What do you think?
Rate this book
Our Man in Havana
Graham Greene's classic Cuban spy story, now with a new package and a new introduction
First published in 1959, Our Man in Havana is an espionage thriller, a penetrating character study, and a political satire that still resonates to this day. Conceived as one of Graham Greene's 'entertainments,' it tells of MI6's man in Havana, Wormold, a former vacuum-cleaner salesman turned reluctant secret agent out of economic necessity. To keep his job, he files bogus reports based on Lamb's Tales from Shakespeare and dreams up military installations from vacuum-cleaner designs. Then his stories start coming disturbingly true.
First published in 1959, Our Man in Havana is an espionage thriller, a penetrating character study, and a political satire that still resonates to this day. Conceived as one of Graham Greene's 'entertainments,' it tells of MI6's man in Havana, Wormold, a former vacuum-cleaner salesman turned reluctant secret agent out of economic necessity. To keep his job, he files bogus reports based on Lamb's Tales from Shakespeare and dreams up military installations from vacuum-cleaner designs. Then his stories start coming disturbingly true.
220 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1958
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)
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 2,662 reviews
May 31, 2020
The 1967 Nobel Prize committee for literature didn't know what they were doing. They snubbed their nose at Graham Greene because apparently he wrote too many "entertainments".
Our Man in Havana is one such entertainment, which means it won't have you sobbing into the creases of your book like you might do in The End of the Affair, or swooning over incredibly insightful sentences describing human failings and observations. The tone of this book is not serious, it's comedic. Our "hero" is a man named Wormold (say no more), a vacuum cleaner salesman who's been left by his wife to raise his manipulative and haughtily Catholic daughter all on his own.
He's in a perpetual state of bewilderment, an innocent in a life that happens to him. So when an agent from MI6 approaches him to do his duty as an Englishman, he finds himself in the world of spies and agents and secret codes and... plots to kill. No one is more poorly suited to this job than Wormold, and his passivity, his lack of creativity, lead him into a whole mess of trouble. And we, the reader, are entertained.
It's sophisticated and clever and tremendous fun. It doesn't in the least bit diminish my respect for the brilliant Mr. Greene as a serious writer. In fact, it shows me that he's not a one trick pony. He doesn't just wax on about his love/hate relationship with God. He does that, yes (and so well) but he can also make me laugh! I wonder sometimes if that - humour - is the most challenging thing of all. That, and having readability, over 50 years after the fact.
Speaking of, in 1967, who won the Nobel Prize for literature? Miguel Angel Asturias. Read him lately? Ever even heard his name? Yeah, I didn't think so. Maybe he didn't write enough "entertainments".
Our Man in Havana is one such entertainment, which means it won't have you sobbing into the creases of your book like you might do in The End of the Affair, or swooning over incredibly insightful sentences describing human failings and observations. The tone of this book is not serious, it's comedic. Our "hero" is a man named Wormold (say no more), a vacuum cleaner salesman who's been left by his wife to raise his manipulative and haughtily Catholic daughter all on his own.
He's in a perpetual state of bewilderment, an innocent in a life that happens to him. So when an agent from MI6 approaches him to do his duty as an Englishman, he finds himself in the world of spies and agents and secret codes and... plots to kill. No one is more poorly suited to this job than Wormold, and his passivity, his lack of creativity, lead him into a whole mess of trouble. And we, the reader, are entertained.
It's sophisticated and clever and tremendous fun. It doesn't in the least bit diminish my respect for the brilliant Mr. Greene as a serious writer. In fact, it shows me that he's not a one trick pony. He doesn't just wax on about his love/hate relationship with God. He does that, yes (and so well) but he can also make me laugh! I wonder sometimes if that - humour - is the most challenging thing of all. That, and having readability, over 50 years after the fact.
Speaking of, in 1967, who won the Nobel Prize for literature? Miguel Angel Asturias. Read him lately? Ever even heard his name? Yeah, I didn't think so. Maybe he didn't write enough "entertainments".
January 26, 2019
"Patriotic Englishman. Been here for years. Respected member of the European Traders’ Association. We must have our man in Havana, you know. Submarines need fuel. Dictators drift together. Big ones draw in the little ones."
