DSL September Read: John's Pick
The Power and The Glory by Graham Greene
Just a little pre-read information:
Graham Greene was commissioned by The Vatican to write an account of The Mexican Revolution in the 1930's. He traveled there, through the states where the greatest fighting had and was occuring, and wrote The Lawless Roads. The Power and The Glory is his fictional account of this period in Mexican history (it's much more than historical fiction, though, I promise). The Lawless Roads was well received by The Vatican. The Power and The Glory, however, was not. It was placed on The Vatican's Index Librorum Prohibitorum in 1953. Later in his life when he met Pope Paul VI he told Greene to "forget about those troubles" and that he himself had been immensely effected by the book.
A note on reading it: It takes at least thirty pages to get into. What you think is going to be the plot line is not. Give it a little time. That's why I'm posting it early (also because Lori, Evie and I are going to the beach until the end of August, so I can't post from Alabama). It's the best book I've read in many years. Faulkner, after all, said Greene was one of the only living writers he felt influenced by. It's worth it, I promise.
(find in a library)
posted by Johprah™ @ 9:40 AM
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