The Heart of the Matter by Graham Greene
Greene grapples with hypocrisy in English society in The Heart of the Matter (1948), but his most contradictory, dynamic character is the setting of Sierra Leone itself. With great tactility and sensuality, Greene depicts the coastal colony as a sweltering tropical land which his European characters exploit but ultimately cannot conquer due to the moral decay and hypocrisy inherent to their own culture, as embodied in the plight of the noble but misguided police captain, Scobie. Unfortunately, when Greene shifts the focus from the sexy collision between English gentility and the volatile environment to a scarcely believable and rushed third-act love story, the book loses power.
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