*contains spoilers*

Another book that I enjoyed immensely was Graham Greene’s first published novel ‘The Man Within.’ Like Brighton Rock but unlike The Quiet American or unlike The Power and the Glory it is set in England where Graham Greene is from.

The story starts with Andrews on the run having betrayed his smuggling gang to the authorities and there having been a gunfight between the smugglers and the authorities. As Andrews was the one who tipped them off and then fled the gunfight the smuggling gang is sure to guess it was him who betrayed them. Carlyon (my favourite character) is a well spoken, intelligent and brilliant villain. His gang are vicious working class English however and the book ends unhappily.

Andrews himself takes shelter in the rural house of Elizabeth who convinces him to testify against his smuggling gang mates. Her influence is the voice of reason and morality in this story.

However Andrews is very young, impatient and brash. He is full of fear, lust and emotion clouds his judgement repeatedly. The motivation for Andrews betraying Carlyon is jealousy, Andrew’s father used to run the smuggling gang and the ship however his father finds Andrew’s character lacking to take over the operation and he hands control to Carlyon instead.

The book itself was written when Graham Greene was only twenty two years old and it was written in the 1920s.

Ultimately Andrews travels to the nearby town to cooperate with the authorities in taking legal action against the smuggling gang. However bureaucracy and individual rights stand in the way of Andrews cause. Much like the barriers to stopping illegal immigration across the channel today. And ultimately as the back cover synopsis says ‘to both criminals and authorities treachery is as great a crime as smuggling.’

This line brings back memories from my own upbringing in Oban on the West Coast of Scotland. I remember when I first started primary school one of the first lessons I learned in the playground was ‘don’t grass.’ An older and bigger boy told me this. This meant don’t tell on you classmates if they broke the rules. Of course from a parental or teacher’s point of view this advice was extremely suspect, however from the point of view of a pupil at the time it was fair advice. To survive in Britain you often have to turn a blind eye to wrongdoing and the bullying and thuggery of strong characters.

But back to the book, ultimately the authorities fail to protect prosecution witness Andrews and they also lose the prosecution case. Andrews himself meets the Crown prosecutor lawyer and has a conversation with him. As so often happens in Britain, this upper class character is aloof and indifferent to Andrew’s wellbeing and safety. A common theme of living in Britain.

Of course all this is by the bye. The real brilliance of the book is Carlyon’s character. In a way Carlyon is actually the hero of the book. Is smuggling in alcohol from France so bad? Surely alcohol breeds merriment and aids socialising? Everyone deserves to relax after a hard day’s work. This is Carlyon’s noble goal. As to his character, Carlyon is patient throughout the book, always showing restraint  (in the case of aggression from his subordinates) and playing by the rules. A true British leader in a way. He believes in his cause. He is kind to Andrew’s, his betrayer, at all points. Before he is betrayed he offers Andrews anything he likes as long as he (Carlyon) gets to keep the ship (and the operation). Andrews is as much his own enemy as he is a hero. He repeatedly makes bad judgement, repeatedly is clouded by lust, love of alcohol, jealousy, fear of his life. Carlyon is well motivated, on the ball at all times, cares about his subordinates, motivated by arguably a fair cause.

Of course people who have read the book will of course protest that Carlyon is on the side of criminality against the law. But its not always so black and white as that as this story and blog post shows.

Overall The Man Within is an excellent book of its era (the Twenties). It explores criminality, group friendship, leadership, the law and the destructiveness of men. Its a great first book of an excellent author that is now almost 100 years old at the time of writing.