I am only now discovering Graham Greene; this was the second of his works that I've read. It is not a book to be taken up for a little light entertainment; I'm still digesting it, you might say. It stays with a person. Superficially, it is about government oppression and man's inhumanity to man; more specifically, it is about love and its dual power to transform and destroy. Read it on whatever level you choose; basically, it is about a Roman Catholic priest struggling with his faith and intense guilt while trying to elude the forces of a government that has declared his religion illegal. I came away from it moved and disturbed, which in my opinion (humble tho' it be) is the purpose of literature: to create a mirror for the reader herself. What flaws do I possess that masquerade as virtue, what overpowering desire truly motivates my actions? In this novel the main character, the whiskey priest, takes flight not only from his persecutors but also from himself; in the end he finds he can only redeem himself by returning. And there I find another question to haunt me...did the priest indeed find redemption in the end?

Melissa Johnson

(from amazon.com)

This novel by Graham Greene had me a little confused throughout it. The characters are coming and going a lot and you can get lost in the thick storyline. The book takes you through the adventures of a whiskey priest on the run from authorities. Churches are outlawed in his state and he is trying to make it to safe territory. The author's attention to detail is evident throughout the book, which in some cases added to the story, yet in others seemed to drag it out too long. The one thing that kept me interested in this book was wanting to get to the big ending. The novel kept my mind wondering what was going to happen next. One chapter would have you thinking one thing and then a few chapters later you were thinking just the opposite. Overall this book was good. It kept me interested most of the time, but occasionally seemed to get too wordy and I would get lost in the details. I would recommend this book to someone who is not looking for that same old happy ending adventure story.

Aaron

(from amazon.com)