Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    El Poder Y La Gloria
    El Poder Y La Gloria
    El Poder Y La Gloria
    Audiobook (abridged)3 hours

    El Poder Y La Gloria

    Written by Graham Greene

    Narrated by Fabio Camero

    4/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    La cercanía a Dios a través del pecado. Un sacerdote que ha caído en el vicio se encuentra en medio de una violenta revolución en un país latinoamericano. Característica de los revolucionarios es su tendencia atea y de repente el sacerdote, a pesar de sus vicios, se encuentra en el dilema que le permitirá volver a sus creencias. Ese es el tema básico de la gran novela del inglés Graham Greene, uno de los más brillante dramaturgos y novelistas británicos del siglo XX, quien explora en un relato lleno de suspenso y además con una profunda tesis que ha hecho de esta una de las obras más populares del escritor.
    LanguageEspañol
    PublisherYOYO USA
    Release dateSep 12, 2006
    ISBN9781611553871
    El Poder Y La Gloria
    Author

    Graham Greene

    Graham Greene (1904–1991) is recognized as one of the most important writers of the twentieth century, achieving both literary acclaim and popular success. His best known works include Brighton Rock, The Heart of the Matter, The Quiet American, and The Power and the Glory. After leaving Oxford, Greene first pursued a career in journalism before dedicating himself full-time to writing with his first big success, Stamboul Train. He became involved in screenwriting and wrote adaptations for the cinema as well as original screenplays, the most successful being The Third Man. Religious, moral, and political themes are at the root of much of his work, and throughout his life he traveled to some of the wildest and most volatile parts of the world, which provided settings for his fiction. Greene was a member of the Order of Merit and a Companion of Honour.  

    Related to El Poder Y La Gloria

    Related audiobooks

    Classics For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Todos Los Quijotes Del Mundo

      Mar 16, 2020

      Todos Los Quijotes Del Mundo
      3 min read

    • Article

      Para Detener El Tiempo

      May 10, 2023

      Exhaustivo estudio de la historia de la humanidad a través de las grandes dinastías familiares (los Médici, Habsburgo, Rothschild) que han ido conformando la evolución del mundo a lo largo de los siglos y que han marcado lo que somos hoy. Una crónica

      1 min read

    • Article

      Ocioculto

      Jun 23, 2023

      Valdemar nos trae, en su colección gótica, una nueva edición de Memorias privadas y confesiones de un pecador justificado, considerada como una de las mejores y más agudas representaciones del mal y el diablo en la literatura británica. Publicada de

      3 min read

    • Article

      Búsqueda Y Lectura

      Sep 2, 2019

      Su obra más famosa, laureada, emblemática, y aclamada hasta agotar la lista de piropos. Sin embargo, el elogio que el autor irlandés guarda como un tesoro en su memoria es el de una dependienta londinense, quien al mirar la tarjeta de crédito de su e

      2 min read

    • Article

      Para Detener El Tiempo

      Mar 10, 2023

      Del Árbol vuelve con su atinado pulso narrativo para la novela negra en una historia de poderes enfrentados en la que un inspector en horas bajas tiene que bucear en su velado pasado para investigar y convocar al sicario que va dejando un violento ra

      1 min read

    • Article

      Tom Holland

      Jul 20, 2020

      Tom Holland
      5 min read

    • Article

      Biblioteca Forbes

      May 4, 2020

      Violenta, dura, perversa, impactante, sangrienta… Esta novela es de una adictiva brutalidad. En un lugar de la Norteamérica más profunda, predicadores viciosos, asesinos en serie, sheriffs corruptos y devotos extremos comparten carretera con un joven

      2 min read

    • Article

      Libros

      Dec 13, 2019

      RANDOM HOUSE Polémica novela que llevó al éxito a la escritora francesa, a sus apenas 25 años de edad. Publicada en más de 30 países, se trata de una versión ‘libre’ de Thelma y Louise, y hará estallar a las mentes mejor portadas. Cuando Ana Victori

