Graham Greene (1 Viewer)

[Jimmy Magee]

Read the end of the affair before, twas brillent, very touching and elegiac, and the third man and some short story - fallen idol twas called - which were both wery good. Now readin The Quiet American, which is daycent so far, but my knowledge of early Nam is too patchy to follow all the details...but anyway

What else would folks recommend by this marvellous author?

 

[krystal]

brighton rock

 

[roxy]

Travels With my Aunt. Brillent.

Started The Quiet American. Stopped to start something else. May return soon.

 

[nlgbbbblth]

Travels With my Aunt. Brillent.

.

the film is on TCM every few weeks. is it any good?

 

[nlgbbbblth]

brighton rock

great read
not so great film

 

[roxy]

the film is on TCM every few weeks. is it any good?

Ain't never seen it. Which is a pity coz i have TCM.
Maggie Smith stars, no?

 

[nlgbbbblth]

Ain't never seen it. Which is a pity coz i have TCM.
Maggie Smith stars, no?

that's the one

 

[hugh]

I love Graham Greene ...

Would recommend

End Of The Affair: But you've read this already ...
Heart Of The Matter - one set in West Africa. Brilliant.
The Comedians - The Haiti one

They would be my tops ... next ones are

Power and The Glory - priest on the run in Mexico
Quiet American - Vietnam
Brighton Rock - gangsters in Brighton
The one about the kidnapping in South America
Our Man in Havana - vacuum cleaner salesman becomes spy in Cuba. Really funny.

He's an amazing writer and was a really interesting character to boot. Norman Davies biographies are well worth reading if you feel a full blown obsession coming on ....

 

[roxy]

Plus, Graham Greene is quoted as saying that his favourite living author was our very own Brian Moore (this was clearly said when Moore himself was still alive). So if you like Greene, you may well love Moore (I guarantee you will).

 

[hugh]

Plus, Graham Greene is quoted as saying that his favourite living author was our very own Brian Moore (this was clearly said when Moore himself was still alive). So if you like Greene, you may well love Moore (I guarantee you will).

Really? He had a hand in helping Flann O'Brien get At Swim 2 Birds published too ...

 

[roxy]

Really? He had a hand in helping Flann O'Brien get At Swim 2 Birds published too ...

This I didn't know. Cool.

Wait, do you mean Graham Greene had a hand in it or Brian Moore did? I presumed you meant Moore but on rereading your post I reckon you meant Greene.

We should start a Flann O'Brien appreciation thread actually.

 

[hugh]

I meant Graham Greene ....

We should indeed have a Flann O'Brien appreciation thread but not until we've finished the Graham Greene appreciation thread first. I reckon Heart Of The Matter is my favourite of his books. Mixes the sprititual/existential trauma stuff with the Englishman abroad in screwed up political/cultural sitation stuff perfectly.

I am always surprised that there haven't been more decent film adaptations of his work. There's Brighton Rock of course and Third Man (though that doesn't really count since it was an original screenplay) but apart from that ... ??? Oh yeah there was the recent Quiet American with Michael Caine which wasn't bad.

 

[hugh]

So, Brian Moore recommendations Roxy??

 

[roxy]

So, Brian Moore recommendations Roxy??

Gosh, loads. I'm so gonna start waffling here, wait til ye see.

They're not particularly huge tomes so you can get through some fairly quickly. Some are just straight fiction, no room for any "through the relationship between x and y was Moore in fact referring, in subtle terms, to the fall of the Roman Empire" bollox. Others have a bit more of a political or religious commentary involved (usually the power and wealth of the Catholic Church, and usually not too complimentary as Moore denounced his Catholicism at some stage in his early adulthood). Both types have their merits, definitely.

As regards recommendations..

Well, Lies of Silence was put on the Leaving Cert course in the last few years, so obviously someone thought there was notable "themes" goin on.... It is pretty good - very suspenseful.

Other than that,
The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne is probably my favourite (this is the first of his that I read and it made me want to read more) (and incidentally, it's been made into a film, also with Maggie Smith! )

The Doctor's Wife
The Emperor of Ice-Cream (the narrator in this has been compared to Holden Caulfield, only this is set in Belfast during WWII, and he's nowhere near as annoying as Holden Caulfield. Jaysus)
The Feast of Lupercal
I am Mary Dunne
The Temptation of Eileen Hughes
The Luck of Ginger Coffey
The Magician's Wife (19th century French aristocracy)
The Colour of Blood (Catholic Church meets State with dodgy murderous results in un-named Stalinist state)
Catholics
The Statement

The last three are all religious actually. There are a few more which I have but just haven't gotten around to reading yet.
They vary in setting between late 20th century Belfast and Dublin to 17th Century Canada (Moore moved to Canada and became a citizen). Plus he often writes from the point of view of woman, and is very convincing in a woman's skin. I really couldn't not recommend any of them. It's rare that I'm so uncritical but I really think he's diddly.

Sorry to shite on there, Hugh!

 

[Ex-User (250)]

ah, i read our man in havana for the leaving cert. great book.

 

[Denny Oubidoux]

finished Heart Of The Matter last night, excellent stuff. nobody read the other Graham Greene thread as johnny raz posted a shocker of a spoiler in it. it went a bit heavy on the catholic stuff towards the end though. i find it hard to accept that a grown adult like scobie who converted to catholicism just so he could marry his bird could end up believing all that guilt shit even though he had escaped it as a child. still, deadly.

i read another of his years ago, i forget now if it was fiction or memoir. it was about tramping around the jungle in liberia. it was ok.

 

[Mormon Nailer]

There is a film adaptation of The Human Factor - which I haven't ever seen.

I also enjoyed Ways of Escape a lot and revisit it often. He is an enjoyable troublesome type of character. I knew a lot of priests who had been Kenya and Nigeria at the time he was there and is covered in the book. In fact I'm pretty sure on of the priests I knew was mentioned in the book at one point.

 

[Square One]

I would add A Burnt-out Case to the recommendations, really liked that one. Plus most of the other ones mentioned here previously, he's a legend.

 

[azezelo]

Monsignor Quixote is funny and moving. I thought it had a lovely forgivingness to it. Its quite slight in some ways, but its one of my favourites of his.

 

[rettucs]

I read the Quiet American last month. I thought it was excellent. But thats with hindsight. I found it took a while to get used to his train of thought, and it easy to get lost in what hes talking about. But you learn to persist as things always becomes apparent after a bit. But its a great story. And quite short - I read it in 2 sittings.

Will get around to more of his stuff shortly, hopefully.