To the Editors:

Bruce Bawer’s criticism is generally a pleasure to read. His analysis is perspicacious, thorough, and rational. However, he seems to have seriously gone amiss in his recent examination of Graham Greene’s oeuvre. The most troubling aspect of his three-part article [in the September, October, and November 1989 issues] is the manner in which he freely confuses Greene the writer with Greene the man, and uses the failings of the latter as reason for dismissing the former. He allows irritation and exasperation with Greene’s personal foibles to cloud his critical discernment. While it may be true that Greene’s adoption of Catholicism and left-wing politics has lacked a solid and committed foundation, this cannot be used to prove the point that Greene is a second-rate writer. Mr. Bawer dwells too insistently on matters that are ultimately irrelevant to whether or not Greene is a great writer. Any student of literature learns quickly that there is rarely a correlation between the excellence of a writer’s character and the merits of his literary works. The two are, however inexplicable and puzzling, unrelated.

Those familiar with Greene’s novels know that he is a writer who cannot be quoted out of context.

In discussing The Heart of the Matter, Mr. Bawer quotes a sentence that he feels illustrates Greene’s melodramatic approach to Catholicism. Those familiar with Greene’s novels know that he is a writer who cannot be quoted out of context. Taken singly, isolated from the prior passage which