      2 min read

    • Article

      Críticas

      Feb 4, 2021

      EMILIA CORTÉS ALIANZA, 443 PP., 24 € De la mano de Alianza, Zenobia Camprubí vuelve a las librerías en forma de biografía, un texto que traza su vida y sus perfiles, sus temores y sus ilusiones, como si todavía fuera la niña que aprendía idiomas para

      14 min read

    • Article

      El Escritor De Los Anillos

      Aug 16, 2023

      El Escritor De Los Anillos
      1 min read

    • Article

      Ficción Especulativa

      Feb 3, 2020

      Ficción Especulativa
      3 min read

    • Article

      Dos Pillos, Una Causa

      Aug 29, 2022

      Dos Pillos, Una Causa
      4 min read

    • Article

      TOM HOLLAND: “El Movimiento #MeToo No Habría Existido Sin El Cristianismo”

      Apr 29, 2020

      UN NUEVO ÁNGULO Erudición y garra narrativa, esa es la marca de la casa que ha convertido al autor británico Tom Holland en una estrella internacional gracias a best sellers como Rubicón (2016) o Fuego persa (2017). Ahora, en Dominio (Ático de los Li

      6 min read

    • Article

      Ocioculto

      Jun 23, 2020

      YO, SATANISTA TERESA PORQUERAS / CYDONIA / 464 PÁGS Ediciones Cydonia nos trae una de las investigaciones más punteras en torno al misterio de los últimos años, el trabajo de una periodista en el corazón mismo del movimiento satánico español. La tena

      3 min read

    • Article

      Libros Búsqueda Y Lectura

      Mar 31, 2020

      Escritor, periodista, ensayista e intelectual de vocación y corazón, el presente volumen, que reúne los dos títulos de su autobiografía, constituyen un monumento a la memoria del siglo XX. Pensador crítico y rebelde ante los sistemas políticos que co

      2 min read

    • Article

      Mujeres Que Hacen Historia

      Feb 19, 2021

      La maternidad, las dudas a partir de los 30 en torno a formar una familia, el ghosting (o cómo las personas desaparecen de la noche a la mañana sin dar explicaciones) y aprender a estar sola son cuatro de los poderosos temas que trata la novela Fanta

      3 min read

    • Article

      Búsqueda Y Lectura

      Jan 30, 2020

      "No hay marca en la pared para medir la estatura moral e intelectual de las mujeres", afirma Virginia Woolf en este ensayo sobre la condición femenina, ya un icono de la literatura del siglo XX. Moraleja: para escribir novelas una mujer necesita tene

      2 min read

    • Article

      Libros

      Mar 22, 2024

      Si te gustan las historias sobre la Segunda Guerra Mundial, Por amor a la libertad (Grijalbo), de Richard Pick, te atrapará. Esta novela narra la singular vida de Richard Pick, superviviente de la SGM y veterano de Normandía, desde una juventud acomo

      2 min read

    • Article

      Ocioculto

      Oct 22, 2021

      LIBROS DEL MES William Hodge Hodgson moría fulminado por un proyectil de artillería en la Gran Guerra cuando apenas se conocía su obra. Gracias a la reivindicación del maestro H.P. Lovecraft, ha cautivado a millones de personas. En este nuevo volumen

      3 min read

    • Article

      Una Mujer Superlativa

      Mar 31, 2020

      Una Mujer Superlativa
      1 min read

    • Article

      Más Letras, Más Libres

      Oct 21, 2021

      Doce césares, de Mary Beard. Crítica. ¿Qué tienen los emperadores romanos para que sigan fascinándonos dos mil años después? La mejor historiadora de Roma nos cuenta por qué siguen influyendo en el arte y la cultura. Subidón, de Joaquín Reyes. Black

      1 min read

    • Article

      “Fue Un Momento Decisivo De La Humanidad, Trágico Y Sublime”

      Sep 25, 2019

      Catedrático de Filosofía de la Universidad Complutense y autor de Imperiofilia y el populismo nacional-católico (2019) Cortés, ¿héroe o genocida? No creo que Hernán Cortés sea un genocida. Sería anacrónico calificarlo así. No había en él la voluntad

