GRAHAM GREENE: EITHER - OR

Graham Greene is, in one sense, unique: he is a popular Catholic novelist and playwright who writes in English. Chesterton and Belloc had a limited appeal and neither of them was a novelist. Maurice Baring's long shadow has become a shade; and Compton MacKenzie (past) and Evelyn Waugh (present) seem to do better when not directly concerned with Catholic matters. Bruce Marshal made a stir with Father Malachy's Miracle and followed it up with other successes, but he is, after all, a lightweight and has never enjoyed Greene's international reputation. One remembers — just — The Keys of the Kingdom and that Gregory Peck did his best in the film of that name; and one recalls — with a shudder Robinson's more recent success with The Cardinal which "rocked America from coast to coast." But Graham Greene has nothing in common with these things. To what, then, attribute his success ?