If there was an award for most unlikely to succeed as a spy, Englishman James Wormold would definitely be in the running! You see, he is a vacuum salesman, whose latest machine, the ‘Atomic Pile Cleaner’, is not selling well due to its unfortunate name. After all, this novel takes place in Cuba during the Cold War but prior to the Cuban missile crisis. With sales down and a beautiful and manipulative teenage daughter to maintain, Wormold is in need of some easy cash. When he is approached by British Intelligence agent Hawthorne to serve as an undercover agent within Cuba, he initially thinks there must be some mistake! What on earth could they want with an ordinary, humble man like himself to serve his home country?
"It always seemed strange to Wormold that he continued to exist for others when he was not there."
It seems Wormold has been given no choice in the matter, however. Hawthorne won’t take no for an answer. As well, his daughter Milly has just purchased a horse and along with a number of other expenses he is compelled to ‘accept’ the position. What follows is a hilarious story of a man who has bitten off more than he can chew! He has no idea what a spy should be doing, and so invents both subagents and reports of covert activities. A number of interesting characters share the stage with Wormold and offer up some entertaining dialogue as well. Before long, much to his dismay, his fiction is becoming alarmingly all too real!
"It astonished Wormold how quickly he could reply to any questions about his characters; they seemed to live on the threshold of consciousness—he had only to turn a light on and there they were, frozen in some characteristic action."
This little novel is highly entertaining. There is humor, adventure, and a little splash of romance. When Wormold’s life and the lives of those he cares about most are in danger, he must act and step up to the plate and play the role of unlikely hero. Does he succeed? Well, read this one and find out! This is my first Graham Greene book, and from what I understand a bit different from his more serious work. It’s a quick read that ought to please just about any reader.
"You should dream more, Mr. Wormold. Reality in our century is not something to be faced."
If there was an award for most unlikely to succeed as a spy, Englishman James Wormold would definitely be in the running! You see, he is a vacuum salesman, whose latest machine, the ‘Atomic Pile Cleaner’, is not selling well due to its unfortunate name. After all, this novel takes place in Cuba during the Cold War but prior to the Cuban missile crisis. With sales down and a beautiful and manipulative teenage daughter to maintain, Wormold is in need of some easy cash. When he is approached by British Intelligence agent Hawthorne to serve as an undercover agent within Cuba, he initially thinks there must be some mistake! What on earth could they want with an ordinary, humble man like himself to serve his home country?
"It always seemed strange to Wormold that he continued to exist for others when he was not there."
It seems Wormold has been given no choice in the matter, however. Hawthorne won’t take no for an answer. As well, his daughter Milly has just purchased a horse and along with a number of other expenses he is compelled to ‘accept’ the position. What follows is a hilarious story of a man who has bitten off more than he can chew! He has no idea what a spy should be doing, and so invents both subagents and reports of covert activities. A number of interesting characters share the stage with Wormold and offer up some entertaining dialogue as well. Before long, much to his dismay, his fiction is becoming alarmingly all too real!
"It astonished Wormold how quickly he could reply to any questions about his characters; they seemed to live on the threshold of consciousness—he had only to turn a light on and there they were, frozen in some characteristic action."
This little novel is highly entertaining. There is humor, adventure, and a little splash of romance. When Wormold’s life and the lives of those he cares about most are in danger, he must act and step up to the plate and play the role of unlikely hero. Does he succeed? Well, read this one and find out! This is my first Graham Greene book, and from what I understand a bit different from his more serious work. It’s a quick read that ought to please just about any reader.
"You should dream more, Mr. Wormold. Reality in our century is not something to be faced."
November 12, 2022
A wonderful post World War II black comedy from Greene. 'Our Man in Havana' is vacuum cleaner salesman Jim Wormold, who has a 16 year old daughter at a convent school, that always seems to find ways to spend his money, when she's not being driven around town by the Chief of Police, Segura.
Wormold is approached by British Secret Service agent, Henry Hawthorne to become a spy; Wormold says no, but then Hawthorne mentions he will be paid and get all expenses covered, and that's when this wonderful farce really kicks on! Yet, amidst all the hilarity, Greene still manages to confront and surprise me with many serious issues! 8 out of 12.