      1 min read

    • Article

      Joan Didion

      Feb 2, 2022

      Joan Didion
      4 min read

    • Article

      Alfredo Comesaña

      Mar 2, 2022

      Alfredo Comesaña
      5 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for El Poder Y La Gloria

    4/5

    1,406 ratings57 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 2/5
      An unnamed Catholic priest flees for his life through desolate regions of Mexico. The government has outlawed Catholicism and is putting all remaining priests to death. Although the protagonist is afraid and seeking to escape the country, he his tormented by his religious duties. Despite his craven nature and his pitiful desire to live, he continues to serve mass and other sacraments even as it leads him inevitably to death.A grim story about a duty and despair.
    • 3/5
      Interessante thematiek van de antiheld: het gewetensprobleem van de individuele priester, de uitdaging om heilige te zijn, de zondige die volgens Greene kan rekenen op de genade van God; neiging tot conformisme bij kerk. Tal van elementen met kritiek op katholicisme, maar toch tegelijk vrijwaring en accentuering van het mysterie. Stilistisch: mooi maar niet speciaal, eerste deel zeer traag, 2 en 3 interessanter door de dialoog.
    • 5/5
      Es muy buen narrador Graham Green. Este texto es muy diferente a lo que normalmente escribía.
    • 3/5
      A journey through oppression to find dignity, this book tells the story of one priest's struggle in a Godless Mexico. Many consider this to be Greene's best book. Ultimately Greene asks us how we would chose when faced with a similar challenge.
    • 2/5
      Through a convoluted process my IRL reading group picked this for our August read. Having read and liked Brighton Rock a long time ago I was expecting more. It's a very strange book - nobody in the group liked it. Maybe it meant more to readers at the time it was published but it just seems irrelevant now. It wasn't a particularly hard read and what I did like about it was it taught me a bit of Mexican history that I knew nothing about. But we should probably have read Brighton Rock instead.........
    • 4/5
      "Hate is a lack of imagination."'The Power and the Glory' was first published in 1940 and is basically a chase story centring around two totally opposed characters, a communist police lieutenant and a priest.Set in Mexico in the 1920's when after the communist revolution Catholicism was forbidden. All the priests have been killed or chased out of the country unless they are willing to denounce their vows of celibacy and marry. The police lieutenant fanatically believes in the righteousness of his cause: believing that the Catholic church is corrupt, greedy and has brought his country to a state of backwardness and poverty that can only be remedied by its own annihilation. Meanwhile the priest is sinful, cowardly and alcoholic yet who when push comes to shove is loyal to his own cause also.Both are motivated by the love and care for their people but also come to represent man's relationship with God or authority. The priest, the only surviving one in the country, initially plans to escape by boat but when asked to give the last sacraments to a dying woman decides that it his duty to stay. The lieutenant and the troops under his command take hostages in each village threatening to execute them in the hope that their neighbours will betray the priest. However, the villagers remain loyal to priest and they don't give him up preferring him to simply leave the area nor does he identify himself despite knowing that another will be taken hostage in his place. The priest moves to the capitol where once again he is arrested. Put in a cell with some of the hostages he sees first-hand the conditions that they are enduring because of him. Again the priest says nothing and is released but isolated from his parishioners, unable to lead mass, take confessions or do christenings he finally quits the country. For a while he finds peace and quiet but is convinced to return despite knowing that he is being lead into a trap. Once again he is arrested this time he is recognised, tried and executed but later on that day another priest arrives in the country to take his place suggesting his prayers have been answered after all, that religion and hope will never