Doctor Fischer of Geneva or the Bomb Party

Fans of Graham Greene can tell me if Doctor Fischer of Geneva was a good choice to read after my introduction to his work, the dazzlingly insightful and painful End of the Affair. Though we view the world from entirely different perspectives, Greene deals with ideas that I find deeply compelling: the character of God, the nature of man, and human suffering. He really wants to know. Please be warned that there are spoilers in this review.

Our narrator is Alfred Jones, a middle-aged man living in Switzerland who translates letters for a chocolates firm. He lost his left hand working as a fireman during The Blitz and is a widower with no children. He falls in love with a much younger woman, daughter of the incredibly wealthy Doctor Fischer show more whose dinner parties have a sinister reputation that no one wants to plumb. Anna-Luise, estranged from her father, is happy with Alfred in their little flat, enjoying the simplicity of their love. They think they are safe from Doctor Fischer, who never has cared about his daughter. But then Alfred receives an invitation to one of the parties, and the first hint of tragedy begins to flavor their lives.

You have to hand it to Greene for finding new and creative ways to explore human depravity. The parties are disgusting in a way I had never imagined; they are orgies of selfishness. Doctor Fischer invites his circle of very rich, very select people and gives very expensive presents as favors. But there is a catch: to get their presents, his guests must submit to some humiliating ordeal. If they refuse to play their host's game, they forfeit their prize. None of them need Doctor Fischer's gifts; they are each rich enough to purchase the costly gifts themselves many times over, but their greed always wins over their dignity. They scrabble at the Doctor's feet like carrion-eaters in the dust, replete with fat things but never sated.

Greene loves to play with conceptions of God and sometimes conflate them with the devil. Alfred and Anna-Luise tell one another that her father is not God Almighty, that he can't touch what they have, but of course his influence stretches over their lives like some monstrous shadow. I think Greene intends Doctor Fischer to depict a God who is hungry for human humiliation, a hunger that can never be satisfied. The Doctor is not insane; he is, in his way, a researcher of the human condition. He wants to see how far his subjects will stoop to get his gifts.

As a picture of the Christian God, this can't but be offensive to Christians, and yet somehow it does not offend me. Even at his most blasphemous, Greene isn't one of those authors who gets my back up. And I'm not sure why. Maybe it's because he doesn't like the ideas he's exploring either; something is seriously jarring about a God who acts more like the devil and Greene knows it. It can't be true. He never seems to deny God's existence, only to question His character — and when you do that, of course, you lay yourself open to the possibility that the ugliness and awfulness are all on your side, flaws of your perception, and not God's fault at all.

At the end it all comes undone; Anna-Luise dies in a skiing accident and Alfred is devastated enough to attempt suicide. When the attempt fails, he considers that in some way he wants revenge on her father, and so he accepts the invitation to Doctor Fischer's final party. At this party the stakes go beyond abject humiliation into the realm of the downright dangerous, and such is the slavering greed of the guests that they still plunge into the game. In the end, the man who studies evil so carefully in others cannot stand aloof from it as he has believed. His soul-destroying fascination with human depravity undoes him. Alfred is left with nothing but empty memories.

Greene is a brilliant author and I look forward to reading more of his work. It makes me think and see things as I haven't before. And all I want to say to him is, how sad it is that you never knew. show less

'It’s a bit too late for that, isn’t it?’
‘It’s never too late to spit at God Almighty. He lasts for ever and ever, amen. And he made us what we are.’
‘Perhaps he did, but Doctor Fischer didn’t.’
‘He made me what I am now.’
‘Oh,’ I said – I was impatient with the little man who had broken my solitude – ‘go up there then and spit. A lot of good may it do you.’

What a book! I can't reveal too much about the plot without giving some of the twists away but this was a meticulous exercise in spunky, dark. twisted, cynicism - and I loved it. If you're not a fan of Greene's dark side, stay way away from this one.

In places, the eponymous Dr Fischer and his games actually reminded me of Thomas Harris' Hannibal show more Lecter character - except without the gore and cannibalism. The end of Dr Fischer reveals their differences in motivations, which was nice to read because it added another dimension to Dr Fischer.

