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The Ministry of Fear
For Arthur Rowe, the trip to the charity fête was a joyful step back into adolescence, a chance to forget the nightmare of the Blitz and the aching guilt of having mercifully murdered his sick wife. He was surviving alone, outside the war, until he happened to win a cake at the fête. From that moment, he is ruthlessly hunted by Nazi agents and finds himself the prey of malign and shadowy forces.
This Penguin Classics edition features an introduction by Alan Furst.
This Penguin Classics edition features an introduction by Alan Furst.
224 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1943
About the author
Graham Greene
485 books5,371 followersParticularly known novels, such as
The Power and the Glory
(1940), of British writer Henry Graham Greene reflect his ardent Catholic beliefs.
The Order of Merit and the Companions of Honour inducted this English novelist, short story writer, playwright, screenplay writer, travel writer, and critic. His works explore the ambivalent moral and political issues of the modern world. Greene combined serious literary acclaim with wide popularity.
Greene objected strongly to description as a “Catholic novelist” despite Catholic religious themes at the root of much of his writing, especially the four major Catholic novels: Brighton Rock , The Heart of the Matter , The End of the Affair , and The Power and the Glory . Other works, such as The Quiet American , Our Man in Havana , and The Human Factor , also show an avid interest in the workings of international politics and espionage.
(Adapted from Wikipedia)
The Order of Merit and the Companions of Honour inducted this English novelist, short story writer, playwright, screenplay writer, travel writer, and critic. His works explore the ambivalent moral and political issues of the modern world. Greene combined serious literary acclaim with wide popularity.
Greene objected strongly to description as a “Catholic novelist” despite Catholic religious themes at the root of much of his writing, especially the four major Catholic novels: Brighton Rock , The Heart of the Matter , The End of the Affair , and The Power and the Glory . Other works, such as The Quiet American , Our Man in Havana , and The Human Factor , also show an avid interest in the workings of international politics and espionage.
(Adapted from Wikipedia)
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February 19, 2019
”Ah, he thought, Tolstoy should have lived in a small country--not in Russia, which was a continent rather than a country. And why does he write as if the worst thing we can do to our fellowman is kill him? Everybody has to die and everybody fears death, but when we kill a man we save him from his fear which would otherwise grow year by year...One doesn’t necessarily kill because one hates: one may kill because one loves...and again the old dizziness came back as though he had been struck over the heart.”
Ray Milland and Marjorie Reynolds star in the 1944 movie of Ministry of Fear.
Arthur Rowe is a murderer.
”A murderer is regarded by the conventional world as something almost monstrous, but a murderer to himself is only an ordinary man--a man who takes either tea or coffee for breakfast, a man who likes a good book and perhaps reads biography rather than fiction, a man who at a regular hour goes to bed, who tries to develop good physical habits but possibly suffers from constipation, who prefers either dogs or cats and has certain views about politics.”
A murderer could be someone sitting next to you on the subway. It could be the man with the heavy jowls looking like an accountant, innocuous, boring, with blunt fingers and deceptively more power in those slumped shoulders than you might first believe. Or how about the woman sitting next to the Asian couple with the clicking knitting needles, flashing like swords even in the muted light, looking like an aging Kathleen Turner with crisp blue eyes that would hold your gaze as she slipped one of those needles under your ribcage and shoved it upward seeking your heart. Then, there is the youth hiding behind the Oakland Raiders hat and the wrap around sunglasses with the trashy underage girlfriend, her eyes as old as Egypt, twinned around his arm. He doesn’t weigh a buck twenty, not a threat to a grown man except that bulge under his jacket, the Sam Colt descendent, the great equalizer, can kill a better man, a bigger man, a more powerful man with just one jerk of the trigger.
Let’s set that aside for a moment.
“Tiger, darling,” Graham Greene’s wife used to say whenever she found a florid metaphor—and out it would go. His rival and fellow Catholic, Anthony Burgess, said that Greene sought in his writing “a kind of verbal transparency which refuses to allow language to become a character in its own right”. His voice is the driest of any great writer, drier than bone. From an article by Nicholas Shakespeare.
It all begins with Arthur Rowe deciding at the spur of the moment that he will attend a charity bazaar. It reminds him of tender memories of his youth. He guesses the weight of a cake, with real eggs, and doesn’t win. He gets his fortune told, and in the uncertain light he is mistaken for someone else, and the teller of fortunes plucks the thread of Rowe’s own destiny by giving him the “correct weight” for the cake. He wins the cake. This is during the Blitz.
”’I didn’t imagine war was like this,’ staring out at desolation. Jerusalem must have looked something like this in the mind’s eye of Christ when he wept….”
The Blitz was a good time to settle scores, an amazing opportunity to get away with murder, as people are being killed every day by bombs dropping from the sky and landmines. Food is scarce, and there are people that will kill for a cake with real eggs, but this cake is of interest to certain parties because of something else besides eggs in the batter. Arthur Rowe has been caught up in something sinister. There are people trying to kill him.
Graham Greene, I see you lurking between sentences, peering around the edges of paragraphs, pressed up, in the shadows, at the spine of the book.
Hey you, the guy lurking over there in the corner, come on into the room enter the frame.
Arthur Rowe launches his own investigation. He can’t go to the police because he doesn’t have a clue what to tell them. He hires a detective agency to help him try to discover who is trying to kill him. He meets a girl and her brother, twins, who offer to help him. He is accused of murder, which has the police after him as well as the killers. Rowe’s own past dogs him with every step.
”A murderer is rather like a peer: he pays more because of his title. One tries to travel incognito, but it usually comes out….”
He will be, for the rest of his life, on trial.
He is betrayed.
He is blown up.
He is incarcerated in an assisted living facility with his memories jumbled and missing. He pines for Dickens, whom he used to read over and over like other people read the Bible. He does have access to a book of Tolstoy, but finds little comfort there. (Books mentioned in books are always a comfort to me as if the author is giving me a wink of reassurance.) The investigative part of Rowe’s mind that was so essential to sinking him deeper into this nefarious plot is alive and well. He soon discovers that he is being held rather than being assisted.
He escapes, reluctantly.
”He put his hands on the dressing-table and held to it; he said to himself over and over again, ‘I must stand up, I must stand up.’ as though there were some healing virtue in simply remaining on his feet while his brain reeled with the horror of returning life.”
Things have changed in the two months he has been someone else. Not all of his memories have returned so he is not even a complete Arthur Rowe yet. The Twins, remember the twins, well they are not who he thought they were either.
He remembers his wife. He remembers what he has done. He sees it in everyone’s faces.
”He wants to warn them --don’t pity me. Pity is cruel. Pity destroys. Love isn’t safe when pity’s prowling around.”
Wonderful still shot from the 1944 movie starring Marjorie Reynolds directed by Fritz Lang.
This is Graham Greene at his best with a convoluted plot, with key elements hidden from us, and a host of characters impossible to trust. He puts us in the skin of Arthur Rowe, knowing only what he knows, which leaves us as bewildered as the main character. Greene plays on my own fears of being incarcerated without my own memories to defend myself, and yet, knowing full well that I’m not who they say I am. There is definitely a bit of Franz Kafka at play here. This book was published in 1943 during a time when all of England had been thrust into the war. Women and children are now at risk as much as a frontline soldier, with death whistling in everyone’s ears as it falls from the sky on a daily basis.
Like the plot of many episodes of Foyle’s War, one man’s troubles during such a time do not receive the same attention they would have been given before the war, but when it is discovered that the most dear secrets of England are in the wind, Rowe knows he can’t afford to fail. He is an unlikely hero who finds the courage to muster the shattered pieces of himself and help save a nation. Highly Recommended!!
If you wish to see more of my most recent book and movie reviews, visit http://www.jeffreykeeten.com
I also have a Facebook blogger page at:https://www.facebook.com/JeffreyKeeten
Ray Milland and Marjorie Reynolds star in the 1944 movie of Ministry of Fear.
Arthur Rowe is a murderer.
”A murderer is regarded by the conventional world as something almost monstrous, but a murderer to himself is only an ordinary man--a man who takes either tea or coffee for breakfast, a man who likes a good book and perhaps reads biography rather than fiction, a man who at a regular hour goes to bed, who tries to develop good physical habits but possibly suffers from constipation, who prefers either dogs or cats and has certain views about politics.”
A murderer could be someone sitting next to you on the subway. It could be the man with the heavy jowls looking like an accountant, innocuous, boring, with blunt fingers and deceptively more power in those slumped shoulders than you might first believe. Or how about the woman sitting next to the Asian couple with the clicking knitting needles, flashing like swords even in the muted light, looking like an aging Kathleen Turner with crisp blue eyes that would hold your gaze as she slipped one of those needles under your ribcage and shoved it upward seeking your heart. Then, there is the youth hiding behind the Oakland Raiders hat and the wrap around sunglasses with the trashy underage girlfriend, her eyes as old as Egypt, twinned around his arm. He doesn’t weigh a buck twenty, not a threat to a grown man except that bulge under his jacket, the Sam Colt descendent, the great equalizer, can kill a better man, a bigger man, a more powerful man with just one jerk of the trigger.
Let’s set that aside for a moment.
“Tiger, darling,” Graham Greene’s wife used to say whenever she found a florid metaphor—and out it would go. His rival and fellow Catholic, Anthony Burgess, said that Greene sought in his writing “a kind of verbal transparency which refuses to allow language to become a character in its own right”. His voice is the driest of any great writer, drier than bone. From an article by Nicholas Shakespeare.
It all begins with Arthur Rowe deciding at the spur of the moment that he will attend a charity bazaar. It reminds him of tender memories of his youth. He guesses the weight of a cake, with real eggs, and doesn’t win. He gets his fortune told, and in the uncertain light he is mistaken for someone else, and the teller of fortunes plucks the thread of Rowe’s own destiny by giving him the “correct weight” for the cake. He wins the cake. This is during the Blitz.
”’I didn’t imagine war was like this,’ staring out at desolation. Jerusalem must have looked something like this in the mind’s eye of Christ when he wept….”
The Blitz was a good time to settle scores, an amazing opportunity to get away with murder, as people are being killed every day by bombs dropping from the sky and landmines. Food is scarce, and there are people that will kill for a cake with real eggs, but this cake is of interest to certain parties because of something else besides eggs in the batter. Arthur Rowe has been caught up in something sinister. There are people trying to kill him.
Graham Greene, I see you lurking between sentences, peering around the edges of paragraphs, pressed up, in the shadows, at the spine of the book.
Hey you, the guy lurking over there in the corner, come on into the room enter the frame.
Arthur Rowe launches his own investigation. He can’t go to the police because he doesn’t have a clue what to tell them. He hires a detective agency to help him try to discover who is trying to kill him. He meets a girl and her brother, twins, who offer to help him. He is accused of murder, which has the police after him as well as the killers. Rowe’s own past dogs him with every step.
”A murderer is rather like a peer: he pays more because of his title. One tries to travel incognito, but it usually comes out….”
He will be, for the rest of his life, on trial.
He is betrayed.
He is blown up.
He is incarcerated in an assisted living facility with his memories jumbled and missing. He pines for Dickens, whom he used to read over and over like other people read the Bible. He does have access to a book of Tolstoy, but finds little comfort there. (Books mentioned in books are always a comfort to me as if the author is giving me a wink of reassurance.) The investigative part of Rowe’s mind that was so essential to sinking him deeper into this nefarious plot is alive and well. He soon discovers that he is being held rather than being assisted.
He escapes, reluctantly.
”He put his hands on the dressing-table and held to it; he said to himself over and over again, ‘I must stand up, I must stand up.’ as though there were some healing virtue in simply remaining on his feet while his brain reeled with the horror of returning life.”
Things have changed in the two months he has been someone else. Not all of his memories have returned so he is not even a complete Arthur Rowe yet. The Twins, remember the twins, well they are not who he thought they were either.
He remembers his wife. He remembers what he has done. He sees it in everyone’s faces.
”He wants to warn them --don’t pity me. Pity is cruel. Pity destroys. Love isn’t safe when pity’s prowling around.”
Wonderful still shot from the 1944 movie starring Marjorie Reynolds directed by Fritz Lang.
This is Graham Greene at his best with a convoluted plot, with key elements hidden from us, and a host of characters impossible to trust. He puts us in the skin of Arthur Rowe, knowing only what he knows, which leaves us as bewildered as the main character. Greene plays on my own fears of being incarcerated without my own memories to defend myself, and yet, knowing full well that I’m not who they say I am. There is definitely a bit of Franz Kafka at play here. This book was published in 1943 during a time when all of England had been thrust into the war. Women and children are now at risk as much as a frontline soldier, with death whistling in everyone’s ears as it falls from the sky on a daily basis.
Like the plot of many episodes of Foyle’s War, one man’s troubles during such a time do not receive the same attention they would have been given before the war, but when it is discovered that the most dear secrets of England are in the wind, Rowe knows he can’t afford to fail. He is an unlikely hero who finds the courage to muster the shattered pieces of himself and help save a nation. Highly Recommended!!
If you wish to see more of my most recent book and movie reviews, visit http://www.jeffreykeeten.com
I also have a Facebook blogger page at:https://www.facebook.com/JeffreyKeeten
May 6, 2015
This is wonderful. Elements of Brighton-boardinghouse, noir, absurdist, amnesiac, crime and spy genres, leavened with (pre) echoes of The Prisoner and 1984 and even Kafka's The Trial. This book is written with Orwell's general satirical edge, even if only a slight one, is definitely the most entertaining book I've read in ages. I'm so enjoying it.
