objective (to the point of being boring) and honest diary keeping habit and his regular confessions, no one in the end seem to really know him.
A priest only knows the unimportant things.’
‘Unimportant?’
‘Oh, I mean the sins,’ he said impatiently. ‘A man doesn’t come to us and confess his virtues.’
Thus his
Spoiler
suicide
A sick man’s death means to them only a short suffering - everybody has to die. We are all of us resigned to death: it’s life we aren’t resigned to.
And this quote is just wow:
When he was young, he had thought love had something to do with understanding, but with age he knew that no human being understood another. Love was the wish to understand, and presently with constant failure the wish died, and love died too perhaps or changed into this painful affection, loyalty, pity ...
savaging's review against another edition
4.0
I'm a testimony that you don't have to be Catholic -- or even much of a theist -- to like this book.
You will begin to like the main protagonist (the one not-completely-and-disgustingly-racist white guy in the book -- that helps), and you'll read with the anxiety you feel watching Meet the Parents, knowing things are going to go as wrong as they possibly can.
Christian authors can be great when they don't risk a happy ending, when they go as low as they can, like Dostoevsky. Where the only hope for redemption is the way a reader loves a character in spite of all their idiotic mistakes, and so you think, well, why wouldn't a god feel the same way?
"If one knew, he wondered, the facts, would one have to feel pity even for the planets? if one reached what they called the heart of the matter?"
You will begin to like the main protagonist (the one not-completely-and-disgustingly-racist white guy in the book -- that helps), and you'll read with the anxiety you feel watching Meet the Parents, knowing things are going to go as wrong as they possibly can.
Christian authors can be great when they don't risk a happy ending, when they go as low as they can, like Dostoevsky. Where the only hope for redemption is the way a reader loves a character in spite of all their idiotic mistakes, and so you think, well, why wouldn't a god feel the same way?
"If one knew, he wondered, the facts, would one have to feel pity even for the planets? if one reached what they called the heart of the matter?"
klparmley's review against another edition
1.0
Unlike Anna Karenina, I finished this drivel hoping there would be something worthwhile in the end. There wasn't. I wanted to smack everyone for being so appallingly stupid and I couldn't wait for Scobie to kill him self and get it over with. I kept muttering "Get on with it." to the book.
katykelly's review against another edition
4.0
A difficult read - sin and shame, heat and corruption.
An acknowledged classic, this has sat on my shelf for nearly 20 years unread. There have always been 'easier' books, quicker ones to get through first. But I bit the bullet and finally decided I needed to get this out of the 'to read' pile.
And it was hard. Both thematically and being of its time, Scobie and his story aren't straightforward. The heat of his town comes off the page, the sweating and humidity. As do the corruption, the racism,the attitudes. All of which make it hard to read at times.
But at the heart of this is a religious man who tries to do right, who sees his wife unhappy, who is disappointed himself in a lack of promotion, and who gets caught up in his own personal hell of taking decisions that could lead to his downfall, one by one.
An ending I was shaking my head at as well, one that is just as understandable today as back then, if for different reasons. I didn't like pretty much any character, even Scobie was rather 'grey area' for me, though I admired his attempts to remain above corruption and could see the slippery path ahead of him that might make this impossible.
Not an easy book in many ways for contemporary readers, but I'm glad it's moved to my 'read' list finally.
An acknowledged classic, this has sat on my shelf for nearly 20 years unread. There have always been 'easier' books, quicker ones to get through first. But I bit the bullet and finally decided I needed to get this out of the 'to read' pile.
And it was hard. Both thematically and being of its time, Scobie and his story aren't straightforward. The heat of his town comes off the page, the sweating and humidity. As do the corruption, the racism,the attitudes. All of which make it hard to read at times.
But at the heart of this is a religious man who tries to do right, who sees his wife unhappy, who is disappointed himself in a lack of promotion, and who gets caught up in his own personal hell of taking decisions that could lead to his downfall, one by one.
An ending I was shaking my head at as well, one that is just as understandable today as back then, if for different reasons. I didn't like pretty much any character, even Scobie was rather 'grey area' for me, though I admired his attempts to remain above corruption and could see the slippery path ahead of him that might make this impossible.
Not an easy book in many ways for contemporary readers, but I'm glad it's moved to my 'read' list finally.
ftremlett24's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
g_g's review against another edition
2.0
My least favourite Greene - too much catholic guilt in this one. Still fabulously written however
cozyandfluffy's review against another edition
5.0
Before reading this book, I experimented with Graham Greene with another novel "The End of the Affair". The latter was a good book, very easy to go through and I quite liked it. However, "The Heart of the Matter" is absolutely fantastic!
It is a possibility that I loved the book mainly because I was going through something similar at the time, concerning faith. It was a refreshing approach to a problem that I think, everyone had at one point or another. Graham Greene is great in what he does in this book and it almost feels like he gives his characters the freedom to do whatever they might like with their fictional lives.
The character of Scobie is someone I geniuenly cared about. He is a generous, introvert man, who survives to make the other person happy. As long as someone in his life is happy, he is happy. This is basically the theme of the whole book: How can one be happy? He embarks on a journey he wasn't supposed to take and he ultimately reaches sadness, depression, desperation and he refuses to forgive himself for what he may have done, has done and is about to do.
The key word can be "love". Graham Greene talks a lot about the difference between the love of people and the love of God. The great monologue near the end, when Scobie is in church, can be considered the most powerful and heart-breaking moment in the novel.
My advice is to pay attention to the word "love". It will show you a lot in the end.
It is a possibility that I loved the book mainly because I was going through something similar at the time, concerning faith. It was a refreshing approach to a problem that I think, everyone had at one point or another. Graham Greene is great in what he does in this book and it almost feels like he gives his characters the freedom to do whatever they might like with their fictional lives.
The character of Scobie is someone I geniuenly cared about. He is a generous, introvert man, who survives to make the other person happy. As long as someone in his life is happy, he is happy. This is basically the theme of the whole book: How can one be happy? He embarks on a journey he wasn't supposed to take and he ultimately reaches sadness, depression, desperation and he refuses to forgive himself for what he may have done, has done and is about to do.
The key word can be "love". Graham Greene talks a lot about the difference between the love of people and the love of God. The great monologue near the end, when Scobie is in church, can be considered the most powerful and heart-breaking moment in the novel.
My advice is to pay attention to the word "love". It will show you a lot in the end.
beachy123's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Another Graham Greene classic. I really enjoyed this book. A focus on a stifling colonial life in Africa during the war. Lots of classic Greene themes…Catholicism, social standing etc.
emiisntreal's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5