A review by kim_hoag
The Man Within by Graham Greene

4.0

This is the first book by an author I revere, so I was anxious to read it. It was not what I expected, although Greene's exquisite craftsmanship is all there. (Greene attempted to revise the book for a later edition, but he failed and so gave it up.) The main character is an anti-hero, Andrews, who self-admittedly doesn't have what it takes to be a hero. The antagonist is his friend who is trying to kill him for a betrayal. It is almost as if Greene set out to turn conventional fiction on it's ear, and perhaps he was. There is a simplicity to the triumvirate of characters and certain plot points that betray the first novel status, but all the themes he will later develop are here: struggling with God, bonding to others, the power of landscape, what is self, and a relationship with death. Andrews was hard for me to take. He was such a wimp with the hope of redemption determinedly thrust away by him. Most of the book consists of his inner dialogs and debates. One of the three characters, Elizabeth, I found the most fascinating but Greene doesn't dive into her so she is seen only as a foil for Andrews. The ending was not what I expected. It seemed almost lifted from The Tale of Two Cities. I admittedly don't understand the last page and I'm not sure I like it. I'll be pondering this for a while, which I often do with Greene.