I really love good writing for it's own sake and when that's married to plot and characterisation, it becomes a book you can't put down. And at the speed I read, that means the book is too short. Lucky for me that Greene was such a prolific writer.
I really love good writing for it's own sake and when that's married to plot and characterisation, it becomes a book you can't put down. And at the speed I read, that means the book is too short. Lucky for me that Greene was such a prolific writer.
August 21, 2018
I'm continually impressed by Graham Greene's work. Even here, in what Greene called "an entertainment," he displays exquisite sentence-level crafting that's actually quite Jamesian in its sophistication and verve. Greene's attention to character also shines in this murky story of espionage, betrayal, and mistaken identity. The plot may have been a bit muddled for my taste--the tension not building nearly as well as in his major work--but this is a very fine novel that transports you to wartime London in a way few other books do.
January 1, 2018
First thing to say is that I thought the quality of the writing deserved a more sophisticated plot. The plot seemed overegged to me and kept changing key as if Greene couldn’t quite decide if he was writing a psychological thriller or a comic farce. The novel opens with a preposterous premise – a cell of Nazi spies hide a vital roll of film inside a cake which is the prize at a fete. That they choose this wholly irrational method of passing on vital information makes you feel you’re entering into a whacky comedy. This feeling is given further weight when someone is murdered at an equally preposterous séance. An entire chapter was then dedicated to a dream. I don’t like dreams in novels. It seems like cheating. And this dream was a clumsy and unrealistic way of imparting important background detail. However all this is taking place during the London Blitz and it was the descriptive writing and detail of his evocation of this moment in history that was my favourite part of this novel. “In Gower Street they were sweeping up glass, and a building smoked into the new day like a candle which some late reveler had forgotten to snuff.”
The plot, though never entirely believable, becomes more gripping at the half way point. Most of all though it was the quality of Greene’s writing that impressed me and left me wanting to read more of his work.
The plot, though never entirely believable, becomes more gripping at the half way point. Most of all though it was the quality of Greene’s writing that impressed me and left me wanting to read more of his work.
May 17, 2024
“What seemed to me good and lofty, love of fatherland, of one's own people, became to me repulsive and pitiable. What seemed to me bad and shameful, rejection of fatherland for cosmopolitanism, now appeared to me on the contrary as good and noble.”
- Leo Tolstoy “What I Believe” 1884
“The older and wiser heads of the world have always described revolution and love to us as the two most foolish and loathsome of human activities. Before the war, even during the war, we were convinced of it. Since the defeat, however, we no longer trust the older and wiser heads and have come to feel that the opposite of whatever they say is the real truth about life.
-Osamu Dazai “The Setting Sun” 1947
“Rowe thought that you couldn't take such an odd world seriously, and yet all the time in fact he took this with a mortal seriousness. Those grand names stood permanently like statues in his mind: names like Justice and Retribution though what they boiled down to was Mr Rennit, hundreds and hundreds of Mr Rennits. But of course if you believed in God and the Devil the thing wasn't quite so comic. Because the Devil, and God too, had always used comic people, futile people, little suburban natures, the maimed and warped to serve his purposes. When God used them you talked emptily of Nobility and when the Devil used them of Wickedness, but the material was only dull shabby mediocrity in either case.”
“But it is impossible to go through life without trust: that is to be imprisoned in the worst cell of all, in oneself. For more than a year Rowe had been so imprisoned. There had been no change of cell, no exercise yard, no unfamiliar warder to end the monotony of his solitary confinement. A moment comes when a prison break must be made at whatever the risk.”
“There's no longer a thing called a criminal class. We can tell you that. There were lots of people in Austria you'd have said couldn't do the things we saw them do. Cultured people, a pleasant people, people you had sat next to at dinner. 'Mr Rennit,' Rowe said, 'the head of the Orthotex Detective Agency told me today that he'd never met a murderer. He said they were rare and not the best people.’ ‘Why, they are dirt cheap,' Hilfe said, 'Nowadays, I know myself at least six murderers. One was a cabinet minister, another was a heart specialist, the third a bank manager, a fourth an insurance agent.”
“The words stuck out between the decorated borders like a cannon out of a flower bed. 'Let not man prevail’ he read, and the truth of the appeal chimed like music. For in all the world outside that room man had indeed prevailed; Rowe had himself prevailed. It wasn't only evil men who did these things. Courage smashes a cathedral, endurance lets a city starve, pity kills. We are trapped and betrayed by our own virtues”.
- Graham Greene “Ministry of Fear” 1943
************
Arthur Rowe attends a charity event during wartime London and wins a cake after a fortune teller tells him the weight to be guessed. Soon strange events unfold as people try to get the cake back from him with money and threats. A Luftwaffe bomb destroys his boarding house and a mysterious stranger tries to poison him. Hiring detective Rennit, Rowe reveals he is a murderer who had been let out of a psychiatric hospital. He returns to the charity fund who had sponsored the event and meets Hilfe, an Austrian who had escaped the Anschluss with his sister. They visit the fortune teller Bellair and in a seance one of the group is murdered. As the others accuse Rowe he goes into hiding in the underground as German air raids pulverize the city.
On the run with no home or money Rowe is tricked to deliver a suitcase to a hotel and is trapped with Hilfe’s sister Anna. He wakes up in a nursing home for shell shocked veterans, with a complete loss of memory beyond his childhood years. As patients disappear into padded cells and straight jackets Anna’s visits and access to news are denied and he resolves to leave. Dr. Forester says that he’s wanted for murder and Rowe escapes to London to face the charges. Telling his story to Scotland Yard he becomes entangled in an investigation to break up a spy ring that had stolen state secrets for Nazis. The author called the book an entertainment, as opposed to his serious novels. He defies that idea with his philosophical and psychological insights.
Graham Greene published this noir thriller in 1943 shortly after the Blitz of 40-41. Like Rowe, Greene’s house had been destroyed by Nazi bombing. He was recruited into MI6, the British foreign intelligence service, between 41-44. He uses the backdrop of the Blitz and WWII to represent the murder in everyday life, in contrast to Rowe’s murder which was a mercy killing. His novels featured morally compromised characters, drifters, alone, often in trouble and searching for meaning. The writing and plot is up to his usual standards. It was adapted to a 1944 Hollywood movie by Fritz Lang but disliked by Greene. In over thirty films he only liked ‘Fallen Idol’ and ‘The Third Man’, British film productions that had screenplays written by him.
- Leo Tolstoy “What I Believe” 1884
“The older and wiser heads of the world have always described revolution and love to us as the two most foolish and loathsome of human activities. Before the war, even during the war, we were convinced of it. Since the defeat, however, we no longer trust the older and wiser heads and have come to feel that the opposite of whatever they say is the real truth about life.
-Osamu Dazai “The Setting Sun” 1947
“Rowe thought that you couldn't take such an odd world seriously, and yet all the time in fact he took this with a mortal seriousness. Those grand names stood permanently like statues in his mind: names like Justice and Retribution though what they boiled down to was Mr Rennit, hundreds and hundreds of Mr Rennits. But of course if you believed in God and the Devil the thing wasn't quite so comic. Because the Devil, and God too, had always used comic people, futile people, little suburban natures, the maimed and warped to serve his purposes. When God used them you talked emptily of Nobility and when the Devil used them of Wickedness, but the material was only dull shabby mediocrity in either case.”
“But it is impossible to go through life without trust: that is to be imprisoned in the worst cell of all, in oneself. For more than a year Rowe had been so imprisoned. There had been no change of cell, no exercise yard, no unfamiliar warder to end the monotony of his solitary confinement. A moment comes when a prison break must be made at whatever the risk.”
“There's no longer a thing called a criminal class. We can tell you that. There were lots of people in Austria you'd have said couldn't do the things we saw them do. Cultured people, a pleasant people, people you had sat next to at dinner. 'Mr Rennit,' Rowe said, 'the head of the Orthotex Detective Agency told me today that he'd never met a murderer. He said they were rare and not the best people.’ ‘Why, they are dirt cheap,' Hilfe said, 'Nowadays, I know myself at least six murderers. One was a cabinet minister, another was a heart specialist, the third a bank manager, a fourth an insurance agent.”
“The words stuck out between the decorated borders like a cannon out of a flower bed. 'Let not man prevail’ he read, and the truth of the appeal chimed like music. For in all the world outside that room man had indeed prevailed; Rowe had himself prevailed. It wasn't only evil men who did these things. Courage smashes a cathedral, endurance lets a city starve, pity kills. We are trapped and betrayed by our own virtues”.
- Graham Greene “Ministry of Fear” 1943
************
Arthur Rowe attends a charity event during wartime London and wins a cake after a fortune teller tells him the weight to be guessed. Soon strange events unfold as people try to get the cake back from him with money and threats. A Luftwaffe bomb destroys his boarding house and a mysterious stranger tries to poison him. Hiring detective Rennit, Rowe reveals he is a murderer who had been let out of a psychiatric hospital. He returns to the charity fund who had sponsored the event and meets Hilfe, an Austrian who had escaped the Anschluss with his sister. They visit the fortune teller Bellair and in a seance one of the group is murdered. As the others accuse Rowe he goes into hiding in the underground as German air raids pulverize the city.
On the run with no home or money Rowe is tricked to deliver a suitcase to a hotel and is trapped with Hilfe’s sister Anna. He wakes up in a nursing home for shell shocked veterans, with a complete loss of memory beyond his childhood years. As patients disappear into padded cells and straight jackets Anna’s visits and access to news are denied and he resolves to leave. Dr. Forester says that he’s wanted for murder and Rowe escapes to London to face the charges. Telling his story to Scotland Yard he becomes entangled in an investigation to break up a spy ring that had stolen state secrets for Nazis. The author called the book an entertainment, as opposed to his serious novels. He defies that idea with his philosophical and psychological insights.
Graham Greene published this noir thriller in 1943 shortly after the Blitz of 40-41. Like Rowe, Greene’s house had been destroyed by Nazi bombing. He was recruited into MI6, the British foreign intelligence service, between 41-44. He uses the backdrop of the Blitz and WWII to represent the murder in everyday life, in contrast to Rowe’s murder which was a mercy killing. His novels featured morally compromised characters, drifters, alone, often in trouble and searching for meaning. The writing and plot is up to his usual standards. It was adapted to a 1944 Hollywood movie by Fritz Lang but disliked by Greene. In over thirty films he only liked ‘Fallen Idol’ and ‘The Third Man’, British film productions that had screenplays written by him.
February 26, 2017
This story takes us to London during World War II. The air raids have reduced neighbourhoods to rubles; people seek refuge in the shelters – there is destruction and desolation everywhere. The author did not go overboard in depicting the destruction yet it was so effectively portrayed.
We get introduced to our protagonist, Arthur Rowe, at the very beginning of the story when he attends a fete. Rowe is man who clings to his happy childhood memories – he gets drawn to fetes with a childlike innocence, keeps reading his childhood books again and again; he does his level best to erase all his adult memories. He also wishes if he would participate in the war as a soldier or at least as a civil defense personnel but none of them would have him. You might have already guessed it – he harbours a deadly secret which makes him a pariah of sort and worse than that eats him up from inside. I was surprised to come across a certain concept in this book which was written in the 1940s.
Anyways, Rowe wins a cake at the fete and surprisingly the organizers want it back. Rowe refuses and takes it home. Very soon an attempt is made on his life and a past experience and an air raid (what irony!!!) saves his life.
Rowe now understands that something is not right and hires a detective – a certain Mr. Rennit. I shall quote Rennit so that you get an idea about him: “I’m not Sherlock Holmes. You don’t expect to find a man in my position, do you, crawling about floors with a microscope looking for blood-stains?”
Against the advice of Rennit, Rowe decides to plunge into the investigation – makes new allies and soon is implicated in a murder.
I won’t talk about the story anymore as I don’t want to reveal the story too much. If you decide the read the novel then it’s best that you don’t know much about the events.
I had started the book with very high expectations. My journey into the “Greeneland” had never been unsatisfactory. This novel falls in one of my favourite sub-genre of thrillers: a common man/woman victimized in a conspiracy and he/she ultimately triumphs using his/her determination, wits and if required fists/guns whatever. However, I am not totally satisfied with the book. The beginning was excellent – the mystery & suspense was perfectly built, but towards the end the story faltered. The behavior of the villains did not make sense and they were portrayed as incompetent, bumbling amateurs – some of them could have been like that too but all of them! I like my villains to be cunning and ruthless. The end was too melodramatic in my humble opinion.
This being a Graham Greene novel, you can expect some fine writing and the author won’t disappoint. I am saying that this is not a good book, but if you compare it with his best novels such as Brighton Rock, The Third Man or Our Man in Havana, then it does not pack a punch.
If you like your thrillers to be James Bond-ish with car chases, fancy gadgets and gun fights then this book is not for you. However, if you like Le Carre then you might want to give this books a try – you might end up enjoying it more than I did!
We get introduced to our protagonist, Arthur Rowe, at the very beginning of the story when he attends a fete. Rowe is man who clings to his happy childhood memories – he gets drawn to fetes with a childlike innocence, keeps reading his childhood books again and again; he does his level best to erase all his adult memories. He also wishes if he would participate in the war as a soldier or at least as a civil defense personnel but none of them would have him. You might have already guessed it – he harbours a deadly secret which makes him a pariah of sort and worse than that eats him up from inside. I was surprised to come across a certain concept in this book which was written in the 1940s.