‘It’s just to show the others that he can get you to come. He may try to humiliate you in front of them – it would be like him. Bear it for an hour or two, and, if he goes too far, fling your wine in his face and walk out. Always remember we are free. Free, darling. He can’t hurt you or me. We are too little to be humiliated. It’s like when a man tries to humiliate a waiter – he only humiliates himself.' show less

In the midst of everything I am currently reading, Graham Greene was a breath of fresh air. Not that some of what I am in the middle of is bad (although some of it definitely is), rather it was just a joy to read this novel.

Joy may not seem the right word to some because this is not a nice novel. That is, one of the primary characters is, let’s mince no words, evil. The narrator is a young man who falls in love and marries a woman. This woman happens to be the daughter of a very rich individual. But, as noted, he is evil. (The evilness slowly comes forward in the story.) The man’s wife warns him not to get involved in the entanglements and humiliation her father will cause. But the narrator doesn’t listen, and that is where things show more fall apart – for many of the characters.

The book was written in the 80s, but it has the feel of aristocracy in the 20s or even late 1800s. Some may find that a bit off-putting. And some may also claim the book is a bit maudlin and predictable in parts.

Yes, I saw the end coming, but that did not stop my enjoyment of reading. Greene is an excellent author (Captain Obvious at his best) and his description and storytelling are as good as always. Maybe not his best book, but definitely good.

I will note that reading this book in 2025 is scary, because it is easy to apply the story to what is occurring today – the rich and powerful making others dance to their whims. That just adds one more important layer to this very good book. show less

3.5

Romance, greed, and theologically charged satire. Doctor Fischer, his guests, and his parties reminded me a lot of Rian Johnson's Glass Onion. Rich people all putting up with an insufferable host due to the perks he provides them, with a climactic game of potentially murderous proportions. It's a very short novella written late in the great Greene's career. Fischer seems to be representative of a sort of anti-christ, and indeed, explicitly compares himself to God. God who, apparently, tortures us with the small pleasures that alleviate a predominantly miserable existence; Fischer compensates for the abuse he heaps on his guests by awarding them with expensive prizes.

It doesn't really achieve the same level of wit or profundity as show more some of Greene's older novels, but it's extremely readable (I got through it in a day); nor is it without some interesting observations, even if it can be a bit on the nose. The ending is abrupt and dark, but not without a dry wink. It fell a bit flat for me. show less

This is one of Greene's later novels, first published in 1980 when he was in his 70s. It has the flavor of Greene's spiritual questioning, although placed into a nearly completely secular context.

The plot centers on Dr. Fischer, a sadistic, wealthy man, who made his fortune on toothpaste ("Dentophil Bouquet"). Dr. Fischer's achievement lags his status and his self-image -- he is treated as an immensely important man, always to be given special treatment. And he takes every advantage of it. His hobby is testing people -- a small group, called "Toads" by his daughter (Anna- Luise) who attend regular parties at Dr. Fischer's mansion. He tests his guests by humiliating them in return for the promise of a valuable gift if they endure his show more humiliations. Although already wealthy, his guests, the Toads, willingly accept the humiliations and treasure his gifts.

Alfred Jones, the narrator of the story, marries Dr. Fischer's daughter. Dr. Fischer, while professing little interest in either his daughter or her marriage, tests Jones. But Jones is very unlike the Toads -- he is neither wealthy nor greedy, and he does not accept Fischer's humiliations.

It's a story about souls, about having a soul, losing a soul, winning one's own soul. Ultimately, Dr. Fischer and Jones must test each other. It is a test of Dr. Fischer's nihilistic desire to tempt everyone into abandoning their souls against Jones' own dignity.

This isn't the best of Greene's novels, but I think it is neat, precise, and quick, running only about 150 pages. It doesn't compare to his novels that take on a larger scale, like The Power and the Glory or The Quiet American. But I enjoyed it, and it left me with things to think about. show less

A compact black comedy. More effort spent on the setup than the climax and resolution, which disappointed a little. Very male centric, with a “central” woman who might have been the proto- manic pixie dream girl.

A darkly comic novel about a misanthropic millionaire who decides to hold the last of his famous parties, first published in 1980.

At first, nothing seems to happen. Our narrator arrives as an invited guest to find other diners already at the table. There is a strange current in the air, eventually traced to the strange gifts Dr. Fischer has distributed to his guests.

Clever, as you might expect of Greene.
4 stars