The Heart of the Matter – Book Clubs – Penguin Group

The Heart of the Matter – Graham Greene – Book Clubs – Penguin Group (USA). Here are some discussion questions. After reading the introduction, I’m questioning this novel a lot more. I had gotten so entralled with the prose, but now that I’m rereading it, I wonder about the characters and the plot.

Scobie knows his faith so well, all the theology and rules. Yet it doesn’t give him joy, which I find odd. Is that a British Catholic thing? He got no joy from breaking the rules either. Was it just his personality? Was Scobie so responsible, duty-bound and dried up that he was just going to operate on remote control? Was that a matter of living in an African colony?