Anyways, Rowe wins a cake at the fete and surprisingly the organizers want it back. Rowe refuses and takes it home. Very soon an attempt is made on his life and a past experience and an air raid (what irony!!!) saves his life.
Rowe now understands that something is not right and hires a detective – a certain Mr. Rennit. I shall quote Rennit so that you get an idea about him: “I’m not Sherlock Holmes. You don’t expect to find a man in my position, do you, crawling about floors with a microscope looking for blood-stains?”
Against the advice of Rennit, Rowe decides to plunge into the investigation – makes new allies and soon is implicated in a murder.
I won’t talk about the story anymore as I don’t want to reveal the story too much. If you decide the read the novel then it’s best that you don’t know much about the events.
I had started the book with very high expectations. My journey into the “Greeneland” had never been unsatisfactory. This novel falls in one of my favourite sub-genre of thrillers: a common man/woman victimized in a conspiracy and he/she ultimately triumphs using his/her determination, wits and if required fists/guns whatever. However, I am not totally satisfied with the book. The beginning was excellent – the mystery & suspense was perfectly built, but towards the end the story faltered. The behavior of the villains did not make sense and they were portrayed as incompetent, bumbling amateurs – some of them could have been like that too but all of them! I like my villains to be cunning and ruthless. The end was too melodramatic in my humble opinion.
This being a Graham Greene novel, you can expect some fine writing and the author won’t disappoint. I am saying that this is not a good book, but if you compare it with his best novels such as Brighton Rock, The Third Man or Our Man in Havana, then it does not pack a punch.
If you like your thrillers to be James Bond-ish with car chases, fancy gadgets and gun fights then this book is not for you. However, if you like Le Carre then you might want to give this books a try – you might end up enjoying it more than I did!
July 19, 2022
It is amazing how much Greene packs into a 200 page novel. Every time I finish reading a Graham Greene novel, I feel like I have read a really large book, even though most of his books are only 150-300 pages long.
The Ministry of Fear begins at a fete. A nostalgic man, Arthur Rowe roams aimlessly around the fete enjoying the sights and the sounds and then he wins a cake, after a fortune teller tells him its exact weight. But soon, Rowe begins to feel that people are out to steal the cake from him. After he hires a detective, things really begin to unravel. The plot is outlandish and unpredictable but Greene never goes into completely indecipherable Anthony Burgess territory (Tremor of Intent, M/F).
Like in The Third Man (which was set in Vienna), the book has a comical and absurdist evocation of bombarded wartime England. The elaborate hiring of a detective reminded me of The End of the Affair. Both these novels came after The Ministry of Fear though. Discussions over glasses of whiskey. A hint of Christianity and constant admonishing of pity which according to Greene is worse than lust ("sense of pity which is more promiscuous than lust"). The book is filled with some amazing similes and metaphors which help create mood and strengthens the visual impact of the scenes . The Ministry of Fear is unlike any of his other novels that I have read. Maybe a bit similar to The Third Man. Unfortunately, the alcohol and fortunately the Catholic guilt are administered only in mild doses.
And nobody can write erotic scenes like Greene. Rowe and Anna hustling around the hotel room suddenly realizing that they are holding hands. The seance where Rowe hold's Miss Pantil's "hot and dry" hands. In Heart of the Matter, when Wilson and Louise kiss each other, Greene describes their lips as being stuck together like bivalves and offers no further description.
Rowe's characterization deserves special mention. He is someone who has let himself go, a dreamer shut away from the rest of the world, living with his landlady. There are beautiful passages which describes Rowe's feelings when he realizes that he has no friends left and hence nobody to ask for help. The only people that know him are the friends of his long dead wife. Maybe Greene was suggesting that certain aspects of our personality and memories cease to exist when we lose friends who are the only keepers of those memories. Even though the book is a thrilling adventure, it is awash with yearning and melancholy.
The book is divided into four sections - The Unhappy Man, The Happy Man, Bits and Pieces and The Whole Man. I thought it was mostly about about a lonely and guilt-ridden man achieving masculinity by getting involved in an adventure. It is also about the power of memories - how they can both make and break us. The different aspects of patriotism. The bitter-sweet ending (He was pledging both of them to a life time of lies ..... It seemed to him that after all once could exaggerate the value of happiness) underscores the novel's capriciousness with the protagonist falling for the girl not only out of love but also a sense of pity.
The Ministry of Fear begins at a fete. A nostalgic man, Arthur Rowe roams aimlessly around the fete enjoying the sights and the sounds and then he wins a cake, after a fortune teller tells him its exact weight. But soon, Rowe begins to feel that people are out to steal the cake from him. After he hires a detective, things really begin to unravel. The plot is outlandish and unpredictable but Greene never goes into completely indecipherable Anthony Burgess territory (Tremor of Intent, M/F).
Like in The Third Man (which was set in Vienna), the book has a comical and absurdist evocation of bombarded wartime England. The elaborate hiring of a detective reminded me of The End of the Affair. Both these novels came after The Ministry of Fear though. Discussions over glasses of whiskey. A hint of Christianity and constant admonishing of pity which according to Greene is worse than lust ("sense of pity which is more promiscuous than lust"). The book is filled with some amazing similes and metaphors which help create mood and strengthens the visual impact of the scenes . The Ministry of Fear is unlike any of his other novels that I have read. Maybe a bit similar to The Third Man. Unfortunately, the alcohol and fortunately the Catholic guilt are administered only in mild doses.
And nobody can write erotic scenes like Greene. Rowe and Anna hustling around the hotel room suddenly realizing that they are holding hands. The seance where Rowe hold's Miss Pantil's "hot and dry" hands. In Heart of the Matter, when Wilson and Louise kiss each other, Greene describes their lips as being stuck together like bivalves and offers no further description.
Rowe's characterization deserves special mention. He is someone who has let himself go, a dreamer shut away from the rest of the world, living with his landlady. There are beautiful passages which describes Rowe's feelings when he realizes that he has no friends left and hence nobody to ask for help. The only people that know him are the friends of his long dead wife. Maybe Greene was suggesting that certain aspects of our personality and memories cease to exist when we lose friends who are the only keepers of those memories. Even though the book is a thrilling adventure, it is awash with yearning and melancholy.
The book is divided into four sections - The Unhappy Man, The Happy Man, Bits and Pieces and The Whole Man. I thought it was mostly about about a lonely and guilt-ridden man achieving masculinity by getting involved in an adventure. It is also about the power of memories - how they can both make and break us. The different aspects of patriotism. The bitter-sweet ending (He was pledging both of them to a life time of lies ..... It seemed to him that after all once could exaggerate the value of happiness) underscores the novel's capriciousness with the protagonist falling for the girl not only out of love but also a sense of pity.
July 26, 2019
In Ministry of Fear Graham Greene, in disguise of noir thriller, delves favorite and crucial to his work themes. Responsibility for own actions, blame, sin, sense of guilt, duty, morality.
Who is a bad man, condemned and pilloried by society merciful murderer of choice or maybe out of necessity ? Or maybe rather people acting in the name so called good of humanity and by the way not respecting an individual human life ? Is it wrong to relieve the suffering of terminally ill person ? Does a man have the right to shorten someone's life and anguish ? Does compassion, mercy, pity, love - call it as you want - give anyone the moral right to do such a thing ? Can such wretch normally live after and forgive yourself ?
don’t pity me. Pity is cruel. Pity destroys. Love isn’t safe when pity’s prowling around .
Tormented by guilt Artur Rowe wandering through the ravaged London on a strange impulse drops in the charity fair and wins a cake, the same getting oneself in the middle of the spy scandal. Entangled in terrifying and ridiculous events loses memory what paradoxically gives peace to him and makes him happy. Alienated, deprived of the past and unaware of chasing him demons, falls in love. Unfortunately, the memory slowly returns and Rowe has finally to decide whether to accept his painful past with all its consequences.
Novel in a bit Kafkaesque tone has a claustrophobic and nightmarish atmosphere, what only deepens feeling of desolation. And, after reading, as my dear friend Mala said in her review you’ll never look at the cake the same way .
August 18, 2023
داستان کتاب قسمتی از زندگی آرتور رو، روزنامهنگاری در لندن هست که در بحبوحهی جنگ جهانی دوم و بمباران نازیها درگیر ماجراهای جاسوسی و پاپوش میشه. داستان از جایی شروع میشه که آرتور در یک جشن خیریه برندهی یک کیک میشه در حالی که نباید این اتفاق میافتاد و در ادامه ماجرا با روایت پس گرفتن کیک و کشف واقعیت توسط آرتور دنبال میشه. میشه گفت نیمهی اول کتاب کمی گنگ هست (نه زیاد واقعاً) و نیمهی دوم خیلی سریع پیش میره و هر کدوم جذابیت خاص خودش رو داره. در کل داستان جالبی بود. ۳.۵ از نظر من نمرهی مناسبی برای این کتابه.ه
May 19, 2023
Graham Greene writes a story about love/loss, but what else is new? Only here, instead of cloaking it in absudity, or dousing it in religion, he disguises it as a thriller/mystery. Why does Arthur Rowe consider himself to be a murderer, and who is trying to murder him and why?
Written and published during WWII, its pages are dripping with anguish--the first half, at least. Greene does an exquisite job capturing the drear of daily life in London during the Blitz, compounded by Rowe's emotional state, and it is honestly a relief to reach Book Two. At this point there is a major (and very welcome) shift in tone, after which there is no putting it down. Masterful, even if Greene considered this to be just one his 'entertainments.' Sort of like the Taj Mahal is just a tomb. I seem to enjoy Greene so much more when doesn't take himself so seriously.
Written and published during WWII, its pages are dripping with anguish--the first half, at least. Greene does an exquisite job capturing the drear of daily life in London during the Blitz, compounded by Rowe's emotional state, and it is honestly a relief to reach Book Two. At this point there is a major (and very welcome) shift in tone, after which there is no putting it down. Masterful, even if Greene considered this to be just one his 'entertainments.' Sort of like the Taj Mahal is just a tomb. I seem to enjoy Greene so much more when doesn't take himself so seriously.
December 31, 2023
A great story. Arthur Rowe recently released after killing his wife to put her out of her misery and pain wanders into a fete. Here he has his fortune told and unknowingly says a password. He wins a cake with real eggs the story is set in the blitz of London. From there he is caught up in intrigue and fifth columnists.
A stranger tries to poison him. He hires a detective to find out why. He meets Anna and her brother Hilfe who try to help him. A seance takes place and then Rowe finds himself on the run after someone is murdered with his knife. He is tricked into taking a suitcase to a hotel where Anna appears. There is an explosion and Arthur wakes up in hospital without a memory.
The next part of the story finds him without a memory. He cannot remember anything after the age of 18. The rest of the story follows his escape, cooperation with the authorities and finally a confrontation with the mastermind of the spy ring. A great yarn. It is also worth recalling that the novel was written in 1943 after the blitz and with fifth columnists widely reported.
A stranger tries to poison him. He hires a detective to find out why. He meets Anna and her brother Hilfe who try to help him. A seance takes place and then Rowe finds himself on the run after someone is murdered with his knife. He is tricked into taking a suitcase to a hotel where Anna appears. There is an explosion and Arthur wakes up in hospital without a memory.
The next part of the story finds him without a memory. He cannot remember anything after the age of 18. The rest of the story follows his escape, cooperation with the authorities and finally a confrontation with the mastermind of the spy ring. A great yarn. It is also worth recalling that the novel was written in 1943 after the blitz and with fifth columnists widely reported.
April 6, 2014
This novel has one of the best opening chapters of any novel I have ever read. Arthur Rowe is a repressed and guilt ridden man, living out the war in a London boarding house with little companionship. So, when he comes across a rather sad little wartime fete, he is eager to recall the memories of childhood it evokes. During the fete, a misunderstanding means that he wins a cake. However, the cake was never meant for him and his sudden lucky prize has consequences he could never have anticipated.
This book was published in 1943 and, in it, Graham Greene paints an evocative picture of a war weary population. Arthur Rowe is bombed more than once during the novel and many of the people he comes across have a furtive, nervous air about them. London has been reduced to almost a series of small villages, with people having to consider whether or not they have time to cross the city before the sirens go. However, the blitz is not the only problem Arthur Rowe faces. He finds that he possesses something that the Germans want and they will use any means to acquire it. In fear of his life, Rowe tries to investigate the organisers of the fete and meets Anna Hilfe and her brother Willi; Austrian refugees, who seem to believe his outlandish story.
Although, in essence, this is a story which has been told before – the innocent man who somehow becomes involved in espionage and murder- rarely has it been told as well as this. Despite the danger, Arthur Rowe is a man who gradually begins to engage with the world around him again. This is a disturbing novel in places; a tale of coming to terms with guilt, the weight of memory, of love and loyalty. Although the main character is mild-mannered and bookish, he has a disturbing past and is suddenly motivated to try to find a future. This is not one of Graham Green’s most talked about novels, but it deserves to be. As a novel of wartime, it is fascinating as a portrait of a city which is battered, but certainly not beaten, and I am glad that I have discovered it.
This book was published in 1943 and, in it, Graham Greene paints an evocative picture of a war weary population. Arthur Rowe is bombed more than once during the novel and many of the people he comes across have a furtive, nervous air about them. London has been reduced to almost a series of small villages, with people having to consider whether or not they have time to cross the city before the sirens go. However, the blitz is not the only problem Arthur Rowe faces. He finds that he possesses something that the Germans want and they will use any means to acquire it. In fear of his life, Rowe tries to investigate the organisers of the fete and meets Anna Hilfe and her brother Willi; Austrian refugees, who seem to believe his outlandish story.
