Call number
FIC GRE
Collection
Genres
Publication
Viking Adult (1961), 248 pages
Description
Querry, a world famous architect, is the victim of a terrible attack of indifference- he no longer finds meaning in art of pleasure in life. Arriving anonymously at a Congo leper village, he is diagnosed as the mental equivalent of a 'burnt-out case', a leper who has gone through a stage of mutilation. However, as Querry loses himself in work for the lepers his disease of mind slowly approaches a cure. Then the white community finds out who Querry is...
Media reviews
he somewhat forbidding title of Graham Greene's new novel is a term used for those victims of leprosy who can be cured because the disease has eaten about all that it wants -- toes, ears, fingers. They no longer suffer the excruciating pains of those who undergo cure with their bodies intact. Pain
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is the alternative to mutilation.
"A Burnt-Out Case" is a fascinating study of the relationship of suffering, especially freely accepted suffering -- to wholeness. Greene has set his novel in a remote African leprosery run by nuns and priests. They have as their unexpected guest an internationally famous architect named Querry who arrives incognito, trying to escape as far as possible from his past.
Querry is himself a burnt-out case. He is no longer moved to design a building or sleep with a woman. His love of women was really self-love, and his artistic self-expression was the kind that consumes the self. Even when he was creating modern churches, Querry's art was inhuman, a matter of space and light and textures, with no feeling either for people or prayers. Now whatever fed his vocation has ceased to exist. In his terrible aloneness and deadness he can neither suffer nor laugh.
The novel tells the story of Querry's gradual recovery, or what would have been recovery if the world he tried to flee had let him alone. But a celebrated journalist seeks out Querry, a fat man who "carries his corruption on the surface of his skin like phosphorous." He wants a story that will have the appeal of the stories about Dr. Schweitzer at Lanbarene. With the aid of a neighboring colon, he cooks up a sensational story which falsifies and sentimentalizes the simple, good relationship between Querry and Querry's crippled leper servant. And then Querry's relationship with the colon's pretty young wife is falsified in another way that brings the novel to an ironic and violent close.
The events, however, are less important than the conversations about pain and wholeness, self-love and selflessness, belief and disbelief show a changed and milder mood in Greene. Though this does not necessarily make it a better novel, "A Burnt-Out Case" is free from the theological arrogance, the baiting of rationalists, the melodramatic use of attempted bargains with God which gave a peculiar edge and intensity to Greene's earlier religious fiction. Speaking particularly of his "The End of the Affair," Martin Turnell once wrote: "It is impossible not to be struck by the vast place occupied by hate and the tiny place reserved for charity in the work of contemporary Catholic novelists."
In "A Burnt-Out Case" the balance has shifted. Greene no longer tries to make both humanity and Christianity seem as distasteful as possible. There is ample charity both in the sense of good works and of affectionate understanding.
The sympathetic characters are the religiously uncommitted doctor with his special sense of what Christian love means and the priests who are more interested in curing the natives' bodies that in regulating their sexual mores, who would rather talk about the practicalities of being useful than about the state of each other's souls. The unsympathetic characters are the scrupulously self-righteous. The most repellent character is the spiritually and socially ambitious colon who prides himself on his informed Catholicism. He is a former seminarian, a spoiled priest, morbidly preoccupied with the rights, duties and symbolism of Christian marriage.
Though she plays such an important part in the plot, the colon's young wife is rather lightly sketched in, as are some of the other characters. This is not a novel of great intensity of feeling or one much concerned with the violently changing Africa which is its locale. "A Burnt-Out Case" does not have the color or richness or freshness of detail of "Brighton Rock," "The Power and the Glory" and "The Heart of the Matter." In its quietness, its retrospective air, the parabolic quality of its plot, it is more like Camus' "The Fall." The protagonist's tiredness and detachment affect the novel as a whole. And yet, though Greene does not seem to be trying very hard so far as the story-telling is concerned, though he is not practicing to the full the arts of the novelist, he does nevertheless out of his own humanity make this a very appealing novel, wise, gentle and sympathetic. Show Less
And yet, though Greene does not seem to be trying very hard so far as the story-telling is concerned, though he is not practicing to the full the arts of the novelist, he does nevertheless out of his own humanity make this a very appealing novel, wise, gentle and sympathetic.
