The Heart of the Matter by Graham Greene Grandiose chef d'oeuvre

 The Heart of the Matter by Graham Greene Grandiose chef d'oeuvre, one of my absolute favorites  This masterpiece raises so many meaningful, fundamental issues that I am somewhat overwhelmed. There are many layers to it and that is probably the case with all majestic works. At the first, easy level, the story is wonderful and it might be that which has captured all my attention the first time I have read the book. It offers multiple pleasures. One of which is that the new reading strategy pays off so well. I still intend to read new works, but there have been many misfires in the past few years. So it is reassuring to rediscover classic works like this one. Graham Greene was a catholic author, like Flannery O'Connors, another favorite of mine. Seeing what marvelous novels have come out from under his pen and that of another believer makes me think again about God. God might be the main personage of this excellent work and that of all the others that I know by Greene. Although, on second thought, Our Man in Havana and Travels with My Aunt might not include Him at the center. Scobie , deputy commissioner in one of the British colonies is the terrestrial hero. However, God is towering over him, his wife Louise and determines the course of the action. A priest says that major Scobie may have loved only God. He cares for his wife, but I don't think that he really loves her. Having said that I again feel the need to amend it, if not altogether contradict it and myself. As I stated from the beginning of the note, this is a complex, intriguing book that escapes me at some levels. If Scobie doesn't love his spouse, then who can claim that he loves anyone. Because in order to make her happy he commits all kinds of brave acts that go against his religion and make him compromise with the law. And he has always been an honest man and incorruptible policeman. He falls in love with another, much younger woman, Helen, that I prefer to the other female character. But even here, I don't get it...why doesn't he go away with her? And we go back to the main personage... God, almighty, all knowing. As a catholic, he could not marry again. Scobie, or Henry, or Ticky as his wife keeps calling him, in spite of the fact that he loathes the nickname, is thirty years older than Helen, who had just been through an ordeal. We have here a classic conflict between Passion and Rationality. Scobie is torn apart and caught in the middle of conflicting passion for Helen, duty towards God and Louise, not to mention his duty as an important policeman. Nathaniel Branden is of the opinion that religion has a terribly negative impact on believers and the fate of Henry Scobie appears to support the claim made in the book Psychological Effects of Religion . As an ironical twist, or maybe a sign of God, I am now reading  24 Heures dans la Vie d'une Femme The plot here appears to be the opposite of The one from The Heart of the Matter. Grandiose masterpiece!

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