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Title: A Burnt-Out Case (Twentieth Century Classics) by Graham Greene ISBN: 0-14-018539-9 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: April, 1992 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.12 (17 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Scared of lightning.
Comment: I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book, as I have so many of Greene's others... in fact, this one is my favorite so far. For me, a significant theme in the book is that it is very difficult to run away from one's true vocation. In A Burnt-Out Case, the main character Querry tries to do just that. He feels that he has lost the passion he once had for his gifting in architecture, and he tries to run and hide in obscurity... to go into an early retirement. Due to his immense fame, he needs to go far (geographically) to do this; hence, he finds himself at the end of an arduous tsetse-fly infested boat ride in the heart of an isolated leper colony in the Belgian Congo. Here, with the help of the many priests who run the colony, and a nosy journalist thrown into the mix, Querry will find out just how hard the ground is in which he attempts to bury his talents.
For a better synopsis of the story, note the Merriam-Webster review above. And since that review gives away the ending anyway, I won't feel so bad about telling you what I considered to be the one (albeit minor) "possible" flaw in the story's denouement. (NOTE: To criticize Graham Greene seriously makes me fearful of the next lightning storm.) However, towards the end, Mme. Rycker has accused Querry of a terrible indiscretion, and this throws her husband into a somewhat understandable fit of rage. The priests also, believing Mme. Rycker's accusations, reject Querry, and he is humiliated and unjustly condemned. Querry knows how serious the situation has now become. But he does not take it seriously. In his defense, he simply claims to Rycker, "I haven't even kissed your wife. She doesn't attract me in that way."
A key fact here is that he is actually telling the truth. Rycker's jealous rage is unjustified. Another key fact is that Mme. Rycker also knows that nothing happened between them, and talks about that fact freely with Querry just minutes after his tumultuous verbal exchange with her husband.
I kept asking myself... why didn't Querry arrange this interview with Mme. Rycker at a time and place where Rycker himself could have secretly overheard their conversation? In this way, Rycker could have clearly overheard his wife contradicting the allegations that she had written in her diary! In this way Querry would have cleared his name.
Read the book and see if you don't agree with me!
The only reason Querry could have logically been as non-concerned about the issue as he was, is because he was so gentlemanly and honorable, he did not want Mme. Rycker to experience the wrath of her husband, and was willing to bear that burden himself. And bear it he did!
At any rate, the thought of anyone other than Leo Tolstoy criticising Graham Greene's writing... well, it makes me shudder. And it's cloudy out tonight, so I must go hide.
4 and a half stars!
Rating: 4
Summary: A novel for adults
Comment: Graham Greene's mastery of diction and description is evidenced in the first 180 pages of this book. The ending, however, is rife with histrionics; it's a cheap out to an otherwise engaging read. Though some may equate this with Conrad's "Heart of Darkness" (and Greene properly chastises the reader for this mental comparison), Greene, however, manages to pull of something which is altogether more realistic and stripped of illusion
Rating: 5
Summary: Only for True Greene Buffs, like me...
Comment: This short tale of a well known architect who wants peace and quiet in a different world is definitely not everyone's cup of tea! And the title is about perfect! But for an exploration of a burnt out Englishman seeking solace and quiet in the tropics, and in a leper colony no less, this is hard to beat! You can feel the heat, the insects, and general overall misery. Greene was an inveterate traveller to these parts, and knew his subject. Whether the hero , Quarry, ever attains his much sought after "redemption" is up to the reader, but this book ,along with several similar ones in the vast Greene oevre, is a good,safe substitute to a trip to the haunted, disease ridden, tropics.
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Title: Loser Takes All (Penguin Twentieth-Century Classics) by Graham Greene ISBN: 0140185429 Publisher: Viking Press Pub. Date: May, 1993 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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Title: Ministry of Fear by Graham Greene ISBN: 0140185364 Publisher: Viking Press Pub. Date: March, 1993 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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Title: The End of the Affair (Twentieth Century Classics) by Graham Greene ISBN: 0140184953 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: November, 1991 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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Title: Our Man in Havana: An Entertainment (Twentieth Century Classics) by Graham Greene ISBN: 0140184937 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: September, 1991 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
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Title: The Man Within (Penguin Twentieth-Century Classics) by Graham Greene ISBN: 0140185305 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: December, 1994 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
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