Although, in essence, this is a story which has been told before – the innocent man who somehow becomes involved in espionage and murder- rarely has it been told as well as this. Despite the danger, Arthur Rowe is a man who gradually begins to engage with the world around him again. This is a disturbing novel in places; a tale of coming to terms with guilt, the weight of memory, of love and loyalty. Although the main character is mild-mannered and bookish, he has a disturbing past and is suddenly motivated to try to find a future. This is not one of Graham Green’s most talked about novels, but it deserves to be. As a novel of wartime, it is fascinating as a portrait of a city which is battered, but certainly not beaten, and I am glad that I have discovered it.
February 7, 2022
“. . . all around us, though
We hadn’t named it, the ministry of fear” Seamus Heaney, from Singing School
“Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me”--Dune
The Ministry of Fear begins at a fete, a fair. Arthur Rowe, an “ordinary” everyman, is nostalgic, recalling his youth, attends and wins a cake, which begins the downhill slide for him in this novel that Graham Greene categorized as one of his “entertainments,” which means he saw them as very different from his “novels.” I’m a huge Greene fan, but I’ll admit there are a few of these supposedly “lesser” books I have never read. And I am here to say this book is not “less” any other book, really. It’s just a kind of dark thriller, though it has ethical implications as all his work does.
How does Rowe win the cake? It would seem it has something to do with a fortune teller at the fair that tells him the exact weight, but after this it appears everyone wants the cake back, and they try to kill him for it. A nightmare commences, with echoes of Kafka’s The Trial, darkly comic, absurd, almost surreal. He sees that others seem to want the cake, so he goes to get help from a man named Willi Hilfe, who takes him to a seance, where a man is killed before a bomb goes off.
Oh, yes! This 1943 novel is set in London, 1941, at the time of The Blitz of London by the Nazi regime. Air raid sirens, random bombing, parts of London are destroyed, many lives are lost. Chaos. Two other novels set in the time of The Blitz by Greene are The End of the Affair and The Third Man, and both have this sort of crazy logic, almost madness, where a seemingly politically neutral man is urged to action. If you are apolitical as Rowe is, the Blitz and the Nazi invasion have to seem like pure madness.
“The war and all that happened round him had seemed to belong to other people.”
So Rowe needs to be aware that evil must be fought, Greene seems to suggest. Rowe hires an inept and unwilling detective to help him. He enlists the help of Wiill’s sister Anna Hilfe, with whom he seems to fall in love; but when she is with him a bomb hits the building and he is hospitalized with amnesia. Again, this is the story of the “ordinary man,” as we see so often in Hitchcock thrillers, the innocent bystander, drawn into a life he never imagined. As he says, “I am one of the little men, not interested in ideologies,” but in time he must be involved.
So what is really going on? The Nazi regime, in countries it controlled and in those it intended to subvert, built up information on individuals in order to blackmail them into co-operation. This process Greene called their “ministry of fear.” So Arthur Rowe becomes aware of the reach of Nazi propaganda.
I am ready to see the 1944 film based on this book by the great Fritz Lang, characterized as noir, starring Ray Milland (yeah, the Tin Man from the Wizard of Oz!)..
One thing I like about Greene is his use of oxymoron, or contradiction, as his characters struggle with the truth of a situation. He hoids up an idea to the light to help us explore with his characters the various ways to see a situation:
“Her face looked ugly in the attempt to avoid tears; it was an ugliness which bound him to her more than any beauty could have done. It isn't being happy together, he thought as though it were a fresh discovery, that makes one love--it's being unhappy together.”
“ . . . it wasn’t only evil men who did these things. Courage smashes a cathedral, endurance lets a city starve, pity kills . . . we are trapped and betrayed by our virtues.”
“It is only if the murderer is a good man that he can be regarded as monstrous.”
Another thing I have yet to fully think through is that each chapter is accompanied by an epigraph from a British children’s book, The Little Duke, by Charlotte Yonge. Though Arthur is not a child, he is not yet a “man” in the sense that The Little Duke suggests. The first chapter of The Ministry of Fear is entitled “The Unhappy Man,” and the second to last chapter “The Happy Man,” so we are led to think that he has begun to “grow up” and make some moral progress:
“Rowe was growing up.” “He was not, after all, a boy. He was a middle-aged man. He had started something and he must go on.”
The Ministry of Fear is a book written in the pattern of the classic spy novel, where a character must confront evil and contribute to a better world. A hero’s journey. But it’s as if Greene were saying there is always a time to “grow up,” as if this were a coming-of-age novel for adults. And much better than I expected, with a master writer at the helm.
We hadn’t named it, the ministry of fear” Seamus Heaney, from Singing School
“Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me”--Dune
The Ministry of Fear begins at a fete, a fair. Arthur Rowe, an “ordinary” everyman, is nostalgic, recalling his youth, attends and wins a cake, which begins the downhill slide for him in this novel that Graham Greene categorized as one of his “entertainments,” which means he saw them as very different from his “novels.” I’m a huge Greene fan, but I’ll admit there are a few of these supposedly “lesser” books I have never read. And I am here to say this book is not “less” any other book, really. It’s just a kind of dark thriller, though it has ethical implications as all his work does.
How does Rowe win the cake? It would seem it has something to do with a fortune teller at the fair that tells him the exact weight, but after this it appears everyone wants the cake back, and they try to kill him for it. A nightmare commences, with echoes of Kafka’s The Trial, darkly comic, absurd, almost surreal. He sees that others seem to want the cake, so he goes to get help from a man named Willi Hilfe, who takes him to a seance, where a man is killed before a bomb goes off.
Oh, yes! This 1943 novel is set in London, 1941, at the time of The Blitz of London by the Nazi regime. Air raid sirens, random bombing, parts of London are destroyed, many lives are lost. Chaos. Two other novels set in the time of The Blitz by Greene are The End of the Affair and The Third Man, and both have this sort of crazy logic, almost madness, where a seemingly politically neutral man is urged to action. If you are apolitical as Rowe is, the Blitz and the Nazi invasion have to seem like pure madness.
“The war and all that happened round him had seemed to belong to other people.”
So Rowe needs to be aware that evil must be fought, Greene seems to suggest. Rowe hires an inept and unwilling detective to help him. He enlists the help of Wiill’s sister Anna Hilfe, with whom he seems to fall in love; but when she is with him a bomb hits the building and he is hospitalized with amnesia. Again, this is the story of the “ordinary man,” as we see so often in Hitchcock thrillers, the innocent bystander, drawn into a life he never imagined. As he says, “I am one of the little men, not interested in ideologies,” but in time he must be involved.
So what is really going on? The Nazi regime, in countries it controlled and in those it intended to subvert, built up information on individuals in order to blackmail them into co-operation. This process Greene called their “ministry of fear.” So Arthur Rowe becomes aware of the reach of Nazi propaganda.
I am ready to see the 1944 film based on this book by the great Fritz Lang, characterized as noir, starring Ray Milland (yeah, the Tin Man from the Wizard of Oz!)..
One thing I like about Greene is his use of oxymoron, or contradiction, as his characters struggle with the truth of a situation. He hoids up an idea to the light to help us explore with his characters the various ways to see a situation:
“Her face looked ugly in the attempt to avoid tears; it was an ugliness which bound him to her more than any beauty could have done. It isn't being happy together, he thought as though it were a fresh discovery, that makes one love--it's being unhappy together.”
“ . . . it wasn’t only evil men who did these things. Courage smashes a cathedral, endurance lets a city starve, pity kills . . . we are trapped and betrayed by our virtues.”
“It is only if the murderer is a good man that he can be regarded as monstrous.”
Another thing I have yet to fully think through is that each chapter is accompanied by an epigraph from a British children’s book, The Little Duke, by Charlotte Yonge. Though Arthur is not a child, he is not yet a “man” in the sense that The Little Duke suggests. The first chapter of The Ministry of Fear is entitled “The Unhappy Man,” and the second to last chapter “The Happy Man,” so we are led to think that he has begun to “grow up” and make some moral progress:
“Rowe was growing up.” “He was not, after all, a boy. He was a middle-aged man. He had started something and he must go on.”
The Ministry of Fear is a book written in the pattern of the classic spy novel, where a character must confront evil and contribute to a better world. A hero’s journey. But it’s as if Greene were saying there is always a time to “grow up,” as if this were a coming-of-age novel for adults. And much better than I expected, with a master writer at the helm.
August 18, 2015
In that case,’ Rowe said, ‘I keep the cake because you see I guessed three pounds five the first time. Here is a pound for the cause. Good evening.’
He’d really taken them by surprise this time; they were wordless, they didn’t even thank him for the note. He looked back from the pavement and saw the group from the cake-stall surge forward to join the rest, and he waved his hand. A poster on the railings said: ‘The Comforts for Mothers of the Free Nations Fund. A fête will be held . . . under the patronage of royalty . . .’
So begins Arthur Rowe's incredible story in which a mix up at a charity fete alters Arthur's life forever and throws him into the midst of espionage, politics, and murder.
The Ministry of Fear is Greene's 11th novel, yet, to me it represents the first of the series of books that forms the basis of my appreciation of his canon of work. Written in 1943, Greene combines elements of mystery and espionage and spices them up with gritty noir and anxieties lived out by the characters against the back-drop of war time London, where trust is mandatory but seldom warranted.
Welcome to Greeneland!
"A phrase of Johns’ came back to mind about a Ministry of Fear. He felt now that he had joined its permanent staff. But it wasn’t the small Ministry to which Johns had referred, with limited aims like winning a war or changing a constitution. It was a Ministry as large as life to which all who loved belonged. If one loved one feared."
He’d really taken them by surprise this time; they were wordless, they didn’t even thank him for the note. He looked back from the pavement and saw the group from the cake-stall surge forward to join the rest, and he waved his hand. A poster on the railings said: ‘The Comforts for Mothers of the Free Nations Fund. A fête will be held . . . under the patronage of royalty . . .’
So begins Arthur Rowe's incredible story in which a mix up at a charity fete alters Arthur's life forever and throws him into the midst of espionage, politics, and murder.
The Ministry of Fear is Greene's 11th novel, yet, to me it represents the first of the series of books that forms the basis of my appreciation of his canon of work. Written in 1943, Greene combines elements of mystery and espionage and spices them up with gritty noir and anxieties lived out by the characters against the back-drop of war time London, where trust is mandatory but seldom warranted.
Welcome to Greeneland!
"A phrase of Johns’ came back to mind about a Ministry of Fear. He felt now that he had joined its permanent staff. But it wasn’t the small Ministry to which Johns had referred, with limited aims like winning a war or changing a constitution. It was a Ministry as large as life to which all who loved belonged. If one loved one feared."
February 5, 2020
Innocence, patriotism, self-delusion, psychology, memory, complexity, love, deceit and heroism
The Ministry of Fear (1943) is a perfect book: accessible, clever, beautifully written, evocative, tense, and quietly profound. A palpable sense of dread and unease runs throughout the story set in the early years of World War 2 in England, primarily London.
On one level the book is a simple story of espionage, fifth columnists, and a hapless man who gets caught up in things he does not understand however there is far more to it than that.
The story, which starts at a sinister fete, and rattles along from the word go, also muses on innocence, patriotism, self-delusion, psychology, memory, complexity, love, deceit and heroism. Graham Greene is on the top of his game.
5/5
The Ministry of Fear (1943) is a perfect book: accessible, clever, beautifully written, evocative, tense, and quietly profound. A palpable sense of dread and unease runs throughout the story set in the early years of World War 2 in England, primarily London.
On one level the book is a simple story of espionage, fifth columnists, and a hapless man who gets caught up in things he does not understand however there is far more to it than that.
The story, which starts at a sinister fete, and rattles along from the word go, also muses on innocence, patriotism, self-delusion, psychology, memory, complexity, love, deceit and heroism. Graham Greene is on the top of his game.
5/5
September 18, 2017
It all starts with a visit to the local charity fete – held to raise money ‘all for a good cause’ and the unfortunate unfolding subsequent events concerning our main protagonist Arthur Rowe and a cake.
As always with Graham Greene novels there is much to like here and the opening chapters concerning the fete and confusion concerning said cake are great. Arthur Rowe is a very interesting creation – a very well thought out complex character, with a life defining back story.
Events unfold and the plot certainly thickens – however, it doesn’t all seem to gel in the same way as his other novels do; it just doesn’t feel as homogeneous or as perfectly constructed as his stronger works do and it is certainly not in the same league as Greene’s greatest novels, namely – ‘The Heart of the Matter’, ‘The End of the Affair’, ‘The Power and the Glory’ and ‘The Quiet American’.
Admittedly, ‘The Ministry of Fear’ was classed by Greene as one of his ‘entertainments’ rather than the novels that he considered to be his more serious fiction. As such, it is not to be expected that this novel would have the same emotional power and impact as something like – ‘The End of the Affair’. Whilst certainly being very entertaining, ‘The Ministry of Fear’ to an extent feels as though it falls somewhere between the two of Greene’s categories (entertainments / serious fiction) and it does feel at times as though it hasn’t quite made up its’ mind what kind of novel to be?