User reviews
LibraryThing member meg_levins
I have read this book at least ten times over the past six or seven years and each time I enjoy it more. It's a wonderfully simplistic, yet oh-so-descriptive story of love and forgiveness. It's one of the few books that has made me cry. Greene's characters are so real, so deep, so true. There is
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nothing fictional about them, which is what makes the story so heartbreaking. Show Less
LibraryThing member MisterJJones
I find I often disagree with the tone of the blurb of the back of Graham Greene's books. A Burnt-out Case is described almost as if it were a psychological thriller. It's not. What it is is a slow, intelligent, moving analysis of one man's disenchantment with the world.
Like all Greene's books, this
Like all Greene's books, this
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one will leave you thinking, with characters that linger in the memory. Show Less
LibraryThing member Eamonn12
As usual with Graham Greene, the symbolism is complex. Even the title, ‘A Burnt-Out Case’, is laden with a two-fold significance. The novel is set in a leper colony where the term is used to describe a person cured of the disease but left badly crippled as a result. It soon becomes clear that
I put the word ‘hero’ in inverts because Querry, a man with an unhappy past, can only be described as a hero since he is the person around whom the events of the novel unfold. He has arrived at this leper colony in West Africa and has chosen to stay there because the boat doesn’t go any further and he doesn’t feel like continuing on foot. It’s a Catholic church missionary outpost, and so cue lots of arguments and philosophisings centred around the ‘hero’s’ spiritual angst. I don’t find these theological excursions as interesting as I did when I first read this novel many years ago. I like to think that that is because I’ve ‘moved on‘, but it may be just that my mind is not as sharp as it was back then. Or maybe it’s just because I do not find it a cause for wonderment any more that a man who gains fame and success should become weary of the personal emptiness that often accompanies them. At the missionary outpost Querry becomes aware of how little the priest-administrators are concerned with spiritual debate and, as practical men, are more interested in alleviating the lot of the unfortunates in the ‘leprosaria’. In fact, the Superior of the mission is somewhat impatient of ‘philosophising‘: “When a man has nothing else to be proud of,” the Superior said, “he is proud of his spiritual problems…”. Nevertheless, there are important questions raised by the novelist as regards ‘personal fulfilment’ and what it takes to be at ease with oneself.
Don’t be put off by the ‘philosophy’. It’s still a great read, after all those years (first published 1961). And what a hand for metaphor! … “In the deep bush trees grew unnoticeably old through centuries and here and there one presently died, lying half-collapsed for while in the ropy arms of the lianas until sooner or later they gently lowered the corpse into the only space large enough to receive it, and that was the road, narrow like a coffin or a grave. There were no hearses to drag the corpse away; if it was to be removed at all it could only be by fire”.
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the novel’s ‘hero’ also falls into this category, though the disease he suffered from was not leprosy.I put the word ‘hero’ in inverts because Querry, a man with an unhappy past, can only be described as a hero since he is the person around whom the events of the novel unfold. He has arrived at this leper colony in West Africa and has chosen to stay there because the boat doesn’t go any further and he doesn’t feel like continuing on foot. It’s a Catholic church missionary outpost, and so cue lots of arguments and philosophisings centred around the ‘hero’s’ spiritual angst. I don’t find these theological excursions as interesting as I did when I first read this novel many years ago. I like to think that that is because I’ve ‘moved on‘, but it may be just that my mind is not as sharp as it was back then. Or maybe it’s just because I do not find it a cause for wonderment any more that a man who gains fame and success should become weary of the personal emptiness that often accompanies them. At the missionary outpost Querry becomes aware of how little the priest-administrators are concerned with spiritual debate and, as practical men, are more interested in alleviating the lot of the unfortunates in the ‘leprosaria’. In fact, the Superior of the mission is somewhat impatient of ‘philosophising‘: “When a man has nothing else to be proud of,” the Superior said, “he is proud of his spiritual problems…”. Nevertheless, there are important questions raised by the novelist as regards ‘personal fulfilment’ and what it takes to be at ease with oneself.
Don’t be put off by the ‘philosophy’. It’s still a great read, after all those years (first published 1961). And what a hand for metaphor! … “In the deep bush trees grew unnoticeably old through centuries and here and there one presently died, lying half-collapsed for while in the ropy arms of the lianas until sooner or later they gently lowered the corpse into the only space large enough to receive it, and that was the road, narrow like a coffin or a grave. There were no hearses to drag the corpse away; if it was to be removed at all it could only be by fire”.
