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GARY HIBBS

Interesting story but the Kindle edition is flawed with spelling mistakes

Avaliado no Reino Unido em 27 de maio de 2022

The Kindle edition consistently replaces the name Charlot with Chariot, which is at first confusing then annoying. Must be some optical character recognition problem, presumably in the scanning stage of image to text with ebooks.

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Ethan Cooper

Truly Exciting Reading

Avaliado nos Estados Unidos em 26 de dezembro de 2007

Graham Greene is one of my favorite writers. In such novels as THE HEART OF THE MATTER, OUR MAN IN HAVANA, THE HUMAN FACTOR, THE HONORARY COUNSUL and THE POWER AND THE GLORY, he presents ordinary men whose lives unexpectedly acquire a profound moral dimension or political significance. While questionable motivation--that is, naïveté, loneliness, or self-hatred--often impels his characters to act, Greene's plots also force the unforgettable Henry Scobie, Jim Wormold, Maurice Castle, Dr. Plarr, and the whiskey priest to make a choice. Then, they are on paths without return and with, at best, ironic reward.

In THE TENTH MAN, Greene gives us Jean-Louis Chavel, a lawyer in a Gestapo prison who, according to my dust jacket, "offers his fortune and house to anyone who will take his place before a firing squad." Then Greene follows "this survivor on his postwar return to the home he has surrendered."

As is usual with Greene's novels, there are several memorable and fully achieved characters--in this case, Chavel, Carosse, and Therese Mangeot--who bump against the limits of their principles or the shallowness of their illusions. As usual, the story is told in a spare style and has layers of conflict and believable emotion, which Greene explores to reveal amazing connections and parallels between dissimilar characters.

As the book jacket says: Watch Chavel..."discover the humanity and courage that [earlier] failed him." Highly recommended!

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Poet And Priest

Lost for 40 years ... (and the book is better than the film)

Avaliado nos Estados Unidos em 12 de março de 2013

Greene wrote a treatment of this work in the 1940s for a filmed version, then (if I recall) fleshed it out further. For the next four + decades it sat in someone's desk, and then perhaps in a vault. In any event, it was forgotten.

Then MGM, which owned the work from way back in the day, went forward with the project. Greene later turned it into a book — this one.

It's about a man, as Greene's books usually are, and what he does (and doesn't do) to live up or down to that status, that of a man. In this case, the man makes a Devil's bargain — with himself and one other — and must live with the consequences. It feels a little forced at the end but the rest of it is still Graham Greene. Hence 4 stars.

The filmed version was made for British TV, and the production quality shows. But the acting — Anthony Hopkins, Kirsten Scott Thomas, Derek Jacobi (along with one fellow you'll recognize from Downtown Abbey) — is first-rate, and partially rescues the movie.

Whether or not the man will be rescued, well, you'll have to read it to find out.

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James R. Calder

A forgotten GEM for Greene fans

Avaliado nos Estados Unidos em 20 de maio de 2021

A thrilling story with 3 characters caught in a simple "plot" that bursts with complexity and twists as only Greene could devise. Herein, Greene examines the high cost of salvation, the uselessness of worldly things and how a soul that is "lost" may be found again. Greene sets a fast, frightening pace with his usual taut writing as a man, in post war2 France, copes with his compromised identity. Not to be missed.

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