Written in 1943 – wartime England, it does feel very much of its time and perhaps bound up with the fear and paranoia of that era, somewhat restricted because of that. However, it is of course Graham Green and therefore is still a very good book. There are some great passages, memorable scenes and Arthur Rowe is a strong and interesting central character – perhaps if this was ‘serious’ Graham Greene fiction – Rowe’s character would be explored in much greater depth? (It does in many ways feel as though it ought to be). ‘The Ministry of Fear’ is still a very good book and especially in comparison to many of his literary peers at that time – my reservations spring I think from how it compares to Greene’s greatest works, and that’s where its (comparative) weaknesses become exposed.
Despite my perhaps overly critical view of ‘The Ministry of Fear’ – it is definitely worth reading and clearly forms another part of the extensive and important literary canon of one of England's greatest ever novelists.
As always with Graham Greene novels there is much to like here and the opening chapters concerning the fete and confusion concerning said cake are great. Arthur Rowe is a very interesting creation – a very well thought out complex character, with a life defining back story.
Events unfold and the plot certainly thickens – however, it doesn’t all seem to gel in the same way as his other novels do; it just doesn’t feel as homogeneous or as perfectly constructed as his stronger works do and it is certainly not in the same league as Greene’s greatest novels, namely – ‘The Heart of the Matter’, ‘The End of the Affair’, ‘The Power and the Glory’ and ‘The Quiet American’.
Admittedly, ‘The Ministry of Fear’ was classed by Greene as one of his ‘entertainments’ rather than the novels that he considered to be his more serious fiction. As such, it is not to be expected that this novel would have the same emotional power and impact as something like – ‘The End of the Affair’. Whilst certainly being very entertaining, ‘The Ministry of Fear’ to an extent feels as though it falls somewhere between the two of Greene’s categories (entertainments / serious fiction) and it does feel at times as though it hasn’t quite made up its’ mind what kind of novel to be?
Written in 1943 – wartime England, it does feel very much of its time and perhaps bound up with the fear and paranoia of that era, somewhat restricted because of that. However, it is of course Graham Green and therefore is still a very good book. There are some great passages, memorable scenes and Arthur Rowe is a strong and interesting central character – perhaps if this was ‘serious’ Graham Greene fiction – Rowe’s character would be explored in much greater depth? (It does in many ways feel as though it ought to be). ‘The Ministry of Fear’ is still a very good book and especially in comparison to many of his literary peers at that time – my reservations spring I think from how it compares to Greene’s greatest works, and that’s where its (comparative) weaknesses become exposed.
Despite my perhaps overly critical view of ‘The Ministry of Fear’ – it is definitely worth reading and clearly forms another part of the extensive and important literary canon of one of England's greatest ever novelists.
January 30, 2024
اولاش و وسطش یه گنگی جالبی داشت.
نویسنده رو نمیشناختم و چیزی ازش نخونده بودم، از نویسنده بدم نیومد.
شاید ترجمه فارسی نباید میخوندم و گوش میدادم. کیفیت اودیوبوک فارسیش به نسبت چیزای انگلیسی ای که دارم گوش میدم، خوب نبود و ممکنه که برا همین نمیتونستم لذت ببرم.
نویسنده رو نمیشناختم و چیزی ازش نخونده بودم، از نویسنده بدم نیومد.
شاید ترجمه فارسی نباید میخوندم و گوش میدادم. کیفیت اودیوبوک فارسیش به نسبت چیزای انگلیسی ای که دارم گوش میدم، خوب نبود و ممکنه که برا همین نمیتونستم لذت ببرم.
August 30, 2016
You'll never look at a cake the same way again! Greene's repeated mentioning of this common noun sent a subliminal message- eat cake!, & so I went ahead and baked one. I guess this is how one gets to have one's cake & eat it too!
The Ministry of Fear is a very mood-driven,atmospheric book,a slow burn. Don't expect it to thrill you with set action pieces; the thrill here comes mainly from seeing the plot unfold through the eyes of a protagonist driven almost paranoid with past guilt and present fear.
GG has been one of the constant loves of my reading life & this book has some of the signature Greene moments–the wonderful blend of the tragi-comic elements, the wry & subtle humour,the understated irony- I'm especially thinking here of the opening carnival scene & the midway hotel room sequence- Hitchcock would've given both his arms for the nerves-on-edge, pulsating tension of these two.
But don't come here expecting another The Third Man–there will never be another one. Enjoy it for what it is–a "hypnotic moonstone of a novel*."
The title,taken from Wordsworth's Prelude,seems rather heavy-handed for this soufflé-light treatment but it makes sense when put in a wider existential context:
"A phrase of Johns' came back to mind about a Ministry of Fear. He felt now that he had joined its permanent staff. But it wasn't the small Ministry to which Johns had referred, with limited aims like winning a war or changing a constitution. It was a Ministry as large as life to which all who loved belonged. If one loved one feared."
*The NYT review:
http://www.nytimes.com/1943/05/23/boo...
The Ministry of Fear is a very mood-driven,atmospheric book,a slow burn. Don't expect it to thrill you with set action pieces; the thrill here comes mainly from seeing the plot unfold through the eyes of a protagonist driven almost paranoid with past guilt and present fear.
GG has been one of the constant loves of my reading life & this book has some of the signature Greene moments–the wonderful blend of the tragi-comic elements, the wry & subtle humour,the understated irony- I'm especially thinking here of the opening carnival scene & the midway hotel room sequence- Hitchcock would've given both his arms for the nerves-on-edge, pulsating tension of these two.
But don't come here expecting another The Third Man–there will never be another one. Enjoy it for what it is–a "hypnotic moonstone of a novel*."
The title,taken from Wordsworth's Prelude,seems rather heavy-handed for this soufflé-light treatment but it makes sense when put in a wider existential context:
"A phrase of Johns' came back to mind about a Ministry of Fear. He felt now that he had joined its permanent staff. But it wasn't the small Ministry to which Johns had referred, with limited aims like winning a war or changing a constitution. It was a Ministry as large as life to which all who loved belonged. If one loved one feared."
*The NYT review:
http://www.nytimes.com/1943/05/23/boo...
July 1, 2018
"It's what any State medical service has sooner or later got to face [ Euthanasia ]. If you are going to be kept alive in institutions run by and paid for by the State, you must accept the State's right to economise when necessary..."
Arthur Rowe went to enjoy a few short hours away from the war and his past life by attending the charity fête. Who would have thought and indeed Arthur would never have guessed how complex and dangerous life would become by guessing the weight of a cake.
From this moment Arthur is followed, challenged and ultimately tested by dark forces who want something he may have. The turmoil brings Arthur up against his memories, and people with his worst or possibly best interests at heart. He meets old friends and makes some new ones along the way as he experiences the dark arts of crime, possible espionage and possible mental illness.
The book - my first by Graham Greene - was enjoyable and moved along with a interesting story that kept me reading. I particularly liked the descriptions that Greene provides of the atmosphere and circumstances Arthur and other characters find themselves in and a part of. These were no better coloured for me than the sights and sounds of bombed out London during an air-raid and the day after (as this story takes place during the nightly Blitz that hit London and England in the days on 1941/42) as the story weaves around London and the wider countryside.
If thrillers are your thing with a hark back to the dark, unsettling yet atmospheric days of the Blitz then this little book, by one of Britain's most praised authors, is worth the time to read.
Oh, and it might make you think about guessing that cake's weight next time to!
Arthur Rowe went to enjoy a few short hours away from the war and his past life by attending the charity fête. Who would have thought and indeed Arthur would never have guessed how complex and dangerous life would become by guessing the weight of a cake.
From this moment Arthur is followed, challenged and ultimately tested by dark forces who want something he may have. The turmoil brings Arthur up against his memories, and people with his worst or possibly best interests at heart. He meets old friends and makes some new ones along the way as he experiences the dark arts of crime, possible espionage and possible mental illness.
The book - my first by Graham Greene - was enjoyable and moved along with a interesting story that kept me reading. I particularly liked the descriptions that Greene provides of the atmosphere and circumstances Arthur and other characters find themselves in and a part of. These were no better coloured for me than the sights and sounds of bombed out London during an air-raid and the day after (as this story takes place during the nightly Blitz that hit London and England in the days on 1941/42) as the story weaves around London and the wider countryside.
If thrillers are your thing with a hark back to the dark, unsettling yet atmospheric days of the Blitz then this little book, by one of Britain's most praised authors, is worth the time to read.
Oh, and it might make you think about guessing that cake's weight next time to!
November 19, 2018
Alan Furst, intro, says this is fine reading on trains-planes. Who is this a/hole?
March 1, 2023
The best thing about the 'Ministry of Fear' is the author's introduction - he describes writing this novel set in London during the Blitz while living in Freetown, West Africa. Greene gives us some interesting insights into his life as an intelligence officer in Freetown (the setting for his later novel 'The Heart of the Matter'). He also talks about how sometimes it's easier to write about a place when you aren't there. This is not to say the book isn't good - just that the intro is fascinating.
So to the story, Arthur Rowe wins a cake at a fair. But the cake was meant for somebody else. It has a photographic film inside that the 'somebody else' wants to smuggle out of the country and give to the Nazis. Rowe unwittingly gets involved in this and the plot is quite convoluted but Greene unravels it quite nicely - yes, he does a better job than in 'A Confidential Agent' for instance. The main female lead, the Austrian 'refugee' Anna, falls in love with Rowe as he is a man who can feel intense pity - he is also wracked by guilt like most of Greene's protagonists.
'The Ministry of Fear' was made into quite a funny, almost surrealistic movie by Fritz Lang - in the intro, Greene indicates he thought the movie was pretty pointless as they removed the psychologist, Dr Forrester. I can see what he means but the movie is worth watching. It took me a while to find a copy of this book - I think it's one of the lesser read Greenes.
So to the story, Arthur Rowe wins a cake at a fair. But the cake was meant for somebody else. It has a photographic film inside that the 'somebody else' wants to smuggle out of the country and give to the Nazis. Rowe unwittingly gets involved in this and the plot is quite convoluted but Greene unravels it quite nicely - yes, he does a better job than in 'A Confidential Agent' for instance. The main female lead, the Austrian 'refugee' Anna, falls in love with Rowe as he is a man who can feel intense pity - he is also wracked by guilt like most of Greene's protagonists.
'The Ministry of Fear' was made into quite a funny, almost surrealistic movie by Fritz Lang - in the intro, Greene indicates he thought the movie was pretty pointless as they removed the psychologist, Dr Forrester. I can see what he means but the movie is worth watching. It took me a while to find a copy of this book - I think it's one of the lesser read Greenes.
January 12, 2015
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 26, 2017
Είναι σπάνια περίπτωση συγγραφέα ο Greene. Το 1943 όταν κυκλοφόρησε το συγκεκριμένο βιβλίο, είχε τη διαύγεια όχι μόνο να ζωντανέψει το Λονδίνο εν μέσω βομβαρδισμών αλλά να αποφύγει ταυτόχρονα κάθε καλούπι που θα χαρακτήριζε στη συνέχεια τα κατασκοπευτικά νουάρ. Ο κεντρικός ήρωας, ο Άρθουρ Ρόου είναι μια υπέροχη περσόνα, ένας αξέχαστος πρωταγωνιστής που έχει λυγίσει από το βάρος των τύψεων του.
Το εξαιρετικό πρώτο μέρος του βιβλίου τον βρίσκει σε ένα φιλανθρωπικό παζάρι όπου κερδίζει κατά λάθος ένα κεικ (με αληθινά αυγά). Σύντομα θα καταλάβει ότι κάτι πάει στραβά αλλά τελικά θα βυθιστεί ακόμα πιο βαθιά στον κόσμο της κατασκοπίας. O Greene πέρα απ'την πολύ προσεγμένη ανάπτυξη της πλοκής παραδίδει ένα δυνατό ψυχογράφημα κ μιλάει ταυτόχρονα για την ηθική κ το καθήκον, τις ενοχές κ την υπευθυνότητα κ.ο.κ.
Η εξαιρετική του γραφή θα θυμίσει από Όργουελ μέχρι Κάφκα σε όσους ενδιαφέρονται για τέτοιου είδους προσεγγίσεις. Σημασία έχει ότι ο Greene είναι εγγύηση ακόμα κ σε αυτή τη μέτρια έκδοση απ'τις εκδοσεις Ερατώ με τη τραγική γραμματοσειρά κ τη μέτρια μετάφραση. Αν ψάχνετε έντονη ατμόσφαιρα από μια κορυφαία πένα, το Υπουργείο του Φόβου συστήνεται χωρίς δεύτερες σκέψεις.
Το εξαιρετικό πρώτο μέρος του βιβλίου τον βρίσκει σε ένα φιλανθρωπικό παζάρι όπου κερδίζει κατά λάθος ένα κεικ (με αληθινά αυγά). Σύντομα θα καταλάβει ότι κάτι πάει στραβά αλλά τελικά θα βυθιστεί ακόμα πιο βαθιά στον κόσμο της κατασκοπίας. O Greene πέρα απ'την πολύ προσεγμένη ανάπτυξη της πλοκής παραδίδει ένα δυνατό ψυχογράφημα κ μιλάει ταυτόχρονα για την ηθική κ το καθήκον, τις ενοχές κ την υπευθυνότητα κ.ο.κ.
Η εξαιρετική του γραφή θα θυμίσει από Όργουελ μέχρι Κάφκα σε όσους ενδιαφέρονται για τέτοιου είδους προσεγγίσεις. Σημασία έχει ότι ο Greene είναι εγγύηση ακόμα κ σε αυτή τη μέτρια έκδοση απ'τις εκδοσεις Ερατώ με τη τραγική γραμματοσειρά κ τη μέτρια μετάφραση. Αν ψάχνετε έντονη ατμόσφαιρα από μια κορυφαία πένα, το Υπουργείο του Φόβου συστήνεται χωρίς δεύτερες σκέψεις.
