Brighton Rock

Name: Brighton Rock
Author: Graham Greene

Graham Greene

— 1938 —

“

Pinkie Brown, teenage gang leader and Catholic, kills and schemes in Brighton's seedy underworld while a naive woman falls for him.

The record

Time
An eveningA season
361 pages, about 7 hours: about the length of a typical book on the shelf.
Getting in
Walk right inSteep climb
Two readers report losing track of the gang and its aliases in the opening chapters.
What it gives
Plot and actionIdeas to live by
In 12 reviews from critics and book blogs, 5 credit the plot and 8 credit the ideas or a change in how they live.
One of a kind
Others do thisNothing else does
No reviewer names another book that does what this one does.

on the title
“the title, Brighton Rock, is a metaphor for original sin”
five stars · a Substack review
on the pace
“the pace, right up to the thrilling climax, is just perfect.”
five stars · a book blog
on Ida Arnold
“Ida stole the show for me and every chapter with her in was guaranteed”
a book blog
on the Catholic theme
“Brighton Rock that pointed me toward joining the Roman Catholic Church”
Jon M. Sweeney · America Magazine, 2024

on the style
“I don’t particularly enjoy Greene’s style of writing”
a book blog
on Pinkie Brown
“Pinkie is a character I’d like to forget as soon as possible!”
four stars · a book blog
on the length
“For this type of thing, overlong and occasionally repetitive, with some unconvincing elements.”
Kirkus Reviews, 1938
on the tone
“reading it through a layer of ice”
three stars · a book blog