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LibraryThing member TheAmpersand
A very solid novel set in the Congo at the tail end of Belgian rule there in which Querry, a prominent architect who specialized in Catholic churches, shows up at a leper colony in the middle of nowhere with no explanation and very little desire to go on living. "A Burnt-Out Case" is, among other
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things, a study in character, a meditation on the necessity of having a purpose in life, a rumination on the nature of divine and human love, and a tragedy. Greene, as always, shows a journalist's eye for detail and a theologian's concern with serious subjects. It's however, that the best -- or most admirable, perhaps -- Catholics in this book are those with the fewest theological leanings or concern for doctrine. It's interesting to witness as one often does in Greene's novels, a colonialism in obvious decline, and the scenes set at the leper colony, which show the work of the courageous, if non-believing, Doctor Colin, are very affecting. Even so, I wouldn't call this one a fun read. Like most of Greene's "serious" novels, like "The Heart of the Matter," the problems here are largely moral in nature, and to read it is to see its characters suffer in the grip of an unremitting moral tension. Greene's too good a writer to make his characters into mere stand-ins for their theological positions, but this still doesn't make things comfortable for the reader. It's not that I wouldn't recommend "A Burnt-Out Case," it's that I was sort of glad when I finally finished it. It's a long two-hundred or so pages. Not one for the beach or the subway, this. Show Less
LibraryThing member kaitanya64
This book was a little too dark and haunting for me, but very well written. The main character, Querry, is a world famous architect and womanizer who attempts to "disappear" from the world by retreating to a leper colony run by the Catholic church deep in the Congo forest. Like lepers who lose
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feeling in affected limbs, he believes he has lost the capacity to feel. As usual with Greene, as Querry "recovers" his ability to feel, he also recovers his susceptability to pain. Show Less
LibraryThing member skavlanj
A Book That Came Out The Year You Were Born
Graham Greene is one of my favorite authors, primarily because his books (at least those I've read) expound a central theme through well-executed literary devices, providing a richer reading experience. In A Burnt-Out Case, Greene uses leprosy,
I won't belabor the novel's other deficiencies (extended dialogue and monologue also serve as thematic cudgels), because it is still a good read. The climax results from a series of nondescript events that are assigned incorrect meaning in varying degrees of maliciousness by both the participants and witnesses. A summary of this plot would read like an airport novel, but Greene builds to it slowly and deliberately. When it finally and suddenly happens, you are not surprised, because Greene has lead you unsuspectingly to the only conclusion the novel could have. In that sense this reads a little like detective fiction, where the solution was always right there in front of you.
Although leprosy has been around for all of recorded history, its stigma has diminished significantly. That diminishment seems an apt motif for A Burnt-Out Case, which is an interesting but lesser version of Greene's other works, one less deserving of attention but still worth a read if you have time.
Graham Greene is one of my favorite authors, primarily because his books (at least those I've read) expound a central theme through well-executed literary devices, providing a richer reading experience. In A Burnt-Out Case, Greene uses leprosy,
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particularly the physical scars left after the disease has run its course, as a motif for the emotional damage the novel's protagonist, Querry, has suffered as a result of his decadent lifestyle. In his masterpieces (The Power and the Glory, The Heart of the Matter), this style is the subtle backdrop to the action of the story. In A Burnt-Out Case, it overtakes the story, to the novel's detriment. The ancillary characters actually verbalize the motif, likening Querry to his servant, Deo Gratis, who is a cured victim of leprosy. This heavy-handed approach gives the novel a didactic quality that distracts from an otherwise interesting exploration of faith through the viewpoints of both devout believers and atheists. Even the novel's two epigrams bludgeon the reader with an explanation of the book, making the process of reading it one of observation rather than of discovery.I won't belabor the novel's other deficiencies (extended dialogue and monologue also serve as thematic cudgels), because it is still a good read. The climax results from a series of nondescript events that are assigned incorrect meaning in varying degrees of maliciousness by both the participants and witnesses. A summary of this plot would read like an airport novel, but Greene builds to it slowly and deliberately. When it finally and suddenly happens, you are not surprised, because Greene has lead you unsuspectingly to the only conclusion the novel could have. In that sense this reads a little like detective fiction, where the solution was always right there in front of you.
Although leprosy has been around for all of recorded history, its stigma has diminished significantly. That diminishment seems an apt motif for A Burnt-Out Case, which is an interesting but lesser version of Greene's other works, one less deserving of attention but still worth a read if you have time.
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LibraryThing member nog
I am a bit puzzled that the critics do not include this novel with
his "Catholic" ones, because the protagonist is a lapsed Catholic, the book's themes are of a religious and moral nature, and the action takes place at a leper colony in the Congo that has priests and nuns attending to the spiritual
One of the better novels from his later years that seems to have been
overlooked by critics and readers alike, but those who have read it tend to give it high marks. The book is about the existential crisis that faces Querry, presumably a French or Belgian architect. It would seem that the characters are all speaking French, for Greene tells us when they are speaking English.