February 19, 2019
Graham Greene's "The Ministry Of Fear" is a gripping and brilliantly written novel. In short, it is one of the very best books I have read about London and the German Blitz of that city during World War 2. It is a thriller, a mystery, a psychological and sociological study of the effects of bombardment, night after night, and it all takes place, to a certain extent, in the mind of its main character Arthur Rowe, who is suffering from amnesia, and by accident, gets caught up in a German spy ring working and stealing documents from the British government.
The characters are so memorable and the plot so masterfully devised that this book is going to remain with me for a long time. 7jane, a goodread member, recommended this book to me and she also said that the book has remained with her long after she read it. It was a great recommendation.
The writing is very descriptive and intense and there is never a time in which you don't think that you are there during this terrible time. Graham Greene is one of the great novelists of the 20th century and this book has been just another reminded of how great he really was.
March 28, 2017
Since I posted about this book in tandem with another by Graham Greene, once again I'll link to my reading journal rather than try to split them up here. Don't worry -- no spoilers, no long plot details. I loved this book and if you are able to focus more on character more than on plot, you'll discover why.
http://www.crimesegments.com/2017/03/...
http://www.crimesegments.com/2017/03/...
July 30, 2018
Η αίσθηση του Γκρην, είναι αυτό, που εκλαμβάνω μόλις χωθώ στα αποστάγματα των σκέψεων του: ασφάλεια και ζεστασιά κι άρωμα παλιακό, αλλά και κίνηση – δραστικότητα. Τα μεγάλα ατού του συγγραφέα παραμένουν ο τρόπος που παίζει με τη μνήμη και την ενοχή, οι συνθέσεις που φτιάχνει και που αν ακόμη τα βιώματα διαφέρουν, με ωθεί να αναμοχλεύω τη δική μου αίσθηση των πραγμάτων. Ο άνθρωπος του Γκρην δεν είναι ούτε αντιήρωας, ούτε υπεράνθρωπος. Είναι όμως σύνθετος, συνειδητός κι ασύνειδος, μοναχικός και τραγικός, με ποιητικές γελοιότητες, εκείνες που σαν τις αντιλαμβάνεσαι γελάς και κλαις με τον εαυτό σου – για τον εαυτό σου. Συγγραφείς σαν το Γκρην, τον Κόλλινς, το Σιμενόν κι ίσως και το Μπάνβιλ ανήκουν σε έναν αφρό που διαπερνά τον κλασικό ρεαλισμό και φτάνει στα όρια του ποιητικού ισοπεδωτισμού. Είναι οι κατ’ εξοχήν συγγραφείς που μιλούν για ανθρώπους που δεν πάνε πουθενά χωρίς την αίσθηση του εαυτού τους, είτε ενσυνείδητα, είτε ως μια σκιά που δίνει μάχη για να γίνει αντιληπτή, με τα μουρμουρητά της να έχουν γίνει πια λόγοι καθαροί.
δεν ήταν τόσο το θάρρος που τον γλίτωνε από το φόβο, όσο η μονα��ιά
Γιατί ο Διάβολος - μα το ίδιο κι ο Θεός – πάντα είχε χρησιμοποιήσει τους κωμικούς ανθρώπους, τους ασήμαντους ανθρώπους, τις μικρές συμβατικές φύσεις, τους σακάτηδες και τους παραμορφωμένους για να υπηρετήσουν τους σκοπούς του. Όταν τους χρησιμοποιεί ο Θεός μιλάς σκέτα για Αρετή, όταν τους χρησιμοποιεί ο Διάβολος και για κακία, αλλά και στις δυο περιπτώσεις το υλικό είναι η αμβλύνους ρακένδυτη μετριότητα
Υπάρχουν αρκετοί άνθρωποι που διαρκώς εφευρίσκουν τρόπους για να αυξήσουν ή να γεννήσουν συντροφικότητα, ακόμη κι αν αυτό σημαίνει να συμμετέχουν σε μια συλλογική ενοχή. Κι υπάρχουν άλλοι που ό,τι κι αν είναι κι ό,τι κι αν έχουν κάνει, είναι για τον εαυτό τους. Έτσι και η ενοχή τους έχει ένα ιδιαίτερο βάρος, υπερβαίνει την ενοχή των άλλων. Είναι μια ατομικής ευθύνης υπαιτιότητα που ο άνθρωπος έχει πάρει την απόφαση να κουβαλάει μόνος. Μοναχική πράξη, μοναχική ευθύνη. Αυτός ο άνθρωπος δεν έχει καμιά ανάγκη για όλα αυτά τα αναδυόμενα και ψεύτικα εμείς που θέλουν να απαλύνουν το βάρος που δεν καταλαβαίνουν. Γι’ αυτό κι εκπλήσσεται δυσάρεστα, τρομάζει, θολώνει, μόλις καταλάβει πως η ενοχή του, έχει ξανασυμβεί, μπορούν να τη νιώσουν κι άλλοι άνθρωποι για τα δικά τους σφάλματα.
Μόνον όταν το αγαπημένο πρόσωπο γίνεται απρόσιτο ολοκληρώνεται η αγάπη
Υπήρχαν άνθρωποι που ζούσαν εθελοντικά στην έρημο. Όμως είχαν το δικό τους θεό για να επικοινωνούν μαζί του. Για δέκα σχεδόν χρόνια δεν είχε νιώσει την ανάγκη για φίλους – μια γυναίκα μπορεί να περιλαμβάνει αναρίθμητους φίλους
Το έγκλημα υπάρχει κάτω από κάθε πέτρα και γι’ αυτό πολλά θύματα είναι και θύτες κι απ’ αυτά, εκείνα που παρασέρνουν την ψυχή και πονά, λυπάται, μετανιώνει, είναι όσα ακολούθησαν κάποιο σπασμένο ιδανικό, όχι από κέρδος, ή υπεροψία. Τα δεύτερα συνήθως συνιστούν τις παγκόσμιες μαζικές σφαγές. Κι όταν σε μια εποχή το έγκλημα είναι ο καθημερινός τρόπος όπως σε μια ζωή πολέμου μοιάζουν ανίερα κι εκτός τόπου τα εγκλήματα του μικροκόσμου κι ας είναι εκεί, ας συμβαίνουν πάντοτε και δεν παραγράφονται γιατί ο θάνατος ένας ή πολλοί έχει σημασία.
- Όμως ο Χίτλερ φαίνεται να το χύνει ποτάμι
- ναι αλλά οι ιδεαλιστές δεν βλέπουν το αίμα όπως εσείς κι εγώ. Γι’ αυτούς αποτελεί μονάχα στατιστική
Και όμως αυτό το βιβλίο φάνηκε να μην είναι ακριβώς του γούστου μου, κατά διαστήματα χανόταν σε φύσεις που δεν ήθελα να το ακολουθήσω, σε κλίμα πιπεράτο που δε με άφηνε να πλησιάσω πολύ. Να καταλαβαίνει ο νους και να μη βρίσκει η ψυχή να αδράξει. Μεγάλε�� παύσεις που με άφηναν ανικανοποίητο, με έσπρωχναν κι εκεί που οι σελίδες δε γυρνούσαν μια ριπή συνέβαινε που μ’ έκανε να γυρίζω πίσω σελίδες. Αν όμως δεν το είχα κάνει τη στιγμή που βρίσκονται ο Ρόου με το Χίλφε στην τελική σκηνή και κατεβαίνουν οι βόμβες δε θα είχα νιώσει μαζί τους τον ίδιο πανικό και δε θα είχα συνειδητοποιήσει την ασύλληπτη σκηνή τόπων που βομβαρδίζονταν τη νύχτα και την ημέρα λειτουργούσαν για τη ζωή με αυτό το ξάφνιασμα της επόμενης μέρας που ζεις ακόμα κι αυτό σου δίνει κουράγιο να το παλέψεις.
Δεν είναι μήπως καλύτερα να συμμετέχεις ακόμα και στα εγκλήματα των ανθρώπων που αγαπάς, ακόμα και να μισήσεις όπως αυτοί – αν είναι απαραίτητο – ακόμα και να υποφέρεις στην κόλαση μαζί τους, αν όλα εκεί καταλήγουν αντί να σωθείς μόνος σου; Θα μπορούσε όμως κανείς ν’ αντιτάξει πως αυτός ο συλλογισμός δίνει άφεση και στον εχθρό σου. Και γιατί όχι; - σκέφθηκε. Δίνει άφεση στον καθένα που αγαπάει τόσο ώστε να σκοτώσει ή να σκοτωθεί
Η ένοχη συνείδηση αποζητά την κρίση και την τιμωρία των άλλων, αποζητά τη δριμύτητα της απόφασης τους, για να έχει ένα κίνητρο να καθαρίσει τον εαυτό της, να άρει τους τροχούς των βασανιστηρίων που μόνη θέτει απειλητικά πάνω απ’ τον εαυτό. Έχει ανάγκη τους άλλους, για να αυτοοικτιρθεί. Πιότερο απ’ το να μέμφεται τον εαυτό της.
Κανείς δε μας βλέπει εδώ. Το μοναδικό μας καθήκον είναι να είμαστε ήσυχα. Και τι μπορούσε να είναι πιο ήσυχο από τη σκόνη;
Ένας άντρας που φέρει βαρέως ότι του αρνούνται να υπηρετήσει επειδή είχε εκτίσει ποινή κι αυτομάτως ανήκε σε άλλη κατηγορία πολιτών, των αναξιόπιστων φαντασμάτων. Και όμως, ο πόλεμος, η αντίσταση δεν είναι πάρτυ που πας καλεσμένος απαραίτητα. Και κάπου εκεί στη σελίδα 158 συνειδητοποίησα πως κι εγώ έκανα το ίδιο λάθος. Το βιβλίο δε με προσκάλεσε κι εγώ αρνήθηκα ν’ αντιδράσω. Πρόκειται για ένα διαρκή αρπισμό απ’ το ρεαλισμό στον ισοπεδωτισμό κι απ’ εκεί στο ��οντερνισμό με παραλλαγές εναλλακτικών υφών. Σιγά – σιγά όμως βλέπεις πως αυτό είναι το τρικ του συγγραφέα. Δε θέλει να ξεκλειδωθεί. Όχι χωρίς προσπάθεια. Μπορεί να ήταν συνειδητό ή ασυνείδητο που και στη μια και στην άλλη περίπτωση δε στερείται σημασίας.
Ο οίκτος είναι φοβερό πράγμα. Οι άνθρωποι μιλάνε για το πάθος του έρωτα. Το χειρότερο πάθος απ’ όλα είναι ο οίκτος, δεν το ξεπερνάμε όπως το σεξ
Μια ακύμαντη ζωή στην αυτιμωρία και την αυτοεξάντληση, μακριά απ’ τη δράση, την εγγύτητα, τη συντροφικότητα, κρατώντας τις σα δώρα που αξίζουν σε άλλους και κάνοντας το μη πλησίασμα τους μικρές καθημερινές σφαγές. Ξυπνητή η ειλικρίνεια των κινήτρων δεν καταφέρνει να σηκώσει τον ίδιο τον άνθρωπο. Ως τη στιγμή που αναπάντεχα συμβαίνει, αυτό που πάντα συμβαίνει αναπάντεχα: η ζωή σε μια έλλειψη εισβάλλει και κλέβει αντί να δίνει κι αναδύεται τότε η ατιμασμένη ειλικρινής δίψα. Σε ένα τόπο που σφραγίστηκε απ’ το κομμάτιασμα και το πακετάρισμα με τις απαραίτητες ταμπέλες απ’ το κάθετί που σε αποτελεί, βγαίνοντας ένας κομματιασμένος και παράλληλα κατανεμημένος και κατανοητός απ’ τον εαυτό σου, δεν έχεις καμιά διάθεση για δικαιολογίες των άλλων. Ο πόλεμος είναι πόλεμος και τα πάντα είναι πάντα, πόλεμος. Η μόνη φλόγα που μένει είναι η αγάπη γι’ αυτά που αγκαλιάζει η μνήμη κι όχι το μίσος για ‘κεινους που στέκονται απ’ την άλλη.
κουβαλούσε τη σκέψη της Άννας σαν κρυφό γράμμα που υποσχόταν ακριβώς αυτό. Η λαχτάρα του ήταν σαν το πρώτο φτερούγισμα της ωριμότητας, όταν η ασυνήθιστη εμπειρία παύει ξαφνικά να είναι θελκτική
Πάνω απ’ όλα είναι ένα βιβλίο που κάνει άμεσο διάλογο με το ‘’Τι πιστεύω’’ του Τολστόϊ. Ο πόλεμος δε σου αφήνει περιθώρια να φιλολογήσεις, αυτή είναι η αλήθεια. Κανένας πόλεμος -και παντού συμβαίνουν μικροί ή μεγάλοι πόλεμοι, ακόμα και μέσα στο σώμα μας απ’ τα κύτταρα μας- δε σε περιμένει. Αλλά το ελάχιστο στοιχείο της ανθρωπιάς για να είσαι άνθρωπος πρώτα για τον εαυτό σου είναι να πολεμήσεις όχι για να σκοτώσεις εκδικητικά, παρά μόνο γνωρίζοντας την πιθανότητα να γίνει και με σκοπό να προστατέψεις όλα εκείνα κι όλους αυτούς που αγαπάς και αντιπροσωπεύουν τι είναι για ‘σενα ένας τόπος, ένα σπίτι, μια ζωή. Και ορισμένες φορές οι τελικές μάχες κερδίζονται μ’ αυτή ακριβώς την ποιότητα σου.