2011 read
Wormold is approached by British Secret Service agent, Henry Hawthorne to become a spy; Wormold says no, but then Hawthorne mentions he will be paid and get all expenses covered, and that's when this wonderful farce really kicks on! Yet, amidst all the hilarity, Greene still manages to confront and surprise me with many serious issues! 8 out of 12.
2011 read
March 7, 2024
Graham Greene is one of the most highly regarded British authors of the 20th century. The American novelist John Irving has paid tribute to him, calling him,
"the most accomplished living novelist in the English language."
Very popular as a thriller-writer, writing "entertainments", as he called them, Graham Greene also wrote deeply serious Catholic novels, which received much literary acclaim, although he never actually won the Nobel prize for Literature. In these he examined contemporary moral and political issues through a Catholic perspective. Many of them are powerful Christian portrayals, concerning the struggles within the individual's soul. He argued vehemently against being characterised as a "Catholic novelist" however, saying that he was a novelist who happened to be a Catholic. Graham Greene had been an unhappy child, attempting suicide several times according to his autobiography, and as an adult he suffered from bi-polar disorder. Of this, he said,
"Unfortunately, the disease is also one's material."
Our Man in Havana though is a product of the other side of Greene's imagination. It is a humorous suspense novel; a spoof spy story, incorporating two of his favourite themes - espionage and politics. Greene had actually been recruited by MI6 during World War II, and had worked in counter-espionage. Earlier, in 1922, he had been a member of the Communist Party of Great Britain. His experience from such times provided much of the inspiration for the characters in Our Man in Havana. In it he pokes fun at the intelligence services, especially the British MI6. Yet the novel also has a darkly philosophic edge, and its conclusion is very bleak.
Our Man in Havana was written in 1958, and set in Cuba before the missile crisis of 1962. In some ways the book feels very reminiscent of spy stories dating from World War II, and in others, such as the parts of the plot about missile installations, it seems to anticipate coming events.
The tone of the novel is light and droll, occasionally lapsing into outright farce. There is little description; the language is simple and direct to the point of being spare. Graham Greene's realism and lean writing - his readability - is considered to be one of his greatest strengths. One critic has said,
"nothing deflects Greene from the main business of holding the reader's attention."
The main character in the story is James Wormold, a mild-mannered vacuum salesman who seems oddly isolated in Cuba. He is surrounded by other characters described in high relief, his manipulative Catholic daughter Millie, a political gangster Segura, and his closest friend who is also an isolated enigma, the World War I veteran, Dr. Hasselbache. When the bumbling Wormold, desperate for money to indulge his spendthrift daughter, is approached by Hawthorne, he is at first disbelieving.
"It astonished Wormold how quickly he could reply to any questions about his characters; they seemed to live on the threshold of consciousness - he had only to turn a light on and there they were, frozen in some characteristic action."
As the events unfold, Wormold's descriptions become increasingly elaborate and, to a reader's eye, the scenarios unlikely and farcical, with Wormold himself ruminating on the way his life is proceeding.
"People similar to himself had done this, men who allowed themselves to be recruited while sitting in lavatories, who opened hotel doors with other men's keys and received instructions in secret ink and in novel uses for Lamb's Tales from Shakespeare. There was always another side to a joke, the side of the victim."
"He had no accomplice except the credulity of other men."
Yet in the middle of his humdrum life, real people were becoming the victims, people he knew, people who had been his friends. Life for Wormold was beginning to take on a surreal aspect,
"Somebody always leaves a banana-skin on the scene of tragedy."
Wormold becomes entangled in a web of his own making, inadvertent as it is. The abstract idea has become the individual - his individual - responsibility.
"I don't care a damn about men who are loyal to the people who pay them, to organisations ... I don't think even my country means all that much. There are many countries in our blood, aren't there, but only one person. Would the world be in the mess it is if we were loyal to love and not to countries?"
At times like this we can see Greene's underlying message,
"If I love or if I hate, let me love or hate as an individual," says Wormold, and the author himself has said,
"In human relationships, kindness and lies are worth a thousand truths."
