UKC

Just read 'Travels With My Aunt' and 'Brighton Rock' (to think I had a friend at school called Pinkie, *shiver*)

I really enjoyed them both and would love to read some more.

I suppose the obvious answer from a climbing forum would be 'The End of the Affair', but any recommendations?

Cheers
Tom

In reply to Queequeg:

Any and all.

In reply to brt:

Thought as much.

Been well impressed so far.

Cheers

In reply to Queequeg: the one in donnie darko, the destructors...top one

In reply to Ste Brom:

Nice one.

I'll check the library

(might watch Donnie Darko again too now you come to mention it)

Cheers
Tom

In reply to Queequeg:

The Power and The Glory, but maybe I'm only saying that cos it's the only I've read apart from Brighton Rock. It is very downbeat, a sense of inevitable doom and loss is right there from the beginning (and it only gets worse!) It is a very satisfying read though.
I have seen a film adaptation of The Tenth Man which is slightly lesser-known Greene I think - I bet the book is dead good though (the film was a bit ham-handed, a cheap made-for-TV thing, but the premise is intriguing)

In reply to Blue Straggler:
It is very downbeat, a sense of inevitable doom and loss is right there from the beginning (and it only gets worse!)


I'm getting the feeling that's a reccurent theme in his books

Cheers, I'll check it out.

In reply to Queequeg: you'll prob love robert graves (i claudius, &c), found him very similar, though time scales are to be desired ...

In reply to Queequeg:

You may well be right, especially as I named the wrong bloody book! I meant "The Heart of the Matter". I have not read "The Power and The Glory".
The Heart of the Matter is a much more dour piece of writing than is Brighton Rock, though. Brighton Rock has zip and pace and a plot to follow, The Heart of the Matter is more a portrait of a place, a time, and the state of a broken soul - the specific characters and story elements seem secondary to this.
It's a long time since I've read it but these things have never gone away. Might have dig it out for a re-read!

In reply to Queequeg:
The Honorary Consul & The Quiet American (only two I've read, but both were unforgettable).

In reply to Queequeg:
I can't believe no one has mentioned 'Our Man In Havana' or 'The Third Man'. Both excellent books I would definately recomend.

In reply to Queequeg:

Graham Greene is probably my favourite author. I've not read them all yet though.

I really liked The Comedians - set in Haiti at the start of Papa Doc Duvalier's regime. It's a mixture of the bleak - the sinister and ruthless Ton Ton Macoute - but with lighter, almost comedic moments. What I like most about his writing is that his characters are very human - the heros are very ordinary people with faults and definitely not heroic - but sometimes achieving close to heroic (but very realistic) feats. I find his writing can be very heartwarming at times.

I also liked very much Our Man in Havana, The Power and the Glory and Brighton Rock. But I thought The Heart of the Matter was just very grim.

In reply to El Greyo:

Definite second for The Comedians. One of my favourites. Travels with my Aunt is one of my favourite books of all time, but I'm a sucker for all Graham Greene.

Dr Fisher of Geneva or the Bomb Party is another one I love(quite short if I remember).

Getting to know the General is also a good read. Not fiction but an account of GG's time in Panama.

Enjoy - makes me want to go and dig out my old GGs

In reply to Queequeg:

The only bad one that I read was End of the Affair - way too Catholic guilt for me.

Not mentioned before, but I liked Heart of the Matter and on a lighter note, Our Man in Havana.

Hmm - have to read some more GG.

In reply to Jenn:

Ahem

In reply to Queequeg:

The End of the Affair is beautiful, and sad, and just - well - recommended. By me, anyway.

In reply to Queequeg: any. have read loads and loved tehm all.
'end of the affair' and 'travels with my aunt' were my favourites though.

ooo maybe i should re read its been about 10 years now!

In reply to Ste Brom:

is that the one where the kids get even with some miserable old sod by ripping his house to bits while he's out.? They made a superb film of this in the 70's.

In reply to Jenn: But Heart of the Matter is riddled with Catholic Guilt as well, surely? It's a messy, sordid kind of book.

Brighton Rock is astounding.

In reply to Stig:

More credible Catholic guilt maybe, given the protagonist and the situation.

In reply to TRNovice:

I recommend Monsignor Quixote as well BTW.

In reply to Queequeg:

GG arrggaahagggahh....

Horrific flasbacks to High School and the terminal boredom that accompanied the Brighton Rock sessions. Absolute tosh at the time, but don't have the heart to reinvestigate!

In reply to 220bpm:

worth revisiting - Pinkie's a right malevolent little bastard.

In reply to CJD:

Dare I say that the Boulting Brothers' 1947 film adaptation of Brighton Rock was every bit the book's equal, apart from the ending, where the film manages to IMPROVE upon the book?

In reply to Stig:

It's just different - not as much whinging, more suicide, and just getting on with things...


I still have to read that one!

In reply to all:

Well thanks for the great response everyone.

It looks like I can't go far wrong whatever one I choose to read.

I'll check out the Brighton Rock fillum too.

Thanks again.
Tom

In reply to Jenn:

Like I said
"The Heart of the Matter is more a portrait of a place, a time, and the state of a broken soul - the specific characters and story elements seem secondary to this. "

In reply to Queequeg:

Ohhh - forgot - the Third Man is a great film as well! Well recommended.

In reply to Blue Straggler:
>the state of a broken soul - the specific characters and story elements seem secondary to this.

Or the state of a broken empire?

In reply to Jenn:

What's it like to read? I gather that it was just a prose outline for the "original" screenplay, subsequently published as a "novella" after the success of the film? Is that about right?
I've seen the film and have major reservations about the lauding of Harry Lime as a lovable rogue, or even an antihero - he deliberately sold watered-down penicillin on the black market, vastly increasing the suffering of sick children. The film never truly overcomes, or deals with, this (I'm all for a sympathetic portrayal of an antihero/bad guy - Reservoir Dogs and various Mafia films etc) but it doesn't quite come off in The Third Man.
Still, wonderful stuff. Will never forget an excellent day escaping from the hot sun and Euro 96 in London, with a double bill of double bills - Brighton Rock & The Third Man, then Wings of Desire and Faraway So Close. A panoply of stars on the screen - Attenborough, Welles, Lou Reed and Mikhail Gorbachev

And some pretentious fellow whose attempt to start an ovation at the end of The Third Man (the cemetery snub) fell very flat

In reply to Blue Straggler:

I think that in The Third Man, one of the points is that Harry Lime acts the lovable rogue, but in fact he's a ruthless criminal who is willing to profit from the suffering of children. He manages to pull this act off and convince Holly Martins and Anna. I guess, to some extent, Orson Welles is able convince the audience too.
But I don't think the film is makes the judgement that Lime is in some way forgiveable - in fact the colonel persuades Martins to betray his former best friend (and eventually Martins kills Lime) by revealing the true extent of suffering Lime has directly caused.

It's a truely brilliant film.

I've read the novella as well, which is also excellent and worth reading, but it was always meant to be a film.

In reply to Queequeg: One of the top writers of the 20th C in my opinion. I've read and loved most of his stuff. Except Journey Without Maps, which I've never been able to get excited about, or indeed to finish.