The Invisible Japanese Gentleman (in The Penguin Book of Modern British Short Stories - BRADBURY)
by Graham Greene 
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(Part of a Pair)
What must it be like to be a writer, dining among strangers, overhearing tidbits of conversation, and observing diners with that distinct writer's ear and eye? And what if in the snips of conversation you learn that among the other diners is an enthusiastic budding writer, just receiving her first advance and trying to plot out her life based on that? An old writer might be a tad jealous, a tad jaded, and if the writer writes about that, might he put a mean little twist at the end?
Yes.
This short story turned out to be part of a random pair, the second of two mood reads in sequence where I was surprised by the similarities. The other was written 30 years earlier by W. Somerset Maugham, The Lotus Eater. In both, the show more narrator is not entirely enthused by the protagonist living the dream, or in this case looking forward to living the dream. In this story, the narrator has a mild distaste for the young, self-absorbed protagonist.
See this GR list: https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/84287 a kind of short story anthology from which I have given myself the challenge to read all the stories in 2025. I picked this and the Maugham story just based on their enticing titles. show less
What must it be like to be a writer, dining among strangers, overhearing tidbits of conversation, and observing diners with that distinct writer's ear and eye? And what if in the snips of conversation you learn that among the other diners is an enthusiastic budding writer, just receiving her first advance and trying to plot out her life based on that? An old writer might be a tad jealous, a tad jaded, and if the writer writes about that, might he put a mean little twist at the end?
Yes.
This short story turned out to be part of a random pair, the second of two mood reads in sequence where I was surprised by the similarities. The other was written 30 years earlier by W. Somerset Maugham, The Lotus Eater. In both, the show more narrator is not entirely enthused by the protagonist living the dream, or in this case looking forward to living the dream. In this story, the narrator has a mild distaste for the young, self-absorbed protagonist.
See this GR list: https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/84287 a kind of short story anthology from which I have given myself the challenge to read all the stories in 2025. I picked this and the Maugham story just based on their enticing titles. show less
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Born in 1904, Graham Greene was the son of a headmaster and the fourth of six children. Preferring to stay home and read rather than endure the teasing at school that was a by-product of his father's occupation, Greene attempted suicide several times and eventually dropped out of school at the age of 15. His parents sent him to an analyst in show more London who recommended he try writing as therapy. He completed his first novel by the time he graduated from college in 1925. Greene wrote both entertainments and serious novels. Catholicism was a recurring theme in his work, notable examples being The Power and the Glory (1940) and The End of the Affair (1951). Popular suspense novels include: The Heart of the Matter, Our Man in Havana and The Quiet American. Greene was also a world traveler and he used his experiences as the basis for many books. One popular example, Journey Without Maps (1936), was based on a trip through the jungles of Liberia. Greene also wrote and adapted screenplays, including that of the 1949 film, The Third Man, which starred Orson Welles. He died in Vevey, Switzerland in 1991. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Graham Greene has a Legacy Library. Legacy libraries are the personal libraries of famous readers, entered by LibraryThing members from the Legacy Libraries group.
Common Knowledge
- Canonical title*
- Gli invisibili signori giapponesi (in Amori facili, amori difficili) (in Amori facili, amori difficili)
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