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Underground > Books, Criticism & Writing >

Graham Greene

15:39 / 16.02.05

I've been meaning to start this thread for ages, since it's actually as a result of reading this thread, in which quite a few people mentioned that Graham Greene was one of their favourite authors or had written one of their favourite books.

I was one of those who listed one of his books (The End Of The Affair) as a favourite -I find his characters engaging, despite the fact that they're largely doomed, and I've never read a book of his that wasn't plotted very well indeed. Despite all this, I'm still not entirely sure why I put myself through the process of caring about his characters and then see them end up thoroughly miserable -so, what is it that keeps you reading?

I'm thinking particularly about Brighton Rock, which left me feeling like I'd been kicked in the gut for several days after finishing it. This could be because all I'd read of his before that had been Our Man In Havana (which is superbly funny, if you haven't read it), but even with the plot quite clearly heading in a different direction I hadn't expected that bleak a conclusion...

So, what do you like (or dislike) about his books? Is there anything that I should read that I've not mentioned here?

13:25 / 18.02.05

I'm still not entirely sure why I put myself through the process of caring about his characters and then see them end up thoroughly miserable.

Whaddya mean? Isn't that enough reason right there?! What's more enjoyable than the misery of others?

I love Graham Greene simply because he writes so beautifully, so I don't know if it's specifically the sad situations that his characters find themselves in that attract me. I think he's a great explorer of innocence and naivety, and a major theme of many of his books is a character discovering their naivety or recognising the hopelessness of their situation and then acting on that knowledge. And sometimes what they think is a knowledge of their situation turns out to be a misreading of the facts. The Quiet American is a perfect example of this and I highly recommend it if you haven't read that one.

He is also adept at mixing great and small motivations, and his characters often find themselves confused as to what is motivating their own desires. These carefully sculpted dilemmas provide fruitful material for Greene to work with, so I suppose the greatness of his work has a lot to do with his ability to craft a plot that gives him plenty of opportunities to exercise the sort of language he wants to use.

10:47 / 25.02.05

Loomis, however did you guess that the mention of The Quiet American in the topic summary was a contrived attempt at rhyme? I'll certainly look that one out, I tried last weekend but couldn't find anything second hand.

Whaddya mean? Isn't that enough reason right there?! What's more enjoyable than the misery of others?

Well, normally, not much at all (in books, anyway...) -and my reply is late because it took me about this long to think of an answer. I think it's the fact that his characters often imagine themselves to be powerless when in fact they aren't, and so acting on this assumption leads them to do things which, ultimately, mean that they are powerless. It's almost the suspense of waiting for the collapse of the character's lives that means I find the misery more difficult... Again, though, that's a good thing. I often think that I don't get as involved in books as I used to -why I think that is beyond me, and when I try to think back to books that I did consider myself to be 'involved in properly' all I get is titles like Dawn And The Older Boy) -but reading anything by Graham Greene assures me that this is not the case.

05:19 / 04.03.05

Vincennes, what Greene have you read so far? Just the three you've mentioned?

11:13 / 04.03.05

The ones I mentioned were the ones I liked best -I've also read The Human Factor, The Third Man, Travels With My Aunt and Getting To Know The General. I'd like to read more of his non-fiction actually, as I enjoyed the latter, and am probably going to look at the first two again sometime because I read them ages ago and don't think I got as much out of them as I could have done.

22:46 / 04.03.05

I saw the film version of the human factor just before x-mas (it has a tom stoppard script.) it was fantastic - writing so good it made me want to cry...

10:17 / 09.03.05

Vincennes, a few suggestions for further reading…

The general critical consensus re: Greene seems to state that The Heart of the Matter and The Power and the Glory are his best work. I don’t know about ‘best’, but those two are certainly my favourites, amongst his most ‘moving’, and probably also the most deftly realized of his examinations of human motivation which Loomis mentioned.

I like Greene for a lot of reasons… riveting plots, the lack of any conventional heroes and villains, the economy of his language (especially dialogue), the evocation of tropical climes, the fact that he eschews sentimentality yet writes so beautifully about love, his honesty – humility - humor, his subtlety. But mainly because of the extent of his psychological penetration… affords the reader incredible insight into the psyches of his protagonists.

So definitely read those two, and you might also want to check out:

‘A Burnt Out Case’; emotionally numb world famous architect takes heart-of-darkness-esque voyage into the Congo, ends up in leper colony, makes reconnection with humanity, gets glimpse of redemption, but cannot escape reputation.

‘The Comedians’; prophetic political satire set in Haiti. Difficult to synopsize… revolution, deceptions, an indictment of US foreign policy. Also shows what a fine dramatist Greene was.

‘The Honorary Consul’; British diplomat is kidnapped in Argentina by marxist guerrillas who mistake him for the American ambassador. Half-English doctor - who is fucking said diplomat’s teenage prostitute wife and is friends with one of the revolutionaries – attempts to intervene.

10:08 / 27.10.05

I read The End of the Affair recently, and it reminded me that one aspect of his work that I enjoy is the time period. Reading about the lives of ordinary people in the forties and fifties is an interesting snapshot of the nuts and bolts of daily life back then. The clothes, the furniture, the food, the London fogs, the social structures, all fascinating.

However I have to come clean as a heretic and admit that I found it to be his weakest book.

