The Heart of the Matter by Graham Greene

In human relations, kindness and lies are worth a thousand truths.

What a sad, sad book.  I went back and looked at the list of books I’ve read so far with our project and I could not find another one that made me feel so miserable. 

We meet and follow Scobie, a senior police officer in a West African posting during the early days of the Second World War.  There’s blackmail, intrigue, diamond smuggling, war and natural disaster.  And then there’s Scobie, who’s an honest, incorruptible cop.  Until the day he isn’t.

His wife, Louise, has held on with Scobie for years and years in this assignment where most people stay for 18 months and move on.  Earlier tragedy and current disappointment in their lives has turned their marriage into just another form of duty and obligation.  Scobie’s main source of despair seems to be his belief that Louise’s happiness depends entirely on him.  Perhaps it does.  He is careful to choose his words, time his entrances, count her drinks and try to control the world in a delicate balance for her.  No surprise, he fails, usually quite miserably.  She doesn’t let him forget any of his failures, personal or professional.  And now, with the war on, she can’t just jump on a boat and leave.  Despite this, Scobie remains faithful to his wife.  Until the day he doesn’t.

There’s Wilson, fresh from Britain.  Young and eager, Wilson is a junior clerk in government in country to perform a routine tour of duty and move on to another post.  Or is he an undercover agent out to rid the local police of corruption and stamp out the diamond smuggling?  His life is complicated enough but he’s keeping everything under control.  Until the day he meets Louise.

Throw in a dozen more well-rounded characters and you get a terribly British soap opera set on a colonial stage that explores love, loyalty and religion, specifically the Catholic faith.  The intrigue I expected from a Greene novel was there as well but sufficiently muted so as not to distract from the characters.  Greene writes equally well whether setting a scene, expanding detail or delivering dialogue.  He keeps track of the characters and each expresses his emotions (if not his intentions) clearly.  Much of the background he took from his work as an agent with MI6 in Sierra Leone during WWII.  Where he found the background to write about such melancholy and pity, I’m afraid to ask.

…but in human love there is never such a thing as victory: only a few minor tactical successes before the final defeat of death or indifference.

The Heart of the Matter is a great novel.  Just a sad, sad novel.

Next Week:  Ernie is on a roll.......Ulysses by James Joyce