And speaking of caricatures, what about the second-runner up, the literally two-faced "rationalist", Richard Smythe?
This felt to me like a very cheap shot at rationalism by Greene ... but then the minor miracle of Sarah healing Richard's second/ugly face (apparently removing rational thought forever) seemed like a pretty cheap shot at religion too.
The whole thing with the Smythes felt quite tacky. We knew it was going to turn out to be innocent (to the extent Sarah was not having yet another affair), but the interactions there don't paint Sarah in a very flattering light. I realise it was supposed to be yet another demonstration of her struggle to believe in God, but to invert that such that Richard is converted by his "love" of Sarah seems to suggest things about gardens and apples and women being temptresses - in this case the temptation goes the other way, but only because Sarah is dead, seemingly in the service of God. It's a messy mass of mixed messages. (Say that five times quickly.
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