die."Hope was an instinct only the reasoning mind could kill. An animal never knew despair."Greene worked as a journalist for the Times newspaper and was sent to Mexico to investigate and report on the rumours that Catholic priests, nuns and civilians were being oppressed by the Communist Government there, this book was inspired by his time in the country. The story therefore portrays the actual persecution of Catholics by government troops, but essentially centres on the personal struggle which the main character fights with his conscience and his faith. Greene brings all his considerable talent for suspense to bear on this story and despite, by today's standards, its somewhat plodding delivery; its darkness and intensity, it is still a thrilling read touched with flashes of humour. Greene wonderfully evokes the heat and dust of the country and the poverty of its inhabitants. I have read a few of Greene's books and I must admit that I prefer his 'spy' novels to his 'serious' ones with their religious undertones but this is an enjoyable read all the same.
    • 5/5
      This novel, published by Graham Greene in 1940 is set in Mexico during the 1930 Cristero Wars (1927-19290). The government has decided to annihilate the Catholic Church. The Whiskey Priest is unnamed, views himself as a "bad priest" is the one who continues to respond to the people's' needs and to do his priestly duties despite his thinking himself a bad priest. Others have been killed or have taken the escape of marrying and going on a pension provided by the government. The Mestizo is a Judas character, he continues to seek out financial gain by betraying the whiskey priest to the enemy, namely the lieutenant. The side stories are of Mr Tench the English Dentist, the Fellows (English man and his family who works on a banana plantation),and the Woman, mother of 3, who is reading a cleaned up, dramatized story of a martyr Juan to her children. The church has always survived persecution and the rally "Viva Cristo Rey" or long live Christ the King settles into the heart of the young man who at first appeared fascinated by the soldiers and their guns. The Church will survive.
    • 5/5
      A classic I had never had the opportunity to read before, but read it for a class through the lens of forgiveness and atonement. Masterful writing about a priest in Mexico during a time of upheaval when the Catholic faith is outlawed and priests are executed. The whisky-priest (his only "name") is on the run, hunted down by the government and forced to rely on those who still have (secret) faith. While he believes himself to be the worst kind of sinner, his journey out among the people and nature is slowly transforming him into a Christ-like figure who makes the ultimate sacrifice. A psychological exploration of faith and belief that raises many thought-provoking issues.
    • 2/5
      Another “great book” that left me cold and bored. It did not age well.
    • 4/5
      Most every institution has some core of validity, its way of contributing to human welfare. Then layers get added, on the one hand some kind of comfortable complacent corruption, on the other hand a fanatic crusading partisanship. Here we have the complacent priest and the fanatic lieutenant. Greene shows us a glimmer of the humanity of the lieutenant, but here on full display is the humanity of the priest, as he reflects on the complacency, the self-righteous piety he has indulged in along with his parishioners. I read this book right after reading about the Spanish Civil War, where the reds got crushed and the church came out on top. The sides are remarkably symmetric. Here in the USA we seem to be taking sides and taking up arms for another round of fanaticism and bloodshed. A book like this is probably good medicine for the situation, but the disease is such that a book like this is hard to read. We want simple purity, not this kind of complex mix.
    • 3/5
      As an aetheist I don't have much access to the forces that moved the whiskey priest, but I liked how he seemed to be at his best when he was closest to losing everything. The contrast between his confused, unhappy end and the grandiose story martyrdom that accompanied it was striking. I guess the reader is left to wonder whether all Catholic martyrs were afraid and worried when they died, rather than serene.

