Springcleaning Book 17 – “Brighton Rock” by Graham Greene

I have recently developed an interest in the novels of Graham Greene and have been buying up secondhand copies when I see them. As I am only intending to read them once and pass them on and because there are a lot of copies of his work available I have been able to buy them quite cheaply. Of course, having bought them, I then add them to my to-be-read pile and don’t get around to reading them ! This challenge is designed to help me clear away some of the books which I have collected in this way and Brighton Rock has been a great find and reminded me that there is some real treasure in those dusty piles.

I can’t say that I enjoyed reading this book because it’s a novel that kept me tense and anxious all the way through. You know that nothing good is going to happen, and that things will go from bad to worse but the author reveals the enormity of the tragedy slowly and racks the tension up with each event that happens – it is brilliantly written.

Pinky is a young thug who is involved in gang activity. He has been rescued from a rotten childhood by a criminal who has then been murdered by a rival gang. Pinky takes the leadership of the group and seeks to reinforce it by killing a key figure on the other side – this happens in the powerful opening of the book where the journalist is shadowed, realises that he is targeted for murder and is unable to do anything about it. One of Pinky’s associates makes a mistake which means that they might be caught and so Pinky becomes involved with Rose, a young, innocent and naive waitress who is a potential witness. As the book progresses Pinky’s associates fall out with him one by one and the other gang fails to be impressed by his threats. He becomes isolated with Rose, who has come from an appalling background, being the only person who remains true to him even though he despises her.

To contrast with the brutal and increasingly desperate Pinky and the seemingly doomed Rose is Ida. Ida is convinced that the death has been caused by Pinky and that Rose needs to be saved from him and she decides to take action because the police won’t listen to her. Ida is promiscuous, loud, vulgar and full of life. She is also formidable and determined, and she haunts Pinky driving him to more and more extreme actions.

The author creates his characters beautifully and you learn to despise Pinky, worry about Rose and adore Ida. The story is set in Brighton around the August Bank Holiday and the narrative of shady deals and brutal violence is contrasted well with the innocent holiday atmosphere of the town. I thought that that the last couple of paragraphs of the book were brilliant and truly reinforced the tragedy of the story where there is no redemption to reduce the impact of what has happened.

I am very glad that I read this book which was a powerful piece of writing. I will pass this book on to another charity shop so that someone else can read it and I will now move the other titles by this author which languish on my to-be-read pile nearer to the top.