Graham Greene Goes to Havana [by David Lehman]

Here's to William H. Pritchard, an old-line English professor who takes his reading seriously and writes about it for the Sewanee Review.

In the Winter 2010 issue of the venerable journal, Pritchard reviews an edition of Graham Greene's letters (Graham Greene:A  Life in Letters, ed. Richard Greene; Norton). It's an exemplary review -- well-written, enjoyably opinionated, tactful. 

I love it that Pritchard thinks more highly of The Ministry of Fear (1943) than of The Power and the Glory (1940), though this reverses Greene's own valuation. What Greene called his "entertainments," such as The Ministry of Fear or This Gun fir Hire, are generally superior to his journeys into high despair, such as The Power and The Glory or The Heart of the Matter.

But the best things in the review are the quotations from Greene. The writer said that he traveled as much as he did -- to Cuba, Panama, Sierra Leone, Haiti, Vietnam -- not "to seek material for novels but to regain the sense of insecurity" to which the London blitzes had addicted him. I believe it.

Here's Greene's take on Havana, capital of luxury and vice, in the days before Castro seized control: "Havana has been a fascinating city, quite the most vicious I have ever been in. I had hardly left my hotel door before I was offered cocaine, marijuana, and various varieties of two girls and a boy, two boys and a girl, etc." According to Pritchard, the book's editor Richard Greene (no relation) seems to like his namesake, a refreshing change from Greene biographer Norman Sherry, who, in a display of "prurient absurdity," gave "a list of the novelist's forty-seven favorite prostitutes -- surely a new kind of labor of love on a biographer's part."

Now I will read the book.

-- DL  [from the archives; first posted on April 24, 2010]

In the Winter 2010 issue of the venerable journal, Pritchard reviews an edition of Graham Greene's letters (Graham Greene:A  Life in Letters, ed. Richard Greene; Norton). It's an exemplary review -- well-written, enjoyably opinionated, tactful. 

I love it that Pritchard thinks more highly of The Ministry of Fear (1943) than of The Power and the Glory (1940), though this reverses Greene's own valuation. What Greene called his "entertainments," such as The Ministry of Fear or This Gun fir Hire, are generally superior to his journeys into high despair, such as The Power and The Glory or The Heart of the Matter.

But the best things in the review are the quotations from Greene. The writer said that he traveled as much as he did -- to Cuba, Panama, Sierra Leone, Haiti, Vietnam -- not "to seek material for novels but to regain the sense of insecurity" to which the London blitzes had addicted him. I believe it.

Here's Greene's take on Havana, capital of luxury and vice, in the days before Castro seized control: "Havana has been a fascinating city, quite the most vicious I have ever been in. I had hardly left my hotel door before I was offered cocaine, marijuana, and various varieties of two girls and a boy, two boys and a girl, etc." According to Pritchard, the book's editor Richard Greene (no relation) seems to like his namesake, a refreshing change from Greene biographer Norman Sherry, who, in a display of "prurient absurdity," gave "a list of the novelist's forty-seven favorite prostitutes -- surely a new kind of labor of love on a biographer's part."

Now I will read the book.

-- DL  [from the archives; first posted on April 24, 2010]

Comments

[jim c]

The Power and the Glory is a slog-and-a-half; seriously, you have to read Ministry of Fear to cleanse the palate. Or see Lang's movie. I hate that book, PG in name only. On the other hand, The Heart of the Matter is no doubt a great book; over the years I've started it many times and when I finish it I plan to celebrate it. The finishing, not the book. I asked Richard H. once why he didn't like LeCarre. "Dear," he said, "Greene is better." Maybe, but I'd rather read LeCarre. 47 prostitutes ... yikes. My list is only 26. Size matters.

[The Best American Poetry]

I know exactly what you mean, Jim. While I enjoyed "A Gun for Sale," I made the mistake of reading "The Heart of the Matter" in grad school, which was very depressing and postponed my discovery of and delight in such of his works as "The Ministry of Fear," "Stamboul Express," "The Confidential Agent," and "Our Man in Havana." Two other mind blowing experiences, but for different reasons, were "The End of the Affair," "Brighton Rock," and "The Comedians." And. . .I still haven't finished "The Power and the Glory." -- DL