Reading the World discussion

Set in a leper colony deep in the Congo, on the cusp of African decolonization, an atheist doctor from Europe and members of a Catholic religious order from Belgium cooperate in caring for society’s most rejected. Located in the remote, humid jungle far from the nearest town of Luc, Doctor Colin and the priests are happy to keep their leprosarium and patients out of the prying public eye. When a mysterious, withdrawn European man called Querry arrives by boat and asks for lodging, he’s welcomed but also met with some suspicion. Who in their right mind and with wholesome motives treats a leper colony like a holiday resort or a place to rest? Querry offers to assist in whatever way he can and he has a quiet, humble demeanour. Yet he fails to tell his hosts one rather important detail: he’s a famous architect with prestige and name recognition throughout Europe, having designed some of the continent’s most celebrated modern churches and cathedrals.

copied from https://christopheradam.ca/2024/02/20... as of 3/1/2025

Starting this tomorrow!

Finished this the next day but was holding off posting anything. I liked it. Slow to start, it is not a fast-paced action story. It is slow, thoughtful, and all about the characters. I liked the relationship - maybe even friendship - that Querry and the Doctor seemed to be building. 3.5 rounded to a 4.

I tend to have trouble with many of Graham Greene’s “Catholic” books although maybe all of his books are Catholic books. This one however is a slow meditation on vocation, whether it be a religious vocation or an artistic calling. Plus it contains many dialogues about the nature of faith and the nature of success. Querry, our main character, suffers from the mutilation of success. His success is no longer meaningful to himself but it pins him to a notoriety that he finds appalling. He has jettisoned everything that he once believed in and is just attempting to live a simple life. I really enjoyed the relationship between the doctor and Querry but otherwise most of the other main characters are “hollow men”: Ryker believes in his own worth and his own faith and neither is real. Parkinson is a bit of a clown who masquerades as a noteworthy journalist. The young wife is just a child looking for escape. The good fathers are an interesting collection of believers and semi believers who prefer to act rather than pray.
The plot is not much of anything. One realizes at the beginning of the book, as Querry heads up river, that somehow Querry will not escape. We just are not sure of what he is trying to escape from. Well worth the read, even if not one of my favorite of Greene’s