Two African Journals

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29850, 16 June 1962, Page 3

Two African Journals

In Search of a Character: Two African Journals. By Graham Greene. 123 pp.

Mr Greene’s most recent novel, “A Burnt Out Case,” was not very favourably received. Most readers apparently expected greater things, although some were prepared to agree that if “A Burnt Out Case” had been a first novel or by anyone else they would have admired it more. The adverse reception of the novel makes it hard to understand why Mr Greene has published “In Search of a Character.” “Never,” he explains, “had a novel proved more recalcitrant or more depressing. The reader had only to endure the company of the character called in the journal X and in the novel Querry for a few hours’ reading, but the author had sto live with him and in him for 18 months. As one grows qldef the writing of a novel ddes not become more easy, and it seemed to me when I wrote the last words that I had reached an age when another full-length novel was probably beyond my powers." This journal gives, in a desultory fashion, some record of the author's movements in the Congo in search of local colour. Perhaps it was the climate, but the entries leave the reader with an impression of fretfulness and lowered vitality. The last few pages of the book contain the jottings made by Mr Greene when, some 20 years ago, he sailed in a war-time convoy to West Africa. At that time he was in quest of material for "The Heart of the Matter ” Presumably Gide began this, sort of thing with his “Journal of the Counterfeiters,” But then “The Counterfeiters” is one of the most remarkable novels of the century No such claim could be made for “A Burnt Out Case."