Power and the Glory

"In 'The Power and the Glory,' as elsewhere, Mr. Greene is extremely successful in creating a squalid and painful world. He has a palette of sour colors, a repertory of of sickening suggestions, a talent for selecting and rubbing in unpleasant details of modern civilization, such as cheap panes of stained glass, inferior dental drills, and insipid correspondence courses, that make good writing and are entirely his own. But the trouble is, it seems to me, that here he has too little to set against them. The canvas is pretty well painted, but the picture is somehow dead....Dispensing with the excitement of the mystery story, Mr. Greene has not wholly succeeded in creating the higher kind of excitement. His priest who is merely a victim, who is merely pursued and executed, does not stir us with the spiritual passion that ought to be conveyed by the life of a saint."Greene, Graham is the author of 'Power and the Glory', published 2003 under ISBN 9780142437308 and ISBN 0142437301.