The Heart of the Matter - Graham Greene

"We'd forgive most things if we knew the facts."

I picked this book up for a little bit of light reading. It was on the bookshelf in my living room, and is the favourite book of my friend’s mother.

 

Published in 1948, The Heart of the Matter tells the tale of long serving police officer Henry Scobie, who is

working in a British colony on the West Coast of Africa during World War II. Scobie is a respected professional. He is equally liked by the black and white communities living in the area, and has built up a reputation as a fair and just individual.

Scobie is married to Louise, a woman who tries desperately to fit in but cannot seem to make a single friend. Louise hates her life in Africa. She knows she makes Scobie miserable and begs him to find the means to send her away. Scobie believes that he loves Louise, and that his own misery only exists because she is upset. He vows to do everything he can to make her happy, even if that involves borrowing money off a Syrian diamond smuggler.

Louise’s departing coincides magically with the arrival of young Helen Rolt, a woman who, like his wife, needs protection and craves his love. Far from finding himself happy, Scobie is suddenly tempted and in turmoil. A strict, Catholic man, he believes whole-heartedly in the threat of damnation, but cannot resist the urge to sin.

The Heart of the Matter is an old English love story set on exotic shores. The characters are stereotypical of the time, but the story is not a happy one. It contradicts all romantic belief that affairs are exciting. Scobie’s wife is thousands of miles away, but his guilt is as strong as if she were still living with him in their house. This story explores the ugliest side of the most complicated aspect of any human’s life: Love.

Don’t read this book if you aren’t willing to concentrate, but if you are it’s a great bedtime story about a likeable old Englishman loving with a heart he didn’t think he had.