1948 • republished by Compass Books
306 pages / C70
'My experiences in Sierra Leone were rich enough, but I have never been satisfied with what I made of them.' So Graham Greene wrote in 1980, three decades after his publication of 'The Heart of the Matter.' Ever a tough self-critic, the novel has been far better received by scholars and audiences than Greene himself. This widespread success has helped to establish Greene as one of the twentieth century's leading British novelists and, with figures such as Evelyn Waugh, Paul Claudel, and Fran�ois Mauriac, as one of the greatest Roman Catholic writers in modern history.
First published in 1948, 'The Heart of the Matter' was inspired by Greene's life as a British intelligence officer in Sierra Leone during the Second World War. Greene, mixing his Catholic background with immense skills in fiction, journalism, and travel writing, penned a social drama that is arguably the best of his career. It earned the James Tait Black Memorial Prize, Britain's version of the Pulitzer, in its first impression and reached Time Magazine's list of the 100 best English-language novels from 1923 to 2005.
Taking place in a Sierra Leone township during wartime, Greene draws vividly from his experiences as an MI6 official and the well-known irregularities of his love life. He immerses us with the novel's opening pages into a hot, humid, and malaria-ridden territory of coastal British Africa; the sweat on one's arms, the constant feeling of being watched, and the sound of vultures clopping on tin roofs predominate this scene. The locals of Sierra Leone - those of the Black underclass - are illiterate, often born out of wedlock, and fill roles comparable to slavery.
Against this musty backdrop, Greene paints his characters with a simple, journalistic flair. The focal point is Henry Scobie, a deputy commissioner who is next in line to head the colony's police department. Scobie and his wife Louise are devout Catholics who seem out of place in their African surroundings: Scobie, while regarded as an honest and efficient officer, is distrusted by his colleagues for being too above-board. Louise is an aloof and opportunistic woman who has little in common with her husband, including a thirst for social advancement and a love of poetry. Yet their relationship endures in this bleak setting; marriage has once again become a 'habit,' as Greene so often laments.
Scobie's main asset - a sympathy for those around him - is also his most glaring weakness. Consumed by a police state where unhappiness reigns, Scobie damages his integrity by taking loans from Yusef, a Syrian gem trafficker, in order to send Louise on a costly relocation to South Africa. While Louise is away, he falls in love with Helen Rolt, a young woman who managed to survive days at sea following a boating accident that killed her just-married husband. Scobie discovers his faith as a Catholic, the one power he can turn to, unraveling in this chaos while at the same time galvanizing his link with the divine. This happens while a London spy named Wilson, who holds childish feelings for Louise, keeps a watchful eye and happily reports to his superiors.
'The Heart of the Matter,' written at the peak of Greene's literary abilities, is a novel with superb emotional depth and range. Much of the story takes place as an interior monologue that follows Scobie's ensuing crises in love, faith, and the will to live. While firmly rooted in Greene's Catholic outlook, the novel extends beyond his faith and deals with universal concepts of self-respect, compassion, and decency: how can one maintain his truthfulness, Greene asks, in a world of lies and deceit? Should we really have intolerance for deceit when the world appears so rotten? And is total understanding between human beings possible when compared to the definiteness of a man's spirituality?
Compared to earlier novels such as 'England Made Me' and 'Brighton Rock,' 'The Heart of the Matter' has better-developed characters, a more cohesive plot, and solid narration. Greene still falls into an overuse of simile and certain events don't happen with a feeling of the inevitable, but 'Matter' still ranks as one of the best-written novels in twentieth century literature and holds a deserving place in Green's 'Catholic' cycle of novels that secured his legacy.
'The Heart of the Matter' is a frequently-printed novel that can be acquired in used copies on the Internet. Used for this review was the 1960 printing by Compass Books (C70, 306 pages), a subsidiary of The Viking Press. More recent editions have appeared from Penguin Books and Vintage Classics. The novel is an absolute must for Greene fans and highly recommended for all serious readers.