      I read Graham Greene because I heard he does dialog well, and that seems to have been true here.
    • 3/5
      First of all, I had no idea that Catholicism was banned in parts of Mexico at one point in time. Wow! When I finished reading this book, I had to go online to make sure I understood what was going on. I did, and after awhile I processed it a bit more, but I never could quite figure out why he didn't just leave.
    • 3/5
      Interesting bit of Catholic history and belief in Mexico circa 1930
    • 5/5
      I picked up this highly regarded work because I like books that put an interesting spin on meaning-of-life issues and religion in general. I had heard that this book was ranked as one of the greatest 100 books written in English in the twentieth century. It did not disappoint.

      The author Greene was a Englishman who travelled in Mexico – the setting of this novel. He wrote about a “whisky priest” – an alcoholic. The (Roman Catholic) church was under persecution in fictional Mexico by a military group. Most priests had forsaken the faith or had been killed. He was the last priest left. He was in high demand from the common folk to hear confessions, administer the sacraments (if he didn’t drink the wine first), perform burials, etc. Of course, he had to do this all while he was on the run from the local authorities.

      This whisky priest is a sad but triumphant character. Usually, priests are not great candidates for the proverbial “everyman.” After all, they are set apart from society by education and by class. Nonetheless, Greene makes this priest relatable through his drinking. He becomes a sad (despicable?) figure. Despite being mired in doubts and having a low self-image, this priest continues to confess and suffer for the faith. He is Greene’s version of a tragic hero, with the tragedy being his alcoholism and the hero part being his inability to renounce the faith.

      As a Protestant, I had a tough time relating to all the classic (pre-Vatican II) Catholicism in this tale. After all, veneration of the elements is less my thing; administration of the Word is more of it. Despite this, the character of the whisky priest still communicated with me. Saints, after all, are not made by being perfect but by arising out of the mud that life consists of.

      This book also addresses one of my favorite topics – the integration of the secular world with the spiritual world. It follows along the traditional lines of the secular world persecuting the spiritual. This may have been the case during Greene’s day, but I find that the relationship between these two realms is more complicated than that. Still, the ending of this novel shows a more sophisticated relationship that contends that human nature will always possess some religious element to it and that when true, religion will always exist in some form.

