24 in ’24 Challenge – Book 18 “The Heart of the Matter” by Graham Greene

I have been reading through the novels of Graham Greene over the past few years with one of them being read as part of last year’s summer challenge (see here for a review). The Heart of the Matter was sent to me as part of my bookish Advent calendar (see here for my post when it arrived) and I was delighted to see it as it was a book that I had not read. I am even more delighted to have received it now because it is without doubt one of the best books I have ever read – Graham Greene writing with real power and possibly even better than The Power and the Glory which I also thought was brilliant (see my review here).

The story concerns Henry Scobie who is a Deputy Commissioner of police in a nameless, underdeveloped country in West Africa during World War II. For fifteen years he remains scrupulously honest and incorruptible despite ample opportunity for self-enrichment and the example of many others in positions of power who do succumb. Notwithstanding many entreaties from Yusef, an unscrupulous Syrian merchant, Scobie keeps himself clean and is admired for this by the community.

He feels trapped in a loveless marriage to Louise, an unattractive woman, who causes him nothing but anguish and who is unpopular in the colony. His Catholicism does not permit him to consider divorce and he suffers feelings of guilt about being in some way responsible for her unhappiness. Louise’s continual moaning about her situation and the feeling of pity that this evokes in Scobie leads him down the path towards self-destruction because, to make life easier for her, Scobie compromises his principles and takes a loan from Yusef to send Louise to South Africa. In Louise’s absence, Scobie falls in love and starts on a downward spiral to lies, betrayal and what he is sure is eternal damnation for his sins.

Scobie is a complex character who cannot see a way out of his predicament. He feels that he cannot leave Louise because he has a duty to her as her husband but he cannot desert his new love because that would also be a betrayal. All he wants is peace and quiet but he cannot stop his fears overcoming him and cannot seek absolution in confession because he does not intend to cease sinning. Scobie is a good Catholic who is bitterly tormented by the enormity of his sins. He feels that he has failed the women he loves, himself and even God.

I found this book absolutely gripping as the author shares with us Scobie’s state of mind and his dilemma. His solution, such as it is, is to sacrifice himself and deny himself the eternal peace he so desires but in the end neither of the women for whom he takes this action has any sense of the magnitude of what he has done or what he believes that it has cost him.