Books: What Price Pity?

THE HEART OF THE MATTER (306 pp.)—Graham Greene—Viking ($3).

Edward Wilson, secret agent of His Majesty's Government in World War II, sat on a hotel balcony and sourly surveyed the West African seaport to which he had been assigned. He saw row upon row of hot and hideous tin roofs sloping away toward the sea, and a ringing clang came to his ears as a vulture perched heavily on top of the hotel. Down at the quayside, pickaninnies swarmed like little vultures around a newly landed seaman and triumphantly escorted him to the local brothel....

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