The Power and the Glory by Graham Greene

Last month, I finished reading The Power and the Glory by Graham Greene, which I loved.

The story takes place in Mexico in the 1930s in a town where Catholic priests are being persecuted by anti-religious town officials. The priests are asked to give up preaching and giving confessions or risk losing their lives (the officials believe the priests are tainting the townspeople's minds with religious lies). One priest, however, continues to do his vocation and, in turn, is given a death verdict. Essentially, he has to run away from the town and hide from the town officials. There is an overzealous police lieutenant who will do anything (including murder innocent townspeople) to catch him.

The priest is a wonderful character. He is not what you would consider a "holy" person. He is an alcoholic (he drinks so much that he's called "whisky" priest) and has a child out-of-wedlock. He often questions his faith; he bristles at people who are too eager to show they have good faith; he is attracted to wayward people, lost souls. His spiritual beliefs, though complex, are true and pure. As he travels around the country, he is able to affect the various people he encounters with his words and actions.

The novel explores religion in a very interesting way and asks some tough questions. What does it mean to be a spiritual person or a so -called "good" person? Are religious people (i.e priests) quacks or do they have the potential to change people's lives? I might be making the novel sound more serious than it is. More than anything, it is an entertaining read, a real page turner. Greene was an avid moviegover, and his novels were greatly influenced by film. The Power and the Glory, in particular, reads like a first-rate thriller, a road movie and western all rolled into one. It's an enchanting book that also enlightened me.