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In Search of a Character: Two African Journals

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It is difficult to know exactly why these two journals were published. Greene did not intend them to be. They arose out of visits to Africa, and are connected with the writing of two of his most well- known novels, 'A Burnt out Case', and 'The Heart of the Matter'. They contain notes of the kind the writer makes for himself in preparing a work, small observations, little incidents from his experience. I imagine that if one is a fan of Greene's sensibility these journals might be more interesting than I found them to be. I searched for thoughts that would provide a certain inspiration, and was left wanting. But there are nonetheless many interesting if not always pleasant observations.

Here are a few samples from the work:

"The book moves a little. Opening: the doctor and the burnt- out cases : a bitter discontented man, tired of the raillery of the priests, unable to do what he wants to do: a hard smoker of cheap cherotts.This is the opening.Question, to turn to the boat and X in passage down the river or to carry straight on to his arrival? I incline to the first."

One searches the forest for a sign of life, other than butterflies , rather as one serached when a child those puzzle- drawings in which a human face was concealed.

Hinduism is a tropical religion : a reaction from indiscrimate slaughter , which only happens in the tropics. For every insect one kills in Europe , one must kill a hundred at least in tropical countries. One kills without thinking - a smear on one's napkin or on the pages of one's book.