The End of the Affair (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition) (original 1951; edition 2004)

When I was very young I read “Brighton Rock; I was so young that I wasn’t able to appreciate the quality of Greene’s writing, and I don’t remember the book, and now it feels like “The end of the affair” is the first book I’ve read by him, and I really appreciate it.

The narrator of the story is Maurice Bendrix, a writer. He has a friend called Henry, whose wife, Sarah, Bendrix has an affair with. The story takes place at the end of the Second World War and following it.

At one point Sarah ends the affair, but a couple of years later, after a chance meeting, Bendrix becomes jealous of the man Sarah apparently now is seeing, and hires a detective to follow her.

The detective steals Sarah’s diary, so we get to see things from her side, how she feels about Bendrix and everything.

Bendrix and Sarah both lack religious beliefs, but Sarah begins to visit Smythe, a confirmed atheist, whose main interest in life is trying to convince others that there is no God.

For some reason, Sarah’s conversations with Smythe make her begin to believe in God.

To a certain extent, I feel that the book is not about a man and his love affair, or the end of the affair, but about belief or non-belief in God, and about Catholicism.

I appreciated the book so much that I could easily have read it again, immediately, had I not had many other books to read. Highly recommended. ( )

Rithöfundurinn Graham Greene var kaþólskur og hann mun hafa ritað fjórar bækur þar sem hann fjallaði sérstaklega um trúna og spurningar sem henni tengjast. Sagan The End of an Affair sem kom út 1951 er síðust þeirra bóka og segir frá rithöfundi sem á ástarsambandi við gifta konu.
Sagan er þrungin hatri, eigingirni og öfundsýki aðalpersónunnar og hefst tveimur árum eftir að konan hafði slitið sambandi þeirra án skýringar. Eftir því sem á söguna líður rifjar höfundurinn upp ástarsamband þeirra og angist sína við aðskilnaðinn en um leið hefur hann rannsókn á högum konunnar með aðstoð einkaspæjara þar sem hann er þess fullviss að hún hafi fundið sér annan ástmögur.
Það er ekki mikið að gerast í sögunni. Öllu heldur byggist hún upp á hugsunum og samtölum einstaklinga sem eftir því sem á líður snúast að trú og deilum um tilvist Guðs.
Mér fannst sagan áhrifarík og snart mig djúpt. Ekki síst vegna sárrar angistar aðalpersónunnar og skilningsleysis á afstöðu konunnar sem hann elskaði. ( )

Capa horrorosa - tapado com papel da cacau show

In the past eight months or so, I have read seven or eight books by Graham Greene. They have all been enjoyable reads with some profundity. I'm surprised this one is the highest rated of his works on Goodreads and that people, who's opinion I respect, like this novel.

I didn't enjoy it, one problem is that the setting of Clapham Common, London just after the war doesn't come alive. It's not that Greene needs a exotic setting like the the Congo or Vietnam, he wrote about Brighton brilliantly in "Brighton Rock". Neither do the main players, the cynical novelist, Maurice, his saintly lover Sarah and her weak husband Henry, have much to recommend them. The plot device of having the private detective, Parkis, get Sarah's diary for Maurice was hackneyed. Also the contents of her diary detailing her struggle for a relationship with God just annoyed me. The comic Parkis was the only character I liked.

It's amazing how many novels Greene wrote and how different they are while all being distinctively his. This one didn't do it for me, but I'm still looking forward to my next GG - I'm hoping to find a second hand copy of "The Ministry of Fear" also set in London I believe, the movie was fantastic. ( )

There are many wonderful reviews of this book here on this page. I read this and became enchanted by its fine writing, so clearly the result of a bitter heart-breaking experience. Great novel.