      Overall, this classic work is fairly accessible and an enjoyable and thought-provoking read. I see why it has been so highly regarded in the decades since it was written. It will appeal especially to literate religious audiences and to those who go to church but long for some different light to shine the path of their life.
    • 4/5
      The Power and the Glory. Graham Greene. 1940. Greene visited Mexico in 1938 to report on the religious persecution of the Roman Catholic Church during the civil war there. The result of this visit was a nonfiction account, The Lawless Roads and, later this novel. I had tried to read Greene several times and years before I picked this up to read for book club, but never could get interested enough to finish whatever book it was that I’d started. This time it was different. I was immediately interested in the “whiskey priest” and his situation. He is one of the last priests in Mexico (other than the ones who have given in to the government and quit serving mass, hearing confessions, baptizing and burying) and is slowly making his way toward freedom. In spite of the danger, he continues to hear confessions and to say mass if he has the wine, and even though he is mired in his on sin and doubts his worth. After journeying through the area and on the verge of escape, he turns around and goes to hear the confession of a dying man even though he knows he will be captured and killed.
    • 4/5
      There's a cinematic opening scene here, with a dentist emerging onto a Mexican street causing a vulture to take flight which then soars over the town, and we get a literal bird-eye view of its layout as the dentist makes his way to the docks. I'd read Greene before, but immediately on page one I was reminded of how much a master he is. This novel is often cited as his best work, taking place during the persecution of the Catholic Church in southern Mexico during the 1920s. The idea of Christianty being persecuted to the extent depicted seemed so far-fetched, I was convinced Greene had made it up until I researched the Cristero War. While Greene doesn't name his setting, it is clearly the state of Tabasco under the governorship of Tomas Garrido Canabal. Canabal was an extremist, and while he did introduce women's suffrage and made improvements to Tabasco's education programs and economy, his legacy is deeply overshadowed by his persecution of Catholicism. It is not hard to see Canabal in the novel's figure of the Lieutenant. Similarly the protagonist, a runaway priest, might reflect the real life Padre Macario Fernandez Aquado who remained one step ahead of the authorities and death at their hands. Graham Greene writes with enormous economy, and yet still manages to paint his scenes and characters so vividly. Nothing feels rushed or condensed, but in 200 pages he can transmit a very complex story and explore all the corners. Both 'power' and 'glory' call upon preservertion of the next generation as their highest value, seeking to 'save' them from evil. The priest is more pressed to examine his life and assumptions due to circumstances, and he is in the best position to learn from what he experiences assuming that he can survive them. The lieutenant is more free to indulge in might-makes-right and therefore less introspective as he justifies any extremity, but he faces incomprehensible stubborn resistance by the very people he is trying to help as he exorcises the menace of the church. Neither side seems to grasp, for the lack of either side making the appeal, that it is ultimately hearts and minds which will decide the victor.One quirk I dislike about Greene's style is his penchant for suddenly introducing scene cuts to feature unidentified characters, leaving me foundering. It can take some flipping pages back and forth to figure out if these are new characters or familiar ones, and who was being referred to as whom. That frustration aside, reading more of Greene is always sure to be a pleasure whatever his subject.
    • 5/5
      I really liked this book. It was set in an epoch I was unfamiliar with -- Communist, religion-banning Mexico in the 1930s -- and its portrayal of a self-doubting whiskey priest on the run from zealous priest-hunters and his own demons alike was nothing short of enthralling. What I’m sure I will remember most about this novel is just how very well written it was: Greene definitely has a way with words and images that makes his prose feel so absolutely right and impeccably assembled that no other words or images could really be acceptable substitutes. This was my first Grahame Greene, but it will definitely not be my last.
    • 3/5
      This is a hard one for me. I love Graham Greene, and have read many of his books and loved them all across genres. (He writes across so many genres!) I know this is considered his masterpiece, but the truth is I did not much enjoy the read. I generally love to wade around in physical, moral and religious decay. But this whiskey priest and his martyrdom did not move me. The prose and structure are, as one expects from Greene, spectacular. The man can write dialogue so authentic you feel like you are listening in on an actual conversation. No question this is a well crafted novel. I can't say why I did not connect with this, why I was never drawn in. Maybe it is that it felt like Greene really disliked all of his characters (including Mexico, which is definitely a character in this story.) All I can say is that I never felt drawn in to this story, I felt like I was sitting in the audience with Greene, and a safe distance from all the ugliness.
    • 3/5
      This is my first Graham Greene novel and I must admit that I had expected more of it, as he is such a famous writer. I did like the language though, and it was interesting to read a novel set in Mexico, as I was travelling there when I read this. Didn't feel familiar though:-) Most of all because this novel is set in the past,in a period when religion was banned from Mexico (whereas religion is very present in Mexico now). In the novel we follow a priest who is on the run from the government. He is supposed to be killed but manages to keep ahead of his prosecutors for years, secretly performing religious services in the villages he visits. This may sound fanatic, but the priest is full of self-doubt. He is an alcoholic (also problematic, as alcohol was prohibited by the government too), and has a daughter. He feels he is not worthy of priesthood, and instead of escaping the area, for which possibilities arise several times, he always returns to the dangerzone, where eventually, of course, he is caught. It is as if he wants to be caught.During his wanderings, the priest meets several persons, who are being described as if they were main characters in the novel, after which they may (almost) completely disappear from the story. This seemed a bit strange at times. But I guess my main problem was that I couldn't really identify or at least sympatize with the priest. The endless guilt and addiction, it was a bit too much for me.
    • 4/5
      A classic Graham Greene- a tale of a whisky priest in Mexico at time when certain states had outlawed the church. Sharply observed descriptions of Mexico and poverty & quite engrossing tale.
    • 3/5
      "The wall of the burial-ground had fallen in: one or two crosses had been smashed by enthusiasts: an angel had lost one of its stone wings, and what gravestones were left undamaged leant at an acute angle in the long marshy grass. One image of the Mother of God had lost ears and arms and stood like a pagan Venus over the grave of some rich forgotten timber merchant. It was odd – this fury to deface, because, of course, you could never deface enough. If God had been like a toad, you could have rid the globe of toads, but when God was like yourself, it was no good being content with stone figures – you had to kill yourself among the graves."

      It may have been the subject matter but this book was hard to follow and such a relief to finish.

      Saying that, it is not a book I would have abandoned.

      The Power and the Glory - as remote as it may have been to anything I can relate to - was strangely compelling because the story of a secular regime oppressing people by outlawing religion (or anything else that posed as an opposition) - seemed to reflect much of the time it was written in.

      And of course, I am glad to see that Greene has by this time (1940) moved on from writing insipid thrillers.