Querry almost right away on arrival faces questions and assumptions from a doctor, a factory owner, and a journalist who all seem determined to find out why he has come to this remote place. The factory owner and journalist put demands on Querry which make him uncomfortable and wanting to be left alone. But there is much more to that when the factory owner's wife brings the novel to its climactic events. It might seem contrived, however, as each character represents a type that Greene as puppeteer uses to get his points across.
Greene's writing is superb, and as such (along with his themes) puts him in the company of the many great 20th century authors who have been ignored by the Nobel Prize people. This one is not just for Greene completists; not his best, but thought-provoking and humane.
his "Catholic" ones, because the protagonist is a lapsed Catholic, the book's themes are of a religious and moral nature, and the action takes place at a leper colony in the Congo that has priests and nuns attending to the spiritual
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needs of the patients.One of the better novels from his later years that seems to have been
overlooked by critics and readers alike, but those who have read it tend to give it high marks. The book is about the existential crisis that faces Querry, presumably a French or Belgian architect. It would seem that the characters are all speaking French, for Greene tells us when they are speaking English.
Querry almost right away on arrival faces questions and assumptions from a doctor, a factory owner, and a journalist who all seem determined to find out why he has come to this remote place. The factory owner and journalist put demands on Querry which make him uncomfortable and wanting to be left alone. But there is much more to that when the factory owner's wife brings the novel to its climactic events. It might seem contrived, however, as each character represents a type that Greene as puppeteer uses to get his points across.
Greene's writing is superb, and as such (along with his themes) puts him in the company of the many great 20th century authors who have been ignored by the Nobel Prize people. This one is not just for Greene completists; not his best, but thought-provoking and humane.
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LibraryThing member whirled
Another competent 'stranger in a strange land' novel from Greene, this time set in a leper colony. Finding that a string of professional plaudits and willing lovers no longer gratifies him, British architect Querry flees to deepest Africa, seeking solace. Greene evokes place and (often flawed or
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downright nasty) characters so wonderfully well that I was able to enjoy another return to his well-worn theme of Catholic guilt and self-flagellation. A Burnt-Out Case is not his best, but worthwhile for fans. Show Less
LibraryThing member yooperprof
Brilliant sensitive artist (who is unfortunately irresistible to women) finds meaning in an absurd universe by giving of himself in a leper colony, but the press (and women) will not leave him alone.
"A Burnt-Out Case" is a bitter, torpid visit to Greene-land. On the positive side, there are sharply
"A Burnt-Out Case" is a bitter, torpid visit to Greene-land. On the positive side, there are sharply
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etched descriptions of characters and places. He remains a master of the essential _form_ of the intelligently entertaining novel. On the negative side, Greene indulges in heavy-handed use of irony and stilted, stagy dialogue. One senses that the author identifies a little too much with the central character, who is really a bit of a prig. Not Greene at his best. Show Less
LibraryThing member mimal
summer-2013, tbr-busting-2013, afr-congo, catholic, plague-disease
Read from August 13 to 16, 2013
a burnt-out case (1960)
gbox> fraudio> rosado> read by richard morant
summer 2013> tbr busting 2013
catholic fiction
Africa> Congo> Disease
shortie at 224 pages> tragedy> gloomy
wiki plot: Querry, a famous
Leprophiles.
References to Albert Schweitzer
5 likes
Read from August 13 to 16, 2013
a burnt-out case (1960)
gbox> fraudio> rosado> read by richard morant
summer 2013> tbr busting 2013
catholic fiction
Africa> Congo> Disease
shortie at 224 pages> tragedy> gloomy
wiki plot: Querry, a famous
Show More
architect who is fed up with his celebrity, no longer finds meaning in art or pleasure in life. Arriving anonymously at a Congo leper colony overseen by Catholic missionaries, he is diagnosed - by Dr Colin, the resident doctor - as the mental equivalent of a 'burnt-out case': a leper who has gone through a stage of mutilation. However, as Querry loses himself in working for the lepers, his disease of mind slowly approaches a cure.Leprophiles.
References to Albert Schweitzer
5 likes
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LibraryThing member MTedesco
I am about half way through this book, and am enjoying it without quite knowing where it is going. Deep in the heart of Africa a man is trying to escape from his past, which keeps cropping up. Elements of Catholicism also keep popping into the story, as if the characters are part of this faith and
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yet not part. It is interesting so fa Show Less
LibraryThing member BrokenTune
‘Oh yes, make no mistake, one does. One comes to an end.’
