After having watched a good film adaptation of this novel several weeks ago, I had high hopes for the actual book. In places it lived up to those, but overall, just not so much.

Knowing where Greene was going with the story made me impatient with the long buildup and non-linear format of the first part of the story. After that it smoothed out and was extremely enjoyable (if you like the rather relaxed and proper pace of British literature). But in the end it devolved into the main character’s battle over faith in God, with Sarah simply being a catalyst to push Bendrix into the fight. It became tedious awfully fast.

There is some beautiful writing here, and for a good part of the book there is a very engaging story about love, betrayal, faith and redemption. The book isn’t very long, so I certainly don’t regret my time with it … but this is one of those very rare occasions where I preferred the movie over the novel.