This from the back cover:
'Pinkie, a boy gangster in the pre-war Brighton underworld, is a catholic dedicated to evil and damnation. In a dark setting of double-crossing and razor slashes, his ambitions and hatreds are horribly fulfilled... until Ida determines to convict him of murder. But Pinkie, on the run from her pursuing fury, becomes even more dangerous...'
The above description gives a very glamorised version. The story is linear, and not as straightforward as you expect. It continually leaves things behind and moves on. I like that nothing is explained fully, but it gives the novel a not-quite tied down feel. This, coupled with the characters and Greene's questioning of morality, contributed to my not engaging fully I think.
I started it because I was going to Brighton for the weekend, it has a brilliant sense of place. The town is vivid, even as the characters are somewhat murky, the feel of the place and the sea-side-ness of it is conveyed.
Unusually I'm not sure what I'll read next (finished Brighton Rock in my lunch break today). My bookmark is currently in Benediction by Kent Haruf, but I'm not quite convinced it suits my mood.
