The Heart of the Matter

I've been very slack in my reading while I've been in Europe. I think this is mostly due to the loss of my reading routine as it relates to public transportation (ie no metro). But I have been steadily getting through one of the books I brought with me which is Graham Greene's novel The Heart of the Matter. Graham Greene actually is one of my favourite authors. An absolute master of words, Greene weaves together the most beautiful lines of prose. His story lines are always extremely well-planned; there is a very steady flow to their development. He explains his characters so well that after only a few lines I feel like I know them inside and out.


My only problem with his novels is that they're kinda depressing. I dislike watching movies and reading books that will depress me so I tend to stay away from drama. I prefer to be entertained!


The Heart of the Matter in particular is a pretty depressive romp of a book. It is about a policeman in a West African colony who is broke and unhappy. He and his wife lost their only child a few years previous and the sting of this loss is ever present. The main character, Scobie, looks at his wife and sees only the damage he feels he has inflicted on her over the years. Mrs. Scobie is actually a more interesting character than her husband gives her credit. But mostly she is just a mother who has lost her child and whatever she was before has been blurred over permanently by the event. The plot itself is all about political intrigue and sexual tension. I'm halfway done now and I think I've been reading so slowly because I'm trying to put off the inevitable shit storm that's going to hit the main character.


I also started The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and I think I'm gonna really love it! I'll finish Greene first though.

Status update: Heart part 2 chapter 3; Huck Finn chapter 7. Continuing Monkey House ever so slowly. I need to ration my Vonnegut!

Welcome to the Monkey House

The only Vonnegut I brought with me on my Europe trip is a book of his short stories called "Welcome to the Monkey House". I'm trying to read it in spurts so I don't run out of Vonnegut too soon (groupie much??). So far the stories range from funny little anecdotal vignettes to full-on heart-racing craziness! One of them, entitled "All the King's Horses", I swear I was so engrossed that I couldn't look up from the page. My heart was beating as if I were right there in the scene!

Vonnegut even includes what he calls a "sickeningly slick love story" into the mix. There aren't really any love stories to be found in Vonnegut's novels that don't end in some kind of tragedy. This story, entitled "The Long Walk to Forever", while refreshingly sweet and simple and with a pretty happy ending, is completely Vonnegutesque. It's nice to see the different sides of this great author through these short stories, even though he swears he only wrote them in order to finance his novels.