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Article: Gangreene.(The Life of Graham Greene, Volume Three: 1955-1991)(Book Review)
- Article from:
- New Criterion
- Article date:
- March 1, 2005
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2005 Foundation for Cultural Review. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Norman Sherry The Life of Graham Greene, Volume Three: 1955-1991. Viking, 906 pages, $39.95
Graham Greene, as Eliot wrote of Baudelake, had "a true form of acedia, arising from the unsuccessful struggle towards the spiritual life." Damnation, for him, was "an immediate form of salvation" from the ennui of modern existence. Like Baudelaire, "he could not escape suffering and could not transcend it, so he attracted pain to himself."
Greene frequented opium dens in Indochina and whorehouses around the world. His life was punctuated by suicide attempts, multiple mistresses, and emotional crises. His art was the poetry of departure, the fiction of flight, ...