Graham Greene

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Which are you favourite Graham Greenes?

― admrl, Tuesday, 3 April 2007 16:44 (eighteen years ago)

http://since1968.com/images/67.png

― ghost rider, Tuesday, 3 April 2007 16:51 (eighteen years ago)

The Comedians is probably my favourite, with The Power and the Glory running it a close second. Our Man in Havana is very good as well, and an easy read.

― Neil S, Tuesday, 3 April 2007 16:51 (eighteen years ago)

boring, but End of the Affair.

― horseshoe, Tuesday, 3 April 2007 16:53 (eighteen years ago)

(I mean it's a boring favorite because obvious, not a boring book!) I love Graham Greene.

― horseshoe, Tuesday, 3 April 2007 16:53 (eighteen years ago)

Our Man In Havana.

― Matt DC, Tuesday, 3 April 2007 16:54 (eighteen years ago)

http://www.turtletrack.org/Issues03/Co01112003/Art/GrahamGreene.jpg

― gabbneb, Tuesday, 3 April 2007 16:57 (eighteen years ago)

'a gun for sale'

― That one guy that quit, Tuesday, 3 April 2007 16:58 (eighteen years ago)

no, i mean 'it's a battlefield'.

― That one guy that quit, Tuesday, 3 April 2007 16:58 (eighteen years ago)

His scripts for The Fallen Idol and The Third Man.

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Tuesday, 3 April 2007 17:43 (eighteen years ago)

but srsly, Monsignor Quixote

― gabbneb, Tuesday, 3 April 2007 18:08 (eighteen years ago)

heart of the matter pwns, plus the ones mentioned above

― jergïns, Tuesday, 3 April 2007 18:51 (eighteen years ago)

and brighton rock, as an interesting genre excercise

― jergïns, Tuesday, 3 April 2007 18:59 (eighteen years ago)

the heart of the matter but really like even the less good ones I've read

― RJG, Tuesday, 3 April 2007 19:30 (eighteen years ago)

our man in havana, quiet american, power & the glory, brighton rock are my top four.

― YGS, Tuesday, 3 April 2007 19:46 (eighteen years ago)

brighton rock cuzza that one morrissey song

― deeznuts, Tuesday, 3 April 2007 20:24 (eighteen years ago)

gabbnebb otm

― fies, Tuesday, 3 April 2007 20:30 (eighteen years ago)

The Quiet American, buy yeah - I'm not a hige Greene fan. Other than The Quiet American all his other books I've read (honestly only 3 or 4) have given me a so-so feeling, but I still want to read at least a couple more someday.

― Jeff LeVine, Tuesday, 3 April 2007 21:06 (eighteen years ago)

the third man might be my favorite movie, i'm never quite sure. but there are enough third man threads on ilx.

― ghost rider, Tuesday, 3 April 2007 21:10 (eighteen years ago)

I think my response is identical to Neil's at the top of the thread, though I feel like I should reread The Comedians. The Quiet American was pretty good too. I couldn't get into Brighton Rock at all. Didn't finish it.

― clotpoll, Wednesday, 4 April 2007 02:41 (eighteen years ago)

I had to read DESTRUCTORS for HS and of course mind=blown, but I am really intimidated to take a crack into his novels. Are they all detective stories?

― Abbott, Wednesday, 4 April 2007 04:03 (eighteen years ago)

no, Abbott! he wrote pretty much every kind of story. and like, 5 million of them.

― horseshoe, Wednesday, 4 April 2007 04:05 (eighteen years ago)

oh good, I don't know how I got that impression. I was super excited but I just can't swing detective stuffs with any enthusiasm.

― Abbott, Wednesday, 4 April 2007 04:06 (eighteen years ago)

You recommend a starting place?

― Abbott, Wednesday, 4 April 2007 04:07 (eighteen years ago)

honorary consul (i have read 3 or so graham greene joints, they are fine while i'm reading them but they leave almost no impression - i'm picking HC cuz it was my first and sticks out a little because of that)

also, search the John Cale song

― gershy, Wednesday, 4 April 2007 07:30 (eighteen years ago)

ok, classic for this

His income from novels was supplemented by freelance journalism, including book and film reviews for The Spectator, and co-editing the magazine Night and Day, which closed down in 1937 shortly after Greene's review of the film Wee Willie Winkie, starring a nine-year-old Shirley Temple, caused the magazine to lose a libel case. Greene's review claimed that Temple displayed "a certain adroit coquetry which appealed to middle-aged men", and is now seen as one of the first criticisms of the sexualisation of young children by the entertainment industry

PRECURSOR OF ROLLING TEENPOP THREAD - AMIRITE?!?!?!?!