‘What are you here for then? To make love to a black woman?’
‘No. One comes to an end of that too. Possibly sex and a vocation are born and die together. Let me roll bandages or carry buckets. All I want is to pass the time.’
‘I
‘Listen,’ Querry said and then fell silent.
‘I am listening.’
To me this quote perfectly describes A Burnt Out Case - it is a story about communication and miscommunication.
When Querry, a world famous architect, struggles to find any interest in life he decides to walk out and take up living in a leper colony in the Congo. Fed up with fame and having to cater to taste of people who do not share his vision or ability to imagine, he hopes that no one would recognise him, and all he wants to do is to be of use to the people around him.
However, things don't go to plan. Even at the leper colony he encounters a band of expats who badger him about his past life. As little by little the reasons for his burn-out are revealed, Querry starts to recover from the depression he experienced only to be confronted with the same paradox he tried to flee from.
"‘Two of your churches are famous. Didn’t you care what happened inside them – to people?’
‘The acoustics had to be good of course. The high altar had to be visible to all. But people hated them. They said they weren’t designed for prayer. They meant that they were not Roman or Gothic or Byzantine. And in a year they had cluttered them up with their cheap plaster saints; they took out my plain windows and put in stained glass dedicated to dead pork-packers who had contributed to diocesan funds, and when they had destroyed my space and my light, they were able to pray again, and they even became proud of what they had spoilt.'"
3.5* really.
‘What are you here for then? To make love to a black woman?’
‘No. One comes to an end of that too. Possibly sex and a vocation are born and die together. Let me roll bandages or carry buckets. All I want is to pass the time.’
‘I
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thought you wanted to be of use.’‘Listen,’ Querry said and then fell silent.
‘I am listening.’
To me this quote perfectly describes A Burnt Out Case - it is a story about communication and miscommunication.
When Querry, a world famous architect, struggles to find any interest in life he decides to walk out and take up living in a leper colony in the Congo. Fed up with fame and having to cater to taste of people who do not share his vision or ability to imagine, he hopes that no one would recognise him, and all he wants to do is to be of use to the people around him.
However, things don't go to plan. Even at the leper colony he encounters a band of expats who badger him about his past life. As little by little the reasons for his burn-out are revealed, Querry starts to recover from the depression he experienced only to be confronted with the same paradox he tried to flee from.
"‘Two of your churches are famous. Didn’t you care what happened inside them – to people?’
‘The acoustics had to be good of course. The high altar had to be visible to all. But people hated them. They said they weren’t designed for prayer. They meant that they were not Roman or Gothic or Byzantine. And in a year they had cluttered them up with their cheap plaster saints; they took out my plain windows and put in stained glass dedicated to dead pork-packers who had contributed to diocesan funds, and when they had destroyed my space and my light, they were able to pray again, and they even became proud of what they had spoilt.'"
3.5* really.
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LibraryThing member TimBazzett
Well, goshdarnit. I'd just written up an erudite, detailed review of A BURNT-OUT CASE, and the computer ate it. So, what the hell, this books's been around for over fifty years, and in that time it's been acknowledged as one of Graham Greene's best. I'll concur with that, being a Greene fan. I've
Yes,there's a lot in here about the Catholic Church and religion, which is true of almost all of Greene's books, but the above quotes indicate that even a great novelist like Greene understood that sometimes even the most intelligent of men are ruled by baser instincts. This is a great book. Greene was at the top of his game. My highest recommendation.
- Tim Bazzett, author of the memoir, BOOKLOVER
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also read THE POWER AND THE GLORY, THE QUIET AMERICAN and THE HUMAN FACTOR. All were simply superb. And so was this one, set in a leper colony in the Congo, with subtle nods to HEART OF DARKNESS and Father Damien. Here are a couple of my favorite quotes from the book: "Why did he [God] give us genitals then if he wanted us to think clearly?" ... and ... "Sometimes I think God was not entirely serious when he gave man the sexual instinct." Yes,there's a lot in here about the Catholic Church and religion, which is true of almost all of Greene's books, but the above quotes indicate that even a great novelist like Greene understood that sometimes even the most intelligent of men are ruled by baser instincts. This is a great book. Greene was at the top of his game. My highest recommendation.
- Tim Bazzett, author of the memoir, BOOKLOVER
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LibraryThing member DrFuriosa
This process of reading the unread books from my shelf is going swimmingly. I found this novel ideologically interesting, if a bit overworked.
Awards
Notable Books List (1961)
Pages
248
ISBN
0670197157 / 9780670197156