Graham Greene's stature as a literary figure

Graham Greene's strength as a novelist derives in large part from his interest in and affinity for films; many scenes in The Heart of the Matter are cinematic - especially the scenes of death and disaster (the arrival of the survivors of the sinking of the Pende, the investigation of Pemberton's suicide, the death of Ali on the wharf) and his use of dialog is crisp and witty (the dinner party discussion of suicide, all of Scobie's meetings w/ Yusef) - but I'd have to say his writing is weakest when he loses that mooring and tries to convey the interior torment of his characters, especially Scobie toward the end of the novel, as he tries to figure out how to make the write moral and spiritual decision: fidelity to his wife, loyalty to his newfound (and extremely vulnerable) love, religious faith, in particular the Catholic condemnation of despair in general and suicide in particular. I won't give anything away, but will say that Scobie's thinking goes on forever and it would have been better to dramatize rather than exorcise his interior monologue. A lot hinges on our willingness to accept his relationship w/ the much younger Helen; he says he's in love with her and completely committed to her. Is that really so? We have to suspect that it's an affair of passion - and also that he's taking advantage of a much younger person at her most vulnerable (widowed after one month of marriage, still recovering from the shock of 30 days at sea in an open boat). What can she really see in him - other than a rescuer? What do they possibly have in common other than physical attraction? And of course that's a powerful force, especially in Scobie's life, as his marriage to Louise seems to be a dry husk (she leaves him for six months or so and he doesn't for a moment seem to miss her). All that said - Heart of the Matter is still a pretty fine novel, full of great writing, powerful scenes, wit, allusion, and a lot of ideas. GG still seems to be an under-rated novel, too easily dismissed because of his prolific nature and his interest in "entertainments" (as opposed to literary ficction); the best of his work measures up well against Conrad and Naipaul - but it seems that GG was a few decades behind his rightful time and therefore not easy to classify, too easy to overlook. 


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