― gershy, Wednesday, 4 April 2007 07:36 (eighteen years ago)

Doctor Fischer of Janeinien, or The Bomb Party is the first I can think of. That or Travels with my Aunt. I collect his first editions. 13 so far and counting! I love Greene!

― kv_nol, Wednesday, 4 April 2007 09:02 (eighteen years ago)

Compiled Short Stories (or whatever it's called).

― Colonel Poo, Wednesday, 4 April 2007 09:55 (eighteen years ago)

I didn't like England Made Me- has anyone else read that? Crushingly depressing, even by the standards of his bleaker novels.

― Neil S, Wednesday, 4 April 2007 10:11 (eighteen years ago)

"Our Man In Havana", yeah. He just strikes me as such a likeable author

― Daniel_Rf, Wednesday, 4 April 2007 11:49 (eighteen years ago)

i read the heart of the matter only a couple of months ago. so tragic! i loved it. i'd actually had the book for 10 years or something ridiculous and only just got around to reading it. i felt quite sad that i'd deprvied myself of it for that long once i'd finished it!

― gem, Wednesday, 4 April 2007 11:50 (eighteen years ago)

I really liked England Made Me!

― Colonel Poo, Wednesday, 4 April 2007 11:56 (eighteen years ago)

It struck me as rahter like Keep the Aspidistra Flying, except without the wit or redemptive ending. Maybe I should give it another go though.

― Neil S, Wednesday, 4 April 2007 11:59 (eighteen years ago)

I think I liked the bleakness.

― Colonel Poo, Wednesday, 4 April 2007 12:01 (eighteen years ago)

Of his most feted books, the one i never "got" was The Power and The Glory. I love the idea of a whiskey priest, but for some reason it just didn't attract me as completely as most of his others. Then again, I read it early on and maybe need to try it again.

I'd like to read a defense of his 70s output. Everything I've read from that period has seemed pretty weak, but I want to like it.

― jergïns, Thursday, 5 April 2007 12:18 (eighteen years ago)

i had a tough time with power & the glory at first, but finally it got a hold of me. he is my favorite author, period.

― YGS, Thursday, 5 April 2007 15:05 (eighteen years ago)

Of his novels I've read The Heart of the Matter and The End of the Affair; and while I admire his way with dialogue the crises he delineates collapse after serious scrutiny – and I was raised Catholic! The former got particularly irritating once I knew how the novel would develop.

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Thursday, 5 April 2007 15:21 (eighteen years ago)

i'm not sure what he was trying to do with 'england made me'. great title! iirc he amped up the stream-of-consciousness thing in that. in terms of gg's life, it's probably important to note that basically he had a big hit with 'stamboul train' and a great contract for more books, but stumbled quite a bit in the early thirties. i think 'england made me' did pretty badly. so he came back fighting with the 'entertainments'. something like that anyway.

― That one guy that quit, Thursday, 5 April 2007 21:12 (eighteen years ago)

three years pass...

new film version of Brighton Rock on the way, action 'updated' to 1964:

http://mubi.com/notebook/posts/2323

― kind of shrill and very self-righteous (Dr Morbius), Monday, 20 September 2010 17:12 (fifteen years ago)

eleven months pass...

...and it stinks. Nice book, tho, and the '47 film is a good one.

― incredibly middlebrow (Dr Morbius), Monday, 22 August 2011 16:10 (fourteen years ago)

three years pass...

So Quiet American foreshadows the Vietnam War pretty nicely, huh.

Almost done with it, my first Greene, generally like it. I feel like he has a surprising tendency to spell things out for the reader, and that he gets a little heavy-handed (the York Harding bit is good, but it doesn't need to be repeated so many times) -- surprising because otherwise the book seems to expect a high level of intelligence and with-it-ness from the reader.

― five six and (man alive), Thursday, 5 March 2015 16:32 (ten years ago)

two years pass...

I started The Ministry of Fear, my first Greene since The Quiet American in 2002.

― morning wood truancy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 5 October 2017 19:49 (eight years ago)

three years pass...

anyone read A Burnt-Out Case?

― Patriotic Goiter (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 30 October 2020 20:02 (five years ago)

I read it a long time ago, don't remember it at all, have been planning to re-read it for a while now.

― Lily Dale, Friday, 30 October 2020 21:06 (five years ago)

three years pass...

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/dec/10/african-writer-row-graham-greene-yambo-ouologuem-malian-author

― xyzzzz__, Monday, 11 December 2023 10:07 (two years ago)

Intriguing, thanks!

― dow, Monday, 11 December 2023 15:05 (two years ago)

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