      (Review first posted on BookLikes.)
    • 5/5
      I loved this tale of a ravaged whiskey priest. I love Graham Greene. His approach to morality is one I can understand.
    • 4/5
      A lovely subtle novel, set in communist Mexico. A renegade priest eludes the law for years and the reader comes to understand the meaning of humility and holiness. Thought provoking!
    • 3/5
      Nicely done tale of a suitably frail individual.Read July 2006
    • 3/5
      A priest who enjoys the sacramental wine a bit too much and a gringo who has robbed an American bank are being sought by police in Mexico during the time communists were in charge and Catholicism was outlawed. The priest accepts money from people for services such as hearing confessions or performing baptisms, but his love of strong drink is what causes the biggest problems for him. Anyone caught hiding the priest could also receive harsh treatment from officials. While Greene's writing is strong, I didn't really identify with the characters although they were well-drawn. A strong sense of place is also present in the novel. I'm certain there are layers to the story that I did not pick up in my quick read of the novel.
    • 2/5
      This novel was originally published in 1940. It tells the story of life in Southern Mexico where the communists ruled and Catholic religion was banned. The priests fled the country and some were prosecuted and later assassinated. The story revolves round a priest who decides not to leave the country but gradually falls into bad habits. He starts drinking and is called the "Whiskey Priest ". He leads a life in hiding and Is constantly on the run. As time passes his own grip on the religious duties fades. He is finally captured and killed. This novel deals with the priest's struggle with the people prosecuting him as well his own struggle dealing with the gradual loss of faith and moral bindings. It would probably carry deeper meaning for a religious person but for me it was uninteresting. The pace is slow and the book goes nowhere. The language is beautiful. A 2.5/5 read.
    • 4/5
      Why did no one tell me that priests drink whiskey?
    • 5/5
      A great novel, wonderfully profound. I "read" it as an audio book, but there was so much to ponder here I believe I'll be taking up the written version to literally read it all over again.
    • 5/5
      The first person we meet in this book is Mr. Trench, a dentist who appears to have trapped himself in this small Mexican town. We learn how he wound up here and, more importantly, we learn, in a relatively short time, his motivations as well as the character flaws which have got him caught in this rut. We are not told; we are shown. He turns out to be a supporting actor in this play – maybe no more than a bit part. And yet, he is real, he breathes, he is alive – so much so that I would have liked to have learned more about him, seen him as a central character.Don't get me wrong; the fact that the novel does not revolve around Mr. Trench is not a problem. In fact, the book is full of these kinds of characters. At every turn there is someone equally interesting – real characters who grow in a real environment. And the result is a book which deserves its classic status.As noted, the book is set in Mexico in an area where the socialist have taken control. Among the many changes, they have outlawed religion – effectively making it a crime punishable by death. In practicality, the success of this shut down is mixed – the people have not completely bought in to the idea. However, priests have the choice of rescinding their vows or being shot.The main protagonist is Catholic priest on the run. He is unnamed, but often referred to as the "whiskey priest" because of how far he has fallen (including, obviously, alcoholism). All he wants is to live and to escape. However, his loyalty to his beliefs continues to draw him back in. That loyalty is best exemplified in the fact that one would think it would be quite easy for him to rescind his vows. However, no matter how far he has fallen he cannot do this. We follow him as he tries to escape and, through this journey, see his effect on other people (intended and unintended) and the effect on his own belief in himself. At its core, it is a book about how good exists within everyone, but that puts too trivial a homily on the complicated individuals contained herein.Graham Greene spent time in the area – using his experiences in the area as research for the book. And it is evident because there is nothing that draws you out of the moment. His descriptions feel accurate. He has put the reader in a world few of us ever have experienced, but recognize the moment he describes it.And, as noted the characters are real. Even the slightest of them refuse to be cut from cardboard, but are three-dimensional people who have motivations and lives we can glimpse. As I have indicated, any one of them is fleshed out sufficiently that you can see a separate novel being written about their lives.Ultimately, we believe in the character of the "whisky priest" and we believe the tale that is told. And, in the process, we have been told a very good story which has depth, heart, and (an aspect so often missing in books considered classics) readability.
    • 4/5
      I sound redundant when I keep saying this is one of my favorite books by Graham Greene...but it is. It is a great adventure story that takes place in Mexico. Graham Greene has a level of brilliance about his writing. I cannot be disappointed by any of his books.