The End of the Affair (1951)

My older son raved about this book, so I read it. Graham Greene is one of my favorite novelists, but I could not remember this book, although I know I had read it previously. Oddly, just before I began "The End of the Affair" I came across a quote from Greene which ran something like, "I wish to be known as a novelist who is Catholic rather than as a Catholic novelist." This novel, perhaps even more than "The Power and the Glory", is decidedly a Catholic novel. I prefer that one to "The End of the Affair," as I prefer a number of Greene's other novels over this one. ( )

This was a great book to listen to; Colin Firth's voice was very dreamy- although I could say that about most foreign narrators. Right after starting the book I remembered that I had seen the movie. Julianne Moore, who I think is absolutely beautiful, played the role of Sarah Miles. Sarah is a bit selfish and completely unhappy in her marriage to the clueless (??maybe) Henry. She meets Maurice, a writer, and they begin a multi-year passionate affair. What struck me was the strong contradiction between how obsessed and "in love" Maurice is with Sarah with his strong hate and even cruel actions towards her.

I loved the setting of pre- and war time London and Greene writes that oh so well. I felt like I was there during the war and feeling all of the deprivations and anxieties that must of been rampant.

I loved Sarah- she was torn between duty and love. Henry was also very real to me and I wanted him to just go away and do his civil servant business. His neediness was just annoying by the end. I always hope fo the true love outcome and I wanted Maurice and Sarah to have that.

Greene is also talented in bringing forth satellite characters that add enourmous richness to the story. The private detective, Parkis, is one such character, his involvement provides opportunity for pity and hope.

Greene writes about those conflicting feelings that happen when you are in love right on point. The reader feels the strong emotions of love which we all know can easily spin into hate. It was also book of frustrations- wanting something/someone who can never be free.

My only complaint was around the deep religous themes. Maurice (or is it Greene) is so very angry at God and it plays out in the novel in a way that detracts from a great story. I get that he brought religous themes to his writing, but I felt that it was a bit too overdone. I get it, affairs are bad and bad people suffer for their sins.

I still want to read more of his work and if Mr. Firth narrates, that isn't a bad thing. ( )

I would give this 4 1/2 stars -- although nominally about the love, jealousy, and hate of a discarded lover for his lover and her husband, this short but powerful novel deals with the struggle of faith & belief (or disbelief) in God in 1940's London. ( )

I'd like to give this 3.5 stars. I enjoyed Greene's writing style and want to reread the book to write down all of the memorable quotations because there were a lot of those moments where I just stopped reading to think about something he wrote. However, I wanted more to happen in the book. I felt like the story would just move along at a slow rate and then pow! a big event occurred and I didn't even feel the buildup. (The bomb explosion is a prime example) Also, as the book club knows, I loved that moment after Sarah dies and Henry calls up Bendix to tell him and the conversation pretty much goes as follows:

Henry: "I'm calling to tell you Sarah died."
Bendix: "Wow, that sucks. I'm sorry to hear it."
Henry: "So what are you doing tonight? Wanna come over?"
Bendix: "Sure."

At book club, we talked about how this was one of the reads we WISH we could dissect in school because there are so many themes -- especially the whole religion/belief aspect of the novel.

I know Casey loves this book so I hope she won't stop being my sister for not loving this one but I definitely understand why it is a classic. ( )

Although this dragged a little at times, it still showed Greene's fine understanding of psychology, particularly the psychology of jealousy. ( )