Ίσως να μίλησα για πέντε απ’ τα δεκαπέντε πράγματα που μιλάει το βιβλίο, ίσως να τα αντέστρεψα όλα, ή να μην τα κατάλαβα. Μου άρεσε, κατά διαστήματα δε μου άρεσε, σίγουρα με τρέλανε και το βράδυ που έκλεισα τα μάτια μου σκεφτόμουν διαρκώς τις τελευταίες σελίδες, αλλά όχι μόνο, σκεφτόμουν ακόμα και τον ηρωολάτρη νοσοκόμο που σκοτώνει για να γλιτώσει το θύμα του απ’ το διασυρμό. Υπάρχουν τέτοιοι άνθρωποι, μπορεί να μην σκοτώνουν κυριολεκτικά αλλά είναι ικανοί να ‘’εξαφανίσουν’’ κάποιον για το καλό του. Είναι αυτή η ιδιαίτερη κατηγορία που δε μπορείς να τους δεις σα φίλους, ούτε σαν εχθρούς. Μπορείς να τους θεωρείς αγαπημένους, αλλά υπό παρακολούθηση. Όμως σκεφτόμουν και το τέλος, κυρίως γιατί μ’ ενδιαφέρουν πολύ ζητήματα που σχετίζονται με την ισορροπία αγάπης και αλήθειας.
δεν ήταν τόσο το θάρρος που τον γλίτωνε από το φόβο, όσο η μονα��ιά
Γιατί ο Διάβολος - μα το ίδιο κι ο Θεός – πάντα είχε χρησιμοποιήσει τους κωμικούς ανθρώπους, τους ασήμαντους ανθρώπους, τις μικρές συμβατικές φύσεις, τους σακάτηδες και τους παραμορφωμένους για να υπηρετήσουν τους σκοπούς του. Όταν τους χρησιμοποιεί ο Θεός μιλάς σκέτα για Αρετή, όταν τους χρησιμοποιεί ο Διάβολος και για κακία, αλλά και στις δυο περιπτώσεις το υλικό είναι η αμβλύνους ρακένδυτη μετριότητα
Υπάρχουν αρκετοί άνθρωποι που διαρκώς εφευρίσκουν τρόπους για να αυξήσουν ή να γεννήσουν συντροφικότητα, ακόμη κι αν αυτό σημαίνει να συμμετέχουν σε μια συλλογική ενοχή. Κι υπάρχουν άλλοι που ό,τι κι αν είναι κι ό,τι κι αν έχουν κάνει, είναι για τον εαυτό τους. Έτσι και η ενοχή τους έχει ένα ιδιαίτερο βάρος, υπερβαίνει την ενοχή των άλλων. Είναι μια ατομικής ευθύνης υπαιτιότητα που ο άνθρωπος έχει πάρει την απόφαση να κουβαλάει μόνος. Μοναχική πράξη, μοναχική ευθύνη. Αυτός ο άνθρωπος δεν έχει καμιά ανάγκη για όλα αυτά τα αναδυόμενα και ψεύτικα εμείς που θέλουν να απαλύνουν το βάρος που δεν καταλαβαίνουν. Γι’ αυτό κι εκπλήσσεται δυσάρεστα, τρομάζει, θολώνει, μόλις καταλάβει πως η ενοχή του, έχει ξανασυμβεί, μπορούν να τη νιώσουν κι άλλοι άνθρωποι για τα δικά τους σφάλματα.
Μόνον όταν το αγαπημένο πρόσωπο γίνεται απρόσιτο ολοκληρώνεται η αγάπη
Υπήρχαν άνθρωποι που ζούσαν εθελοντικά στην έρημο. Όμως είχαν το δικό τους θεό για να επικοινωνούν μαζί του. Για δέκα σχεδόν χρόνια δεν είχε νιώσει την ανάγκη για φίλους – μια γυναίκα μπορεί να περιλαμβάνει αναρίθμητους φίλους
Το έγκλημα υπάρχει κάτω από κάθε πέτρα και γι’ αυτό πολλά θύματα είναι και θύτες κι απ’ αυτά, εκείνα που παρασέρνουν την ψυχή και πονά, λυπάται, μετανιώνει, είναι όσα ακολούθησαν κάποιο σπασμένο ιδανικό, όχι από κέρδος, ή υπεροψία. Τα δεύτερα συνήθως συνιστούν τις παγκόσμιες μαζικές σφαγές. Κι όταν σε μια εποχή το έγκλημα είναι ο καθημερινός τρόπος όπως σε μια ζωή πολέμου μοιάζουν ανίερα κι εκτός τόπου τα εγκλήματα του μικροκόσμου κι ας είναι εκεί, ας συμβαίνουν πάντοτε και δεν παραγράφονται γιατί ο θάνατος ένας ή πολλοί έχει σημασία.
- Όμως ο Χίτλερ φαίνεται να το χύνει ποτάμι
- ναι αλλά οι ιδεαλιστές δεν βλέπουν το αίμα όπως εσείς κι εγώ. Γι’ αυτούς αποτελεί μονάχα στατιστική
Και όμως αυτό το βιβλίο φάνηκε να μην είναι ακριβώς του γούστου μου, κατά διαστήματα χανόταν σε φύσεις που δεν ήθελα να το ακολουθήσω, σε κλίμα πιπεράτο που δε με άφηνε να πλησιάσω πολύ. Να καταλαβαίνει ο νους και να μη βρίσκει η ψυχή να αδράξει. Μεγάλε�� παύσεις που με άφηναν ανικανοποίητο, με έσπρωχναν κι εκεί που οι σελίδες δε γυρνούσαν μια ριπή συνέβαινε που μ’ έκανε να γυρίζω πίσω σελίδες. Αν όμως δεν το είχα κάνει τη στιγμή που βρίσκονται ο Ρόου με το Χίλφε στην τελική σκηνή και κατεβαίνουν οι βόμβες δε θα είχα νιώσει μαζί τους τον ίδιο πανικό και δε θα είχα συνειδητοποιήσει την ασύλληπτη σκηνή τόπων που βομβαρδίζονταν τη νύχτα και την ημέρα λειτουργούσαν για τη ζωή με αυτό το ξάφνιασμα της επόμενης μέρας που ζεις ακόμα κι αυτό σου δίνει κουράγιο να το παλέψεις.
Δεν είναι μήπως καλύτερα να συμμετέχεις ακόμα και στα εγκλήματα των ανθρώπων που αγαπάς, ακόμα και να μισήσεις όπως αυτοί – αν είναι απαραίτητο – ακόμα και να υποφέρεις στην κόλαση μαζί τους, αν όλα εκεί καταλήγουν αντί να σωθείς μόνος σου; Θα μπορούσε όμως κανείς ν’ αντιτάξει πως αυτός ο συλλογισμός δίνει άφεση και στον εχθρό σου. Και γιατί όχι; - σκέφθηκε. Δίνει άφεση στον καθένα που αγαπάει τόσο ώστε να σκοτώσει ή να σκοτωθεί
Η ένοχη συνείδηση αποζητά την κρίση και την τιμωρία των άλλων, αποζητά τη δριμύτητα της απόφασης τους, για να έχει ένα κίνητρο να καθαρίσει τον εαυτό της, να άρει τους τροχούς των βασανιστηρίων που μόνη θέτει απειλητικά πάνω απ’ τον εαυτό. Έχει ανάγκη τους άλλους, για να αυτοοικτιρθεί. Πιότερο απ’ το να μέμφεται τον εαυτό της.
Κανείς δε μας βλέπει εδώ. Το μοναδικό μας καθήκον είναι να είμαστε ήσυχα. Και τι μπορούσε να είναι πιο ήσυχο από τη σκόνη;
Ένας άντρας που φέρει βαρέως ότι του αρνούνται να υπηρετήσει επειδή είχε εκτίσει ποινή κι αυτομάτως ανήκε σε άλλη κατηγορία πολιτών, των αναξιόπιστων φαντασμάτων. Και όμως, ο πόλεμος, η αντίσταση δεν είναι πάρτυ που πας καλεσμένος απαραίτητα. Και κάπου εκεί στη σελίδα 158 συνειδητοποίησα πως κι εγώ έκανα το ίδιο λάθος. Το βιβλίο δε με προσκάλεσε κι εγώ αρνήθηκα ν’ αντιδράσω. Πρόκειται για ένα διαρκή αρπισμό απ’ το ρεαλισμό στον ισοπεδωτισμό κι απ’ εκεί στο ��οντερνισμό με παραλλαγές εναλλακτικών υφών. Σιγά – σιγά όμως βλέπεις πως αυτό είναι το τρικ του συγγραφέα. Δε θέλει να ξεκλειδωθεί. Όχι χωρίς προσπάθεια. Μπορεί να ήταν συνειδητό ή ασυνείδητο που και στη μια και στην άλλη περίπτωση δε στερείται σημασίας.
Ο οίκτος είναι φοβερό πράγμα. Οι άνθρωποι μιλάνε για το πάθος του έρωτα. Το χειρότερο πάθος απ’ όλα είναι ο οίκτος, δεν το ξεπερνάμε όπως το σεξ
Μια ακύμαντη ζωή στην αυτιμωρία και την αυτοεξάντληση, μακριά απ’ τη δράση, την εγγύτητα, τη συντροφικότητα, κρατώντας τις σα δώρα που αξίζουν σε άλλους και κάνοντας το μη πλησίασμα τους μικρές καθημερινές σφαγές. Ξυπνητή η ειλικρίνεια των κινήτρων δεν καταφέρνει να σηκώσει τον ίδιο τον άνθρωπο. Ως τη στιγμή που αναπάντεχα συμβαίνει, αυτό που πάντα συμβαίνει αναπάντεχα: η ζωή σε μια έλλειψη εισβάλλει και κλέβει αντί να δίνει κι αναδύεται τότε η ατιμασμένη ειλικρινής δίψα. Σε ένα τόπο που σφραγίστηκε απ’ το κομμάτιασμα και το πακετάρισμα με τις απαραίτητες ταμπέλες απ’ το κάθετί που σε αποτελεί, βγαίνοντας ένας κομματιασμένος και παράλληλα κατανεμημένος και κατανοητός απ’ τον εαυτό σου, δεν έχεις καμιά διάθεση για δικαιολογίες των άλλων. Ο πόλεμος είναι πόλεμος και τα πάντα είναι πάντα, πόλεμος. Η μόνη φλόγα που μένει είναι η αγάπη γι’ αυτά που αγκαλιάζει η μνήμη κι όχι το μίσος για ‘κεινους που στέκονται απ’ την άλλη.
κουβαλούσε τη σκέψη της Άννας σαν κρυφό γράμμα που υποσχόταν ακριβώς αυτό. Η λαχτάρα του ήταν σαν το πρώτο φτερούγισμα της ωριμότητας, όταν η ασυνήθιστη εμπειρία παύει ξαφνικά να είναι θελκτική
Πάνω απ’ όλα είναι ένα βιβλίο που κάνει άμεσο διάλογο με το ‘’Τι πιστεύω’’ του Τολστόϊ. Ο πόλεμος δε σου αφήνει περιθώρια να φιλολογήσεις, αυτή είναι η αλήθεια. Κανένας πόλεμος -και παντού συμβαίνουν μικροί ή μεγάλοι πόλεμοι, ακόμα και μέσα στο σώμα μας απ’ τα κύτταρα μας- δε σε περιμένει. Αλλά το ελάχιστο στοιχείο της ανθρωπιάς για να είσαι άνθρωπος πρώτα για τον εαυτό σου είναι να πολεμήσεις όχι για να σκοτώσεις εκδικητικά, παρά μόνο γνωρίζοντας την πιθανότητα να γίνει και με σκοπό να προστατέψεις όλα εκείνα κι όλους αυτούς που αγαπάς και αντιπροσωπεύουν τι είναι για ‘σενα ένας τόπος, ένα σπίτι, μια ζωή. Και ορισμένες φορές οι τελικές μάχες κερδίζονται μ’ αυτή ακριβώς την ποιότητα σου.
Ίσως να μίλησα για πέντε απ’ τα δεκαπέντε πράγματα που μιλάει το βιβλίο, ίσως να τα αντέστρεψα όλα, ή να μην τα κατάλαβα. Μου άρεσε, κατά διαστήματα δε μου άρεσε, σίγουρα με τρέλανε και το βράδυ που έκλεισα τα μάτια μου σκεφτόμουν διαρκώς τις τελευταίες σελίδες, αλλά όχι μόνο, σκεφτόμουν ακόμα και τον ηρωολάτρη νοσοκόμο που σκοτώνει για να γλιτώσει το θύμα του απ’ το διασυρμό. Υπάρχουν τέτοιοι άνθρωποι, μπορεί να μην σκοτώνουν κυριολεκτικά αλλά είναι ικανοί να ‘’εξαφανίσουν’’ κάποιον για το καλό του. Είναι αυτή η ιδιαίτερη κατηγορία που δε μπορείς να τους δεις σα φίλους, ούτε σαν εχθρούς. Μπορείς να τους θεωρείς αγαπημένους, αλλά υπό παρακολούθηση. Όμως σκεφτόμουν και το τέλος, κυρίως γιατί μ’ ενδιαφέρουν πολύ ζητήματα που σχετίζονται με την ισορροπία αγάπης και αλήθειας.
