Travels with My Aunt (1969)

Not my favorite Greene novel but rereading it after many years I was surprised to note that in this novel he begins to write like the Greene who wrote his later novels (Monsignor Quixote, The Bomb Party). Also, a priceless little episode while Pullen, the narrator is on a river boat toward the end of the book--only striking to a member of our family, however. ( )

Ugh. I was so utterly bored by this book that I wanted so badly to abandon it. But I forced myself to continue, even though I skimmed big chunks of it.

It just seemed like nothing was happening. And the things that DID happen annoyed me. Seriously, the "manservant" of the aunt you JUST met put marijuana in the urn containing your just-that-day-fresh mother's ashes, and that's just that? And then, when the police come to claim the urn for testing, they'll just need a tiny pinch so that they can test for the presence of mary jane? What the hell kind of shake was Wordsworth smoking? All of the drug references in this book grated on my nerves because they just didn't ring true. It was more like Greene just wanted to write a 1969 drug book, and this is what he came up with.

Aunt Augusta irritated me. It's one thing the be fun-loving, but another to be flighty and domineering at the same time. Her whims and mood changes left me with freaking whiplash. Not that Henry was any better. He might as well have been called Doormat. So frustrating!

I didn't enjoy this one. Not a good intro to Greene. I had hoped to enjoy it, but, yeah... not so much. ( )

5 stars for giving me the best sleep ever!!!

Seriously, I would read 3 pages and zzzzzzzzzzzzz. Since this book was part of a group read I was participating in I gave it my best effort but I only managed about 50 pages before I had to throw in the towel. I did like the first chapter. It was promising and I found myself chuckling at the chemistry between Aunt Augusta and Henry. After the first chapter it became boring and down right weird. Aunt Augusta's mood changes varied from paragraph to paragraph. I didn't find her as amusing as the first chapter and by the third chapter I wanted to stab her in the face. Henry was so freaking boring and his following Aunt Augusta about was seriously out of character for him. His personality was just bland. Wordsworth (Aunt Augusta's lover/drug supplier) was another character that needed a good facestabbing for sheer annoyingness. Then came the weird 1960's drug references. I won't even get into that. That was the point where I just had to stop. I couldn't take one more of Augusta's mood swings or weird reminiscent past stories or Henry's bland assessment of the whole situation. So in short, this is one that I don't plan on picking up every again and it has seriously turned me off of Greene's writing. ( )

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Although less profound than some of the author's other books, still entertaining. Henry Pulling, a retired bachelor, with a very organized and boring life, falls in with his 75-year-old Aunt Augusta when her young African butler, Wordsworth, stashes some marijuana in Henry's mother's ashes. Thus begins a zany adventure across the world. Wordsworth adores Augusta, who still holds affection for Mr. Visconti, who stole her money. In the end, Henry learns that Augusta is really his mother, but he was given to her sister to raise in a conventional lifestyle. Henry makes a new life in South America with his aunt/mother and Mr. Visconti, and marries a young girl.