The Human Imperative: A Study of the Novels of Graham Greene by Stephen K. Land

Abstract

542 Reviews The Human Imperative: A Study of theNovels ofGraham Greene. By Stephen K. Land. New York: AMS Press. 2008. xii+286 pp. ?78.95. ISBN 978-0-404 61595-6. There is an old joke, Stephen K. Land notes, thatwhereas Beethoven wrote nine symphonies, Bruckner wrote the same symphony nine times.Describing this charge as 'ratherglib' (p. 5), Land nevertheless concedes that something similar could be said of the twenty-plus novels by Graham Greene examined in The Human Im perative. Indeed, Land's study is based on the premiss that 'Greene's major fiction can usefully be considered as a corpus, a body ofwriting united by a complex of interrelatedmotifs' and that by examining thesemotifs the 'underlying conceptual form or structure ofGreene's fiction' can be established (p. 1). This is a considerable body of work to grapple with, produced over the six decades that divide Greene's firstpublished novel (1929's TheMan Within) from his last (1988's The Captain and theEnemy). Land therefore understandably ex cludes from discussion Greene's plays, poems, children's stories, travel writing, and almost all the short stories. He also avoids biographical contextualization of the novels, directing interested readers toNorman Sherry's three-volume Life of Graham Greene (London: Cape, 1989-2004). Land divides themajor fiction into three broadly chronological stages. The 'early' stage covers Greene's thrillers or 'entertainments'. The 'middle' stage centres on Brighton Rock (1938), The Power and theGlory (1940), and TheHeart of the Matter (1948). The Tate' stage commences with The End of theAffair (1951). Land suggests that these divisions reflect particularly close structural and thematic similarities between the novels of each stage. Almost all Greene's novels, Land argues, are primarily structured around the relationship between the hero and an antagonist (often charming but ambiguous), complicated by the presence of heroines (sub divided into 'strong' and 'weak' figures), detectives, and (less frequently) outright villains. Land's thesis is that the relationships between these archetypal figures follow different patterns at each stage of Greene's writing career. In order to demonstrate this, The Human Imperative examines each character type in turn, with a further chapter devoted to exploring 'Greeneland' (the novels' various set tings). In each chapter Land constructs a typology of recurring figures, cumulatively building amodel of theway these types structure Green's fiction. Although this approach may sound unhelpfully schematic, Land deals gener ously with characters and novels thatdo not fithis patterns. The End of theAffair in particular repeatedly refuses to play along, but nevertheless receives attentive dis cussion. While Land carefully and productively locates each novel within Greene's corpus, however, his interest in other kinds of context is limited. Land generally ignores questions of style, refuses to engage with theological questions, and tends to avoid the specific political and historical backgrounds of the individual novels. To be fair, in his preface he announces that this is 'not an academic thesis' but is aimed at 'the student of themodern novel' and 'the reader ofGreene who wishes to bring his appreciation of the novels into a single perspective' (p. ix). The second of MLR, 105.2, 2010 543 these readerships inparticular will be handsomely served by this book. The reader familiar with Greene's work will be encouraged to reread the novels in the light of Land's fresh and forthright interpretations,while thenewcomer will be encouraged to explore further. To return to the comparison with which we opened, Land suggests thatBruckner pursues and develops a single formal ideal which receives evermore powerful and individualistic statement in his successive symphonic works' (p. 5). The achieve ment of Land's study is tomount an exhaustively argued and ultimately persuasive demonstration thatGreene's novels do the same. For Land, the central message of Greene's fiction is thatwhile thehuman situation is irreducibly complex, individual moral action remains imperative. London Paul Vlitos Collected Critical Writings. By Geoffrey Hill. Ed. by Kenneth Haynes. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 2008. x+815 pp. ?25. ISBN 978-0-19-920847-0. Geoffrey Hill is the author of a dozen books of poetry in addition to several books of critical essays and lectures produced during his long and illustrious academic career at the...