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The writing as always was wonderful, but the plot twist was too simplistic I thought. Maybe I'm just a product of less religious times, but his lover ending their relationship because of a promise to God made in the heat of the moment just didn't ring true to me. And then she dies conveniently, which always feels like a cop-out to me. But these things weren't as bad as the plot device of the diary, which in my opinion is extremely amatuerish.

The first half of the book is about the protagonist trying to discover what went wrong, following her and then hiring the private detective, and than BAM we get the diary and read all about it just like that. What a way to let down our expectations. It was too easy and took the urgency out of the narrative.

08:03 / 28.10.05

Although my favourites so far have been The Comedians, The Quiet American and The Heart of the Matter, I have never found a Greene book weak. And this is true for The End of the Affair too-- [SPOILERS FOLLOW:] I was finding it tiresome in the first-person introductory narrative. I found the character incredibly hard to empathise with and found his writing too, well, wordy and not that crisp Greene-ness I love. And it seemed to be a bit of a detective story... And then suddenly, BAM, it changes and becomes something much more personal and profound.

One of the problems with modern readers of some of his books is the religious aspect, but it is important to remember that this was a central part of his own character-- the relationship between him and his adopted Catholicism. Although it is not the reason for my preferences, this creeps into all my favourites, even The Quiet American. By putting himself through the grinder, he tapped into something that puts his readers through the grinder too, meaning that we invest emotionally in almost all his books.

Anyhoo-- at least Travels With My Aunt had a happy ending! And eating at Rules is so much more fun with The End of The Affair in mind.

10:37 / 28.10.05

The first half of the book is about the protagonist trying to discover what went wrong, following her and then hiring the private detective, and than BAM we get the diary and read all about it just like that.

This is one of the things I like about the book -that as soon as you're reading the diary the plot happens all at once, and unfolds well before the end of the book. I thought it worked quite well in showing that whilst Bendrix could see what had happened, he didn't necessarily understand it -it's this sudden rush of information where previously everything had been oblique, I thought it pointed to Bendrix's confusion quite well.

Then again, I had seen the film before I read the book, so maybe the fact that I knew what was coming meant I read it in a different way -like Lysander I also enjoyed the fact that it seemed such a personal book (which is, perhaps, something to do with how one reacts to the Catholicism of the book. I must admint I did lose patience somewhat with the whole

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kiss thing towards the end...)

23:01 / 02.11.05

I've just begun Greene with Brighton Rock (which I got at a library sale) and I have found he is one of very few writers who make me look up words for what their meaning is.
I am enjoying the book very much btw...

07:44 / 04.11.05

Really? I wouldn't have thought of Greene as a writer who uses a lot of thesaurus words.

13:08 / 04.11.05

I don't know. Words that I've never read before. I guess my vocab isn't huge :-)
And actually I haven't got around to looking any up yet. I'm assuming some of them are slang, like 'polony'.

13:46 / 04.11.05

I've never heard of that either! dictionary.com to the rescue:

polony

\Po*lo"ny\, n. [Prob. corrupt. fr. Bologna.] A kind of sausage made of meat partly cooked.

polony

n : another name for Bologna sausage

15:24 / 04.11.05

There is quite a lot of slang in that book, and not only that but also words that are now antiquated. I find that there is a difference somehow between his written English before and after the War, that he was trying to be more of a certain type of novelist before, but that he did not need to bother any more after. Although I did enjoy Brighton Rock hugely.

Thinking once again about The End of the Affair, the other thing about the diary is that it means that not only are you reading a new book (in a sense) and a new angle, but it also completely changes absolutely everything running up to that point. The layers of interpretation, with the narrator's own understanding of events providing the original story, are so completely and fantastically intertwined that it becomes a book that takes to pieces and reinvents and plays with and celebrates the act of being a reader.

It is too long since I last read any of his books (like, a month and a half) and I have to think about which next. Suggestions welcome... I was thinking of A Hard Case...

22:52 / 15.11.05

Okay so he used sausage as slang or euphemism for girls ? Because that is how polony is used in the novel. to describe girls.

13:26 / 17.11.05

Just finished The Comedians and loved it. Absolutely superb. It has everything you want in a Greene novel. I think I'll have to rank this one up there with The Quiet American. So, so good ...

19:44 / 02.01.06

Thanks to Balderdash and Pifffle, The BBC's new etomological entertainment show has revealed the true origin of Paloney

It is indeed slang for 'women', coming from Polari, a sort of slang language prevelant among merchant seamen and, interestingly here, the gay community.

'Omi Poloney' was apparently the phrase for a gay man, 'a womanly man' I guess. And There is the suggestion that Pinky's relationship with Kite, the ex gang boss was homosexual in nature...

All Acting Regiment

15:51 / 03.09.07

So, England Made Me - what do people think? Could do without spoilers.

17:54 / 05.09.07

To me, England Made Me is one of the C-list Greenes - it's muddled in my head with Loser Takes All and Doctor Fischer of Geneva or The Bomb Party, all of which are about wealth and not all that moving.

All Acting Regiment

11:33 / 06.09.07

Yeah, it's interesting you say that. Apparently EMM is understood to be about (almost, perhaps, who knows) incest, even though Greene was quite unaware of this until someone told him - I'm a third of the way through now and quite enthralled.

Who agrees with me that one of the best things about Greene is the way he takes jolly English slang, like "Shake a leg", "She was a nice kid", and makes it utterly, utterly tragic by context?

22:56 / 06.09.07

Actually yes Minty is great - Greene complains somewhere that he couldn't stop Minty taking over the book because there was so much more life to his character than to the others'.