The book is a bitter black farce, with an ending as much of a "banana-skin" as any I have ever read, with Wormold partly a puppet, partly a numb automaton, and partly ridiculously incompetent. Depending on your sense of humour, you may find the climax hysterically funny.
"There's not much difference between the two machines any more than there is between two human beings, one Russian - or German - and one British. There would be no competition and no war if it wasn't for the ambition of a few men in both firms; just a few men dictate competition and invent needs and set Mr Carter and myself at each other's throats."
Our Man In Havana was famously filmed by Carol Reed, with Alec Guinness playing the part of Wormold. Many of Graham Greene's novels, plays and short stories have been adapted for film or television. He is perhaps one of the most cinematic of twentieth-century writers; he tells a good yarn, an exciting adventure story. However this one perhaps had more resonance at the time. The themes of an individual against an organised society, of conscience and responsibility; these are timeless, yes. But it could be said that the specific setting now feels rather dated.
"the most accomplished living novelist in the English language."
Very popular as a thriller-writer, writing "entertainments", as he called them, Graham Greene also wrote deeply serious Catholic novels, which received much literary acclaim, although he never actually won the Nobel prize for Literature. In these he examined contemporary moral and political issues through a Catholic perspective. Many of them are powerful Christian portrayals, concerning the struggles within the individual's soul. He argued vehemently against being characterised as a "Catholic novelist" however, saying that he was a novelist who happened to be a Catholic. Graham Greene had been an unhappy child, attempting suicide several times according to his autobiography, and as an adult he suffered from bi-polar disorder. Of this, he said,
"Unfortunately, the disease is also one's material."
Our Man in Havana though is a product of the other side of Greene's imagination. It is a humorous suspense novel; a spoof spy story, incorporating two of his favourite themes - espionage and politics. Greene had actually been recruited by MI6 during World War II, and had worked in counter-espionage. Earlier, in 1922, he had been a member of the Communist Party of Great Britain. His experience from such times provided much of the inspiration for the characters in Our Man in Havana. In it he pokes fun at the intelligence services, especially the British MI6. Yet the novel also has a darkly philosophic edge, and its conclusion is very bleak.
Our Man in Havana was written in 1958, and set in Cuba before the missile crisis of 1962. In some ways the book feels very reminiscent of spy stories dating from World War II, and in others, such as the parts of the plot about missile installations, it seems to anticipate coming events.
The tone of the novel is light and droll, occasionally lapsing into outright farce. There is little description; the language is simple and direct to the point of being spare. Graham Greene's realism and lean writing - his readability - is considered to be one of his greatest strengths. One critic has said,
"nothing deflects Greene from the main business of holding the reader's attention."
The main character in the story is James Wormold, a mild-mannered vacuum salesman who seems oddly isolated in Cuba. He is surrounded by other characters described in high relief, his manipulative Catholic daughter Millie, a political gangster Segura, and his closest friend who is also an isolated enigma, the World War I veteran, Dr. Hasselbache. When the bumbling Wormold, desperate for money to indulge his spendthrift daughter, is approached by Hawthorne, he is at first disbelieving.
"It astonished Wormold how quickly he could reply to any questions about his characters; they seemed to live on the threshold of consciousness - he had only to turn a light on and there they were, frozen in some characteristic action."
As the events unfold, Wormold's descriptions become increasingly elaborate and, to a reader's eye, the scenarios unlikely and farcical, with Wormold himself ruminating on the way his life is proceeding.
"People similar to himself had done this, men who allowed themselves to be recruited while sitting in lavatories, who opened hotel doors with other men's keys and received instructions in secret ink and in novel uses for Lamb's Tales from Shakespeare. There was always another side to a joke, the side of the victim."
"He had no accomplice except the credulity of other men."
Yet in the middle of his humdrum life, real people were becoming the victims, people he knew, people who had been his friends. Life for Wormold was beginning to take on a surreal aspect,
"Somebody always leaves a banana-skin on the scene of tragedy."
Wormold becomes entangled in a web of his own making, inadvertent as it is. The abstract idea has become the individual - his individual - responsibility.
"I don't care a damn about men who are loyal to the people who pay them, to organisations ... I don't think even my country means all that much. There are many countries in our blood, aren't there, but only one person. Would the world be in the mess it is if we were loyal to love and not to countries?"