October 23, 2021
Végtelen hálás vagyok annak, aki feltalálta a Detektívet, Akinek Van Mit Levezekelnie. Ez a típus egy elkövetett bűn emlékét hordozza magában, amit képtelen feldolgozni – így amikor a világ rendbetételén ügyködik, valójában saját morális „aranykorát” akarja visszaállítani. Ez pedig erkölcsi mélységet ad a karakternek. Én pedig szeretem a karaktereket, akiknek erkölcsi mélysége van – izgalmasabbak lesznek tőle. Arthur Rowe betűre megfelel ennek a leírásnak, attól az apróságtól eltekintve, hogy nem detektív. De hát tudjuk, a detektívnek lenni pont olyan, mint focibírónak vagy immunológusnak: ha annak érzed magad, akkor az vagy. Így hát amikor valami különös kémtörténetbe keveredik, kapva kap az alkalmon, nekiáll felfejteni az ügyet, hátha addig sem gondol arra, mit tett anno saját feleségével.
Igazán Graham Greene-nek való téma. Mert Greene igen jó író, okos és lendületes. Plasztikusan oda tudja tenni a sztori mögé a hátteret, a második világháborús Londont a maga paranoiáival, meg a lehulló bombákkal. De ami igazán jól megy neki, az a moralizálás. Bár a cselekmény sodró, a lényeg mégiscsak Arthur Rowe belső világa, az, ahogy életét egyfajta börtönként rendezi be, amiben megbüntetheti önmagát. Csakhogy ez sem elég, talán mert amíg a társadalom nem szentesíti az önmagára mért büntetést, addig maga sem tud megbocsátani magának – ez a permanens lelkiismereti válság pedig pont az a téma, amivel az erős katolikus kötődésekkel rendelkező Greene szívesen bíbelődik. A „bűnügyi szál” ebben a kontextusban a felszabadulás lehetőségét hordozza magában, nem csak mert eltereli Rowe figyelmét az önkínzástól, hanem egyfajta egérutat kínál: vagy segít felszámolni egy Angliát veszélyeztető összeesküvést, vagy hősiesen megöleti magát – a morális mérleg nyelve így is, úgy is egyensúlyba kerül. Nincs veszíteni valója.
Nem hibák nélküli regény. A gonoszok inkább tűnnek James Bond-típusfiguráknak, mint egy történelmi valóság részeinek, a romantikus szál pedig enyhén hiteltelen, néha pedig indokolatlanul hozza be a cselekménybe az ideális naplementék csiricsáré színvilágát. De ettől függetlenül kedvvel olvastam – Greene-t amúgy is kedvvel szoktam olvasni.
Igazán Graham Greene-nek való téma. Mert Greene igen jó író, okos és lendületes. Plasztikusan oda tudja tenni a sztori mögé a hátteret, a második világháborús Londont a maga paranoiáival, meg a lehulló bombákkal. De ami igazán jól megy neki, az a moralizálás. Bár a cselekmény sodró, a lényeg mégiscsak Arthur Rowe belső világa, az, ahogy életét egyfajta börtönként rendezi be, amiben megbüntetheti önmagát. Csakhogy ez sem elég, talán mert amíg a társadalom nem szentesíti az önmagára mért büntetést, addig maga sem tud megbocsátani magának – ez a permanens lelkiismereti válság pedig pont az a téma, amivel az erős katolikus kötődésekkel rendelkező Greene szívesen bíbelődik. A „bűnügyi szál” ebben a kontextusban a felszabadulás lehetőségét hordozza magában, nem csak mert eltereli Rowe figyelmét az önkínzástól, hanem egyfajta egérutat kínál: vagy segít felszámolni egy Angliát veszélyeztető összeesküvést, vagy hősiesen megöleti magát – a morális mérleg nyelve így is, úgy is egyensúlyba kerül. Nincs veszíteni valója.
Nem hibák nélküli regény. A gonoszok inkább tűnnek James Bond-típusfiguráknak, mint egy történelmi valóság részeinek, a romantikus szál pedig enyhén hiteltelen, néha pedig indokolatlanul hozza be a cselekménybe az ideális naplementék csiricsáré színvilágát. De ettől függetlenül kedvvel olvastam – Greene-t amúgy is kedvvel szoktam olvasni.
November 23, 2020
I enjoyed this mystery kinda spy thriller set in London during the blitz. Arthur Rowe has a sad past at the beginning of the novel and becomes an accidental hero as the novel plays out. There’s nostalgia for childhood, and a prewar England. The feeling of oppression from the nightly bomb raids is captured in great imagery by Greene. The plot itself is a bit confusing as Rowe doesn’t know what’s happening and it takes a while for it to be resolved yet the writing is so good that I kept reading easily. In some ways the story is a bit simplistic or maybe slapstick but it’s entertaining with dark undertones.
November 15, 2009
We're in London, it's World War II, and Arthur Rowe, the book's main character, is lured out of his apartment and across the street by a church carnival. He goes in the hope of recapturing a little happiness.
Here's the thing; sad, gentle Arthur Rowe is a murderer. He has just been released from jail for the mercy killing of his wife, who was suffering from an agonizing, incurable disease.
One of the attractions at the carnival is a prize cake, made with real eggs and butter, to be won by guessing its correct weight. In the dark of a fortune-teller's booth, he is inexplicably given the right answer. But there's been a mistake, he's the wrong man. The intended winner wants it back; and he is suddenly caught up in a ring of enemy spies.
Halfway through the book, the plot takes an astonishing, unforeseeable turn. Bombed in the Blitz, Arthur loses his memory. He is quite happy now. His girl wonders if he isn't better off this way, having forgotten the terrible crime he has committed.
In the end, Arthur recovers his memory, recovers the microfilm, and gets the girl, and yet, the happy ending is a lie, predicated on lies.
This was my first Graham Greene, and it blew me away. I'd never read a book like this, so ambiguous in so many ways. It started out a thriller, and concluded as a journey into the pain and treachery of the human heart.
Just when you think you know where he's heading, he changes direction. He knows how it feels to be on the outside when everyone else seems to be on the inside. He knows what we are thinking in the darkest nights of our souls. He knows what it means to struggle with faith in a benevolent God. He knows. And that's before I even get into the beauty of his writing. With Graham Greene, each word is inevitable, each sentence a faceted jewel of the English language. This is a writer gifted by God.
Here's the thing; sad, gentle Arthur Rowe is a murderer. He has just been released from jail for the mercy killing of his wife, who was suffering from an agonizing, incurable disease.
One of the attractions at the carnival is a prize cake, made with real eggs and butter, to be won by guessing its correct weight. In the dark of a fortune-teller's booth, he is inexplicably given the right answer. But there's been a mistake, he's the wrong man. The intended winner wants it back; and he is suddenly caught up in a ring of enemy spies.
Halfway through the book, the plot takes an astonishing, unforeseeable turn. Bombed in the Blitz, Arthur loses his memory. He is quite happy now. His girl wonders if he isn't better off this way, having forgotten the terrible crime he has committed.
In the end, Arthur recovers his memory, recovers the microfilm, and gets the girl, and yet, the happy ending is a lie, predicated on lies.
This was my first Graham Greene, and it blew me away. I'd never read a book like this, so ambiguous in so many ways. It started out a thriller, and concluded as a journey into the pain and treachery of the human heart.
Just when you think you know where he's heading, he changes direction. He knows how it feels to be on the outside when everyone else seems to be on the inside. He knows what we are thinking in the darkest nights of our souls. He knows what it means to struggle with faith in a benevolent God. He knows. And that's before I even get into the beauty of his writing. With Graham Greene, each word is inevitable, each sentence a faceted jewel of the English language. This is a writer gifted by God.
August 1, 2019
Move over, Alfred Hitchcock.
Graham Greene's 'The Ministry Of Fear' easily takes the title of the quintessential 'wrong man' yarn; think of 'North By Northwest' laced with an unmistakable strain of the darkest rum and the most bitter cocoa that makes it much harder to digest than your usual potboiler novel. Or should I say that the supposed 'wrong man' of the story is actually 'the right man' all along, a character destined, in the hands of this brilliantly, devilishly manipulative storyteller, to fall along with the nihilistic scheme all along.
That is, perhaps, the only spoiler that I am giving out in this review. Suffice to say that 'The Ministry Of Fear' surprises, startles and sobers at every step, pulling off the rug beneath our feet with every chapter and plot twist. And yet, while every bit a dense conspiracy thriller that would have belonged, at least on the surface, to the world of most pulp authors, the milieu of this novel's narrative is unmistakably a cramped-up, claustrophobic corner of the world that we know as Greeneland all too well.
So, here, we have a city, teeming as a hellhole with destruction and dystopia lurking at the edges; in this case, it is the blasted and bombed London during the feverish peak of the Blitz, barraged and bombarded by the Luftwaffe in the night skies which becomes the perfect stage for the nerve-wracking paranoia and morbid fear which are so much a part of this flawlessly calibrated thriller. And yet, instead of just cramming in sensationally stunning set-pieces (and there are quite a lot of such scenes to be found), even with the frequent atmosphere of immediate danger present almost everywhere, Greene, always the incredible, poetic storyteller, always plumbing for more profundity, gives us instead a thick fog of menace and malice that makes the proceedings so brilliantly elegiac and even bitterly cynical in equal measure.
And so much of the novel, like so much of Greene's powerfully prophetic, prescient work, resonates so brilliantly, not only with the harsh, undeniable realities of the war and its debilitating devastation on England and the rest of the world, but also traversing genre and context. As one of the reviews that I read here on Goodreads said it best, this unforgivably bleak thriller has the early shades of George Orwell's '1984'; like in that dystopian masterpiece, this is a doomed, ill-fated romance at its broken, tortured heart. And in spirit and in its unrelenting atmosphere of the suffocating grip of guilt, misplaced idealism, suicidal depression, unreliability of personal memory and other personal demons, it is closer to Kafka rather than to any of Greene's American counterparts.
But in the end, this novel belongs unmistakably to only one man. This is Greene writing in a fervour of nightmarish, pitch-dark brilliance and his prose is not only tight and razor-sharp in its impact but also poetic, profound and exquisitely melancholy in tone. And like every other brilliant 'entertainment' from this peerless novelist, 'The Ministry Of Fear' not only surprises our expectations but also subverts them masterfully, almost audaciously. Even the titular Fifth Column of this spy thriller is less to do with espionage and more to do with the human act of betrayal and the human instinct of mistrust and fear itself. You can almost hear John Le Carre scribbling on his notes in the background. An unmissable, unforgettable, haunting work.
Graham Greene's 'The Ministry Of Fear' easily takes the title of the quintessential 'wrong man' yarn; think of 'North By Northwest' laced with an unmistakable strain of the darkest rum and the most bitter cocoa that makes it much harder to digest than your usual potboiler novel. Or should I say that the supposed 'wrong man' of the story is actually 'the right man' all along, a character destined, in the hands of this brilliantly, devilishly manipulative storyteller, to fall along with the nihilistic scheme all along.
That is, perhaps, the only spoiler that I am giving out in this review. Suffice to say that 'The Ministry Of Fear' surprises, startles and sobers at every step, pulling off the rug beneath our feet with every chapter and plot twist. And yet, while every bit a dense conspiracy thriller that would have belonged, at least on the surface, to the world of most pulp authors, the milieu of this novel's narrative is unmistakably a cramped-up, claustrophobic corner of the world that we know as Greeneland all too well.
So, here, we have a city, teeming as a hellhole with destruction and dystopia lurking at the edges; in this case, it is the blasted and bombed London during the feverish peak of the Blitz, barraged and bombarded by the Luftwaffe in the night skies which becomes the perfect stage for the nerve-wracking paranoia and morbid fear which are so much a part of this flawlessly calibrated thriller. And yet, instead of just cramming in sensationally stunning set-pieces (and there are quite a lot of such scenes to be found), even with the frequent atmosphere of immediate danger present almost everywhere, Greene, always the incredible, poetic storyteller, always plumbing for more profundity, gives us instead a thick fog of menace and malice that makes the proceedings so brilliantly elegiac and even bitterly cynical in equal measure.
And so much of the novel, like so much of Greene's powerfully prophetic, prescient work, resonates so brilliantly, not only with the harsh, undeniable realities of the war and its debilitating devastation on England and the rest of the world, but also traversing genre and context. As one of the reviews that I read here on Goodreads said it best, this unforgivably bleak thriller has the early shades of George Orwell's '1984'; like in that dystopian masterpiece, this is a doomed, ill-fated romance at its broken, tortured heart. And in spirit and in its unrelenting atmosphere of the suffocating grip of guilt, misplaced idealism, suicidal depression, unreliability of personal memory and other personal demons, it is closer to Kafka rather than to any of Greene's American counterparts.
But in the end, this novel belongs unmistakably to only one man. This is Greene writing in a fervour of nightmarish, pitch-dark brilliance and his prose is not only tight and razor-sharp in its impact but also poetic, profound and exquisitely melancholy in tone. And like every other brilliant 'entertainment' from this peerless novelist, 'The Ministry Of Fear' not only surprises our expectations but also subverts them masterfully, almost audaciously. Even the titular Fifth Column of this spy thriller is less to do with espionage and more to do with the human act of betrayal and the human instinct of mistrust and fear itself. You can almost hear John Le Carre scribbling on his notes in the background. An unmissable, unforgettable, haunting work.
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