."Before Hale had been in Brighton three hours, he knew they were going to kill him." (p.1)
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At seventeen, Pinkie Brown, so named for his immensely pale complexion, is an up-and-coming gangster in the underworld of 1930's Brighton (UK). Though his slight build and unimposing visage would lend few to consider him a dangerous criminal, that is exactly what he is. Able to influence the actions of men much older than he himself and never thinking of backing down, Pinkie is a veritable sociopath, pathologically programmed to feel nothing but willful aggression, contempt, greed and disgust towards everyone. Currently, having just killed a middle-aged man in broad daylight after finding him out as traitor, Pinkie covers his tracks by feigning attraction for the one witness to his heinous crime, the delicate waitress Rose. As he steadily begins to gain influence, Pinkie puts in motion his plan to take over the city's organized crime outfit on a permanent basis.
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But Brighton isn't all it seems. Amid the exuberant facade of bright lights and tawdry amusements, the seaside resort town, primarily seen as destination for weekenders and low-level retirees, appears a non-threatening locale. Yet beneath the veneer of leisure, celebration and showy attractions, the criminal element has long permeated the atmosphere, subversively coordinating the vices of gambling and prostitution for years, adding a more sordid form of enterprise to Brighton's thriving resort-town ways. If Pinkie is to succeed in his endeavors, he must take down the top dogs who've long been on the scene, operating in the shadows for as long as he's been alive.
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Greene is a wonder, truly a master of characterization and one of the world's most unacclaimed treasures. This book is a testament to his unmatched skill. Nowhere in the fiction of the twentieth century is such depth of conscience given a voice and seldom has such an attribute of the human condition been seen through a character like Pinkie--a violent criminal convinced of the power of his own actions yet strangely heedful to the doctrine of atonement and eternal damnation. The book's prose, its stream of conscious (and conscience), the tenuous ties between criminals, the rule of law which sets honour among thieves vs. true and unconditional love are all carefully woven into the tapestry of this gem of literature. It's not hard to see why Greene is compared to the likes of Dostoyevsky, Goethe, Milton and Hesse, with his deft adherence to the nature of evil and the threadbare influence of love juxtaposed to it, a true scribe of his times.
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Greene is a wonder, truly a master of characterization and one of the world's most unacclaimed treasures. This book is a testament to his unmatched skill. Nowhere in the fiction of the twentieth century is such depth of conscience given a voice and seldom has such an attribute of the human condition been seen through a character like Pinkie--a violent criminal convinced of the power of his own actions yet strangely heedful to the doctrine of atonement and eternal damnation. The book's prose, its stream of conscious (and conscience), the tenuous ties between criminals, the rule of law which sets honour among thieves vs. true and unconditional love are all carefully woven into the tapestry of this gem of literature. It's not hard to see why Greene is compared to the likes of Dostoyevsky, Goethe, Milton and Hesse, with his deft adherence to the nature of evil and the threadbare influence of love juxtaposed to it, a true scribe of his times.
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