At times like this we can see Greene's underlying message,
"If I love or if I hate, let me love or hate as an individual," says Wormold, and the author himself has said,
"In human relationships, kindness and lies are worth a thousand truths."
The book is a bitter black farce, with an ending as much of a "banana-skin" as any I have ever read, with Wormold partly a puppet, partly a numb automaton, and partly ridiculously incompetent. Depending on your sense of humour, you may find the climax hysterically funny.
"There's not much difference between the two machines any more than there is between two human beings, one Russian - or German - and one British. There would be no competition and no war if it wasn't for the ambition of a few men in both firms; just a few men dictate competition and invent needs and set Mr Carter and myself at each other's throats."
Our Man In Havana was famously filmed by Carol Reed, with Alec Guinness playing the part of Wormold. Many of Graham Greene's novels, plays and short stories have been adapted for film or television. He is perhaps one of the most cinematic of twentieth-century writers; he tells a good yarn, an exciting adventure story. However this one perhaps had more resonance at the time. The themes of an individual against an organised society, of conscience and responsibility; these are timeless, yes. But it could be said that the specific setting now feels rather dated.
September 3, 2023
A quite obscure small -time businessman, Mr.Wormold (nobody calls him James) an Englishman living in Havana before the revolution in the late 1950's, who sells vacuum cleaners in Cuba... however not many and his beautiful teenage daughter Milly needs a horse...why ? A silly question ... because she wants one. His wife is long gone... still alive but not with the dull husband, this tediousness will change soon to his dismay, a store without customers is a dismal place. Mr.Hawthorne a British spy (keep that a secret folks) recruits the very willing Wormold to be likewise, money cures problems and information isn't cheap. Dr.Hasselbacher an old friend, the only one he has, does a lot of drinking together in bars, philosophizing about the world they don't know. A former German WW1 soldier, without a country cautions Mr. Wormold, ( after more than a decade of being pals )... still calls him this, about getting involved in Cold War shenanigans. Nevertheless receiving a charming, attractive secretary Beatrice for free is nice for the lonely gentleman.You can guess what will happen between them. And quickly inventing a fictional group to help in his endeavors against the equally phony enemies, maybe not honest still the pay is great and London wants to know their evil opponents . He does give them what they want, excellent imaginative drawings, though sham reports of lethal weapons hidden in the mountains, a nation full of foreign spies roaming the land and secretly planning trouble for the West and everyone is happy, until real troubles occur..The adversary agents take seriously their jobs. Still the sleazy Captain Segura of the local police shows too much interest in Milly, and the not good but fearful father has to protect his beloved daughter, at any cost? It has surprisingly dark atmospheric and unhappy passages but mostly the narrative is rather a pleasant read for all, which transports us there. This black comedy always entertains the reader, making fun of the hysterics in the era. Graham Greene is a master in depositing the audience in the plot , you will breathe the same air as the characters. The 1959 film version with Alec Guinness will bring a smile and delight its many admirers. As the news reveals , the book is not dated, which people today wrongly think ...Both should not be missed.
May 16, 2021
Comedy Thriller Daiquiri, With a Dash of Shakespeare?
“I don't care a damn about men who are loyal to the people who pay them, to organizations. . . I don't think even my country means all that much. Would the world be in the mess it is if we were loyal to love and not to countries?”—Beatrice, to Wormold
Okay, this may not be one of the very best of Graham Greene novels, but in re-reading it after all these years I appreciated so much what a great writer can do with a lesser/lighter story. Greene made distinctions between his books that some of us might contend with; he divides his fiction writing between novels (serious stuff) and “entertainments,” and this book he puts in the latter category, but I’d say it was better written than most novels anywhere. Why be a snob about your own spy thrillers and mysteries?! This is really good!
Our Man in Havana takes place during the Batista regime, 1958, one year before the Castro Revolution, some years before the Cuban Missile Crisis, but presaging all this in some ways. Greene had been a journalist in Havana. What did he know?! Well, what we know he knows is Catholicism and guilt and anguish, in masterpieces such as The Power and the Glory and The End of the Affair, but in Havana (and some other books) Greene here also reveals he knows his thrillers, opening surprisingly with clever humor, turning (deadly) serious in the end. Is this Greene’s ode to Hitchcock?
