Greene’s depiction of the Mexican pogrom of clerics and one man’s bid to stay alive is more sophisticated than a battle of good versus evil, as it is riddled with ambiguous personalities. The priest drinks excessively and doubts himself, but is at times compassionate and heroic. Likewise, the lieutenant who pursues him is cold and relentless, but his zeal is grounded in a desire to give Mexico’s children a world free of superstition, corruption and fear. Another priest has married to escape execution, while the chief of police regularly breaks the law by drinking spirits. There are no sinless characters in the novel. Instead, faith and violence give some sense of order to the lives of people worn down by poverty.

The cat-and-mouse plot allows the reader to sense the fear of the priest on each occasion that he is captured or placed in danger, especially through his preoccupation with pain rather than death. At times the priest is like a Christ figure wandering dishevelled and exhausted through the sweaty, claustrophobic tropics. He can be coolly fatalistic or implausibly generous, but his constant failings are a reminder of his mortality and the impossibility of his situation.

A poignant book, grounded in historical realism and religious doubt, that conveys one man’s plight to justify his faith in an unforgiving era.


A classic novel of the 20th century   June 23, 2005
 4 out of 4 found this review helpful

In this novel, Mr Greene portrays various characters in an unnamed southern province of Mexico at the time when the Red Shirts - a Communist party - have taken control. It is well known however that these events took place under Presiedent Calles, elected in 1924, and the infamous atheist Governor of Tabasco, Garrido Canabal.
The central figure of the novel is a nameless priest, a so-called "whisky priest" since this spirit was used during illegal Masses due to the lack of wine. Furthermore, the name attests for a drinking habit with most illegal priests in this tropical, crooked and anti-clerical part of Mexico. The story-line is a succession of harrowing scenes as the haunted priest tries to keep conducting his Masses but the most ironical and corrosive scene is the one in which he must watch a half-caste mestizo, a fiercely anti-clerical lieutenant and a corrupt chief of police drink up a bottle of wine he had bought with his last money for sacramental use.
Graham Greene's sympathy with the poor in spirit and the world's losers is obvious. The whisky priest's descent into illegality and darkness and his simultaneous ascent in martyrdom are spectacular because they so dominate the plot - all other characters have an insignificant importance except that of the lieutenant. The priest's existence seems particularly dogged and doomed not only because of the illegality of his clerical activities but also because he is an alcoholic and has an illegitimate daughter. But clearly the author distinguishes between man and function and this also applies to Father Jose, a debased priest compelled by the authorities and his own cowardice to marry - a figure of ridicule even to the children of the town.
Finally it is worth mentioning the author's brilliantly built and abrupt scenes and artfully lit images which have a cinematic touch of surreal reminiscent of pictures by Luis Bunuel.