My Life To Ruin My Own Way

Brighton Rock by Graham Greene

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

No wonder Morrissey loves this novel and quotes from it in many songs: it's pure English misery from cover to cover, with no redemption or ray of light. Brighton is the setting and just like the doomed seaside town in "Everyday Is Like Sunday"; the young teenage couple at its centre are like the loved and lost in "Unhappy Birthday"; and the gang of small time crooks - Dallow, Spicer, Pinky and Cubitt - are the rain-coated puny brothers in "Now My Heart is Full".

The novel is full of atmosphere and brilliant writing. You have to read it slowly to appreciate Greene's use of punctuation and the images he conjures in castway sentences. I loved the ray of light landing on a Woolworth's ring, and the Boots store not too far from the empty pier where drunks go at night to feel sentimental. I loved the various dark basements and the characters stuck in them: the mole-like wife of a corrupt lawyer, the blind dressmaker cuckold by his wife and a tenant, the cold stove never lit because breakfast is often beer and a purchased sausage roll.

The small-time gang get embroiled in the murder of a journalist which slowly spirals out of their control, especially when a busty lady called Ida decides to make it her mission to figure out the truth. Ida loves life and won't mind a quick shag with any man before her pint of Guinness while Pinky, the leader of the gang, is all virginal, Catholic guilt (a prototype to Morrissey's asexuality?) Caught in the middle is Rose, a mousy-haired waitress who knows too much about the journalist's death. You just know from the beginning that it's not going to end well.

Published in the late 30s, it captures an England that no longer exists and that is worth visiting. I haven't seen the two films based on it but I hear the one from the 40s is very good.

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