Wormold is a British ex-pat selling vacuum cleaners—and not very well—in Havana, with his daughter Millie who may want to be a nun but seems like an unlikely candidate, spending most of Dad’s money and hanging around with admiring males. So when the British Secret Service comes to conscript him to play a role in the anti-Commie cause, he reluctantly agrees, though as with selling vacuum cleaners, he doesn’t know how to do it, really. Desperate to get paid, he fabricates “reports” he conveys to MI6 in code using Charles Lamb’s Tale of Shakespeare. He takes photographs of vacuum cleaner parts and sends them with the cryptic Lamb/Shakespeare quotes back to London. This seems to work out pretty well, until it doesn’t, and some serious things happen to put the stop to the laughs, veering the tale in the direction of dark farce.
And then, there's this kind of prophetic aspect to the farce that emerges: Just a couple of years after the publication of this seemingly silly book Greene would appear to have known something, in that the Russians may have actually been building missile sites aimed at the US. Goofy Wormold "made-up" stories that ended up becoming actually true, in the end!
So: Wormold is a bad vacuum-cleaner salesman as spy. But he’s not quite a spy. And Lamb’s Tales of Shakespeare is not really quite Shakespeare. The lust that Chief of Police Segura has for Millie is not quite love. The truths in Havana emerge out of shadows. We or they can’t always tell the real from the artificial. These twists and turns make their way into turns of phrase, told in the form of oxymoronic ironies and contradictions:
“As long as nothing happens anything is possible. . . ”
“You should dream more. Reality in our century is not something to be faced.”
“As long as you lie, you do no harm.”
“Don’t learn from experience, Millie.”
“Isn’t it wonderful that you always get what you pray for?”
“I believe you exist, so you do.”
That’s the real pleasure in Greene here: The language and logic play, with moral implications under all the cleverness. Oh! Right! Besides giving a nod to Hitchcock, I see it’s an ode to Shakespeare as master of language as well! And then, there are layers of that send-up of the politics of the situation that led to the ridiculous and dangerous Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962. I really liked this and have ordered the movie with Alec Guinness as Wormold.
“I don't care a damn about men who are loyal to the people who pay them, to organizations. . . I don't think even my country means all that much. Would the world be in the mess it is if we were loyal to love and not to countries?”—Beatrice, to Wormold
Okay, this may not be one of the very best of Graham Greene novels, but in re-reading it after all these years I appreciated so much what a great writer can do with a lesser/lighter story. Greene made distinctions between his books that some of us might contend with; he divides his fiction writing between novels (serious stuff) and “entertainments,” and this book he puts in the latter category, but I’d say it was better written than most novels anywhere. Why be a snob about your own spy thrillers and mysteries?! This is really good!
Our Man in Havana takes place during the Batista regime, 1958, one year before the Castro Revolution, some years before the Cuban Missile Crisis, but presaging all this in some ways. Greene had been a journalist in Havana. What did he know?! Well, what we know he knows is Catholicism and guilt and anguish, in masterpieces such as The Power and the Glory and The End of the Affair, but in Havana (and some other books) Greene here also reveals he knows his thrillers, opening surprisingly with clever humor, turning (deadly) serious in the end. Is this Greene’s ode to Hitchcock?
Wormold is a British ex-pat selling vacuum cleaners—and not very well—in Havana, with his daughter Millie who may want to be a nun but seems like an unlikely candidate, spending most of Dad’s money and hanging around with admiring males. So when the British Secret Service comes to conscript him to play a role in the anti-Commie cause, he reluctantly agrees, though as with selling vacuum cleaners, he doesn’t know how to do it, really. Desperate to get paid, he fabricates “reports” he conveys to MI6 in code using Charles Lamb’s Tale of Shakespeare. He takes photographs of vacuum cleaner parts and sends them with the cryptic Lamb/Shakespeare quotes back to London. This seems to work out pretty well, until it doesn’t, and some serious things happen to put the stop to the laughs, veering the tale in the direction of dark farce.
