No.12. 'Brighton Rock' by Graham Greene (Penguin: Viking, 2004)
After a brief affair with new Ian McEwan, 'Solar' (I'll come back to this one at a later date I think!) I've turned my attentions to something a little more classic yet again (oops!) - my first Graham Greene.
This took me an embarrassingly long time to read but it was fabulous! Set in seedy 30's Brighton Fred Hale is the vulnerable centrepiece of a newspaper competition, in which he must distribute cards across the seaside hotspots, awaiting recognition from a member of the public. However, Fred's mission is thwarted by the threatening presence of a teenage gang member 'Pinkie' - the novel's antihero, who is after Hale's blood.
Two women become embroiled in this tangled plot of gang rivalry, Ida Arnold a kind-hearted woman who turns detective in a bid for justice and Rose an impressionable waitress who harbours the power but not the will to see Pinkie's gang meet their maker.
I loved the characters in this novel, particularly Pinkie and his manner of predicting and then trying to control the actions of the others. This is a real classic, thrilling and thoughtful.
Started: April 9th Finished: April 24th
After a brief affair with new Ian McEwan, 'Solar' (I'll come back to this one at a later date I think!) I've turned my attentions to something a little more classic yet again (oops!) - my first Graham Greene.
This took me an embarrassingly long time to read but it was fabulous! Set in seedy 30's Brighton Fred Hale is the vulnerable centrepiece of a newspaper competition, in which he must distribute cards across the seaside hotspots, awaiting recognition from a member of the public. However, Fred's mission is thwarted by the threatening presence of a teenage gang member 'Pinkie' - the novel's antihero, who is after Hale's blood.
Two women become embroiled in this tangled plot of gang rivalry, Ida Arnold a kind-hearted woman who turns detective in a bid for justice and Rose an impressionable waitress who harbours the power but not the will to see Pinkie's gang meet their maker.
I loved the characters in this novel, particularly Pinkie and his manner of predicting and then trying to control the actions of the others. This is a real classic, thrilling and thoughtful.
Started: April 9th Finished: April 24th
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