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#16 | |
cacoethes scribendi
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As per my previous post: How autobiographical is this? And as per my previous paragraph, if everything was deliberate then I'd say there is little reason to think that the events of Greene's life did anything except provide convenient pieces to slot in. Why Parkis and his boy? It seems so strange that this investigator should have a child he is training up for the profession, or that Greene should think to include it. I still have no idea what purpose the boy serves. Parkis himself is a separate question to the boy. I'm inclined to think this Hydra (as Victoria so aptly put it) sticks his head up everywhere to help tie parts together - since it may otherwise have been harder to follow. But did he serve any larger purpose in his role as observer of Sarah? |
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#17 | |||
cacoethes scribendi
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#18 |
E-reader Enthusiast
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Here are some articles that discuss the autobiographical details of the affair with Catherine based on his letters to her and other writings in his archives.
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-...eart-64876424/ https://www.theguardian.com/books/20...n.grahamgreene |
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#19 |
Snoozing in the sun
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Thanks Bookworm-Girl.
gmw, you asked earlier what Parkis was there for. He was needed to get hold of the diary. Curious that we have read two very different books one after the other about abusive relationships, and with important information being gained from the woman’s diary. |
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#20 | ||
o saeclum infacetum
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I don't think we were meant to despise Maurice; he was doing just fine on that front himself (as of course he was Greene's own doppelganger and Greene was working out some of his own issues). But my takeaway is that Maurice is a person in a process, on a path, and that while he started and ended the story somewhat arbitrarily as he himself said, using the timeline of the affair itself to define it, his own story is not done. Who can but believe that Maurice will be a reluctant convert himself? I agree with Bookpossum on liking the book and finding Greene's prose marvelous. |
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#21 | ||
o saeclum infacetum
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#22 |
o saeclum infacetum
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I don't think I'd characterize this as an abusive relationship, that is, no more abusive than any relationship which is ending unhappily and where one person is behaving badly. For all Maurice talks about hate, Sarah sees it as love and I think her reading is the correct one, and not that of an abused person who excuses and rationalizes her treatment.
As I said, I liked this very much; I enjoyed Greene's meanderings, the timeshifts, Maurice's exploration of Sarah and their relationship. However, I thought the miracles were overwrought. Not the first one, if a miracle is was, where Maurice lived when Sarah thought him dead, but the cures she effected after she died. They seemed clunky to me; I'd have preferred events that were more nebulous, more along the spectrum toward sheer coincidence or randomness. These were too explicit, especially Sarah's having kissed Richard on his damaged cheek and the presence of relics in the case of both cures. |
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#23 |
Wizard
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Thanks Bookworm_Girl. It’s very interesting to hear more aboutGreene himself. There were certainly a lot of parallels with the major themes of the book.
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#24 | |
Wizard
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In the same way, he equates sex with love - as though that’s all love is. Maurice didn’t love Sarah; he wanted to possess her. No tenderness, no attentiveness. He didn’t even notice that she was ill. To me, there was very little heartfelt depth in the book. And perhaps you’re right - that’s exactly what Greene wanted to portray. If so what was the point of the book - lives of quiet desperation? Last edited by Victoria; 12-16-2019 at 05:29 PM. |
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#25 |
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I'm on jury duty this week. So far, it's a toss-up as to what's more boring: sitting around all day in a freezing jury room, or reading the book.
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#26 |
Wizard
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I’m sorry you’re cold, but it’s a bit surprising to hear jury duty is boring. I’ve always wiggled out of it, for fear it would go too far in the other direction.
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#27 | |||||
cacoethes scribendi
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And I have trouble with the idea that the prose as marvellous. So much of this read like teenage self-obsessive angst to me - but angst I was being told about, I never actually felt it. Bendrix says again and again how he hates Sarah, but we never feel hate. That, I acknowledge, is probably intentional, but I don't feel love at all either. No, I feel Bendrix is disconnected from Sarah, she is an idea in his mind, not a person. And much the same with Sarah. I kept feeling as if I was being merely told she loved Bendrix, and perhaps loved God, but I never felt that love. Indeed, it seemed very much to me like Sarah was in sway to an abusive relationship, not love but something meekly submissive: Quote:
The only person in this story that seemed (to me) to show any genuine affection (as opposed to us being simply told that it was supposed to exist) was Henry for Sarah. He even showed considerable care for Bendrix. I am sure Greene meant something by this, but it's not obvious to me what that was. Quote:
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#28 |
Grand Sorcerer
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The waiting around doing nothing is what's boring, boring, boring. Five hours of waiting before we were even called for a voir dire, which continues tomorrow.
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#29 | |
cacoethes scribendi
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#30 | |
Wizard
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Speaking of what Greene intended, what was the point of having Sarah’s mother ‘touch’ everyone for money, when it turns out she had enough of her own? It seemed odd, and wasn’t necessary to the story of Sarah’s young Catholic christening. |
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