Interestingly, It is also quite ungrudgingly accepted that Greene’s moral indistinctness serves us better now than George Orwell's transparency, albeit modern reviewers of his works suggest that Greene can be regarded as our greatest novelist, during his time, the master of ingenuity and excitement — a writer whose ambivalent moral equations and compromised characters invaded the consciousness of two generations of readers. This, in spite of our ever-changing world having moved on to another century and other manners of thought and belief.

A Virtuoso In His Own “Write”

Graham Greene was a writer like no other. His reminiscences were anecdote-free. He talked of smells and sights — of human distress and inquiries of trust. Few writers, today, deal in grey shades, or hues.

A great admirer of Somerset Maugham, Greene did not magnify sarcasm and spoof; nor did he amplify motives. In today’s world, publicity-stunts and the bizarre grab attention, yes. Not down-to-earth, mesmeric story-telling ability, which was Greene’s hallmark. Yet, it’s going to come back — sooner than later.

Observes Haresh Pandya, an academic, writer, and avid Greene reader: “What gave Greene’s landscape a highly distinctive quality and, above all, a deep understanding of the human mind was his brilliant narrative — a technique marked by a lucid style and choice of ‘spotted’ locations. It’s a characteristic that also distinguishes him from many other eminent novelists and short-story writers — both past and present.”

Adds Pandya: “Few can, in fact, match Greene when it comes to exploration of emotions — like guilt, frustration and self-pity. Greene’s preoccupation with moral dilemmas (personal, political, and religious), may have had something to do with his own sense of Catholicism — one that counteracts the misery in his novels (by implications of spiritual dignity, and even nirvana), in the face of suffering and/or distress.”

Says Lakshmi Subramaniam, a long-time Greene fan: “I find Greene quite easy-to-read. What I find most appealing in his novels is the way he engages us in everyday details; simple details that make us feel just like human beings. Greene also does not bother his readers and others with complex data, or ‘records.’ He reports like the good old newspaper writer (so, it is ‘trouble-free’ for almost all of us to relate to him). This is something that is missing… in our newspapers, or magazines, and also in books and writers, today.”