29 January 2009

Book Banter -- Brighton Rock

Title: Brighton Rock
Author: Graham Greene
Length: 247 pages
Genre: literary fiction
Plot Basics: Newspaper contest man, Hale, is murdered in the seaside resort town of Brighton. The crime does not go unnoticed and Ida Arnold, who only met Hale briefly, takes it upon herself to find justice. Her quest runs into Pinkie, the juvenile leader of a local gang/mob, who is determined to get away with him crime. Pinkie's single-mindedness runs afoul of his mob and one crime leads to another...
Banter Points: Word Nerd LOVED this book in college when she had to read it in "Valuing through Literature" class. In fact, this book turned her on to all of Graham Greene and she's read most of his famous works since then. This is the first one, though, that she's gone back and reread. She didn't like it as much the second time through -- maybe because she knew one of the big twists. It was still good, and a remarkable piece of writing.
Bummer Points: This book felt less accessible than the first time Word Nerd read it. Of course, the first time was right after being forced to read Tess of the D'Urbervilles and ANYTHING can be more accessible than that, in Word Nerd's opinion.
Word Nerd Recommendation: If you want to tackle Greene, this isn't a bad place to start, but not necessarily his best.

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