The Power and the Glory
Graham Greene (1904-1991)
2nd April 1997 at Eliane's House
Synopsis
The last priest is on the run. During an anti-clerical purge
in one of the southern states of Mexico, he is hunted like
a hare. Too human for heroism, too humble for martyrdom, the
little worldly "whisky priest" is nevertheless impelled
towards his squalid Calvary as much by his own compassion
for humanity as by the efforts of his pursuers. A baleful
vulture of doom hovers over this modern crucifixion story,
but above the vulture soars an eagle - the inevitability of
the Church's triumph.
First lines
Mr Tench went out to look for his ether cylinder,
into the blazing Mexican sun and the bleaching dust. A few
vultures looked down from the roof with shabby indifference:
he wasn't carrion yet.
Published reviews
The Power and the Glory's nameless whisky priest blends
seamlessly with his tropical, crooked, anticlerical Mexico.
Roman Catholicism is intrinsic to the character and terrain
both; Greene's imaginative immersion in both is triumphant.
John Updike in his Introduction
Related resources
Biography
on Pegasos Site
New
York Times Featured Author Page
Graham
Greene at and in The Times
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