And then, there's this kind of prophetic aspect to the farce that emerges: Just a couple of years after the publication of this seemingly silly book Greene would appear to have known something, in that the Russians may have actually been building missile sites aimed at the US. Goofy Wormold "made-up" stories that ended up becoming actually true, in the end!
So: Wormold is a bad vacuum-cleaner salesman as spy. But he’s not quite a spy. And Lamb’s Tales of Shakespeare is not really quite Shakespeare. The lust that Chief of Police Segura has for Millie is not quite love. The truths in Havana emerge out of shadows. We or they can’t always tell the real from the artificial. These twists and turns make their way into turns of phrase, told in the form of oxymoronic ironies and contradictions:
“As long as nothing happens anything is possible. . . ”
“You should dream more. Reality in our century is not something to be faced.”
“As long as you lie, you do no harm.”
“Don’t learn from experience, Millie.”
“Isn’t it wonderful that you always get what you pray for?”
“I believe you exist, so you do.”
That’s the real pleasure in Greene here: The language and logic play, with moral implications under all the cleverness. Oh! Right! Besides giving a nod to Hitchcock, I see it’s an ode to Shakespeare as master of language as well! And then, there are layers of that send-up of the politics of the situation that led to the ridiculous and dangerous Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962. I really liked this and have ordered the movie with Alec Guinness as Wormold.
February 23, 2022
An entertaining spoof about a reluctant Cold War spy, set in Havana of the Fifties - back then a thriving Sin City, the equivalent of today's Las Vegas or Pattaya.
In one scene Wormold, the middle-aged protagonist, still nursing the wounds of an old heartbreak, is at the Shanghai Theatre with Beatrice, his new secretary. They are watching a pornographic film.
"Beatrice sat silent. There was an odd intimacy between them as they watched together this blueprint of love. Similar movements of the body had once meant to them more than anything else the world had to offer."
In one scene Wormold, the middle-aged protagonist, still nursing the wounds of an old heartbreak, is at the Shanghai Theatre with Beatrice, his new secretary. They are watching a pornographic film.
"Beatrice sat silent. There was an odd intimacy between them as they watched together this blueprint of love. Similar movements of the body had once meant to them more than anything else the world had to offer."
April 17, 2019
This is one of Graham Greene’s thrillers which he labeled as “entertainments” as a warning to his audience not to take these books seriously. Our Man in Havana definitely needs such a warning. There is no reason to take the book seriously at all.
The plot is promising. Havana vacuum cleaner Wormold, owner of an Havana vacuum cleaner shop, hard-pressed to satisfy the expensive tastes (horses, country club) of his beautiful, manipulative (and motherless) teenage daughter, decides—when recruited by MI6—to pad his espionage expense account by inventing agents and mysterious government installations. This works well for him, until the real-life model for one of his imaginary agents is found shot to death. Suddenly, his serviceable fictions have become unfortunately real.
The book has other pleasures or virtues in addition to its clever plot.. The Havana atmosphere is vivid, particularly the tawdry parts of the city, the dialogue is witty and diverting, and the climax—in which our hero stalks a killer who has been assigned to kill him—is not without excitement. Many of the scenes are funny, and the way Greene presents his hero as simply another variety of fiction provides opportunity for revealing observations and asides.
But an entertainment, however unserious, demands some sense of danger, and whatever dangerousness the first part of the book created for me, the latter part of the book dissipated. Although this is a curious thing to say, I believe the sense of danger began to dissipate as soon as the bodies began to fall.
Part of the reason for this is that Our Man in Havana is set in the sunset days of Batita's Cuba. Castro and his rebels were already in the hills (although Greene does not mention this), and one of the characters, Captain Segura, who is known to be one of Batista’s torturers, seeks Wormold’s daughter Milly in marriage. Thus Wormold playing at spies—particularly in this place, at this time—seems like an extraordinarily dangerous thing to do, both for himself and for his daughter. Yet not long after the first “agent” is killed, Greene begins to exploit the situation for romance, laughs, and adventure. It was then I realized that Greene took his plot much less seriously than I did, and I began—little by little—to lose interest in the book.
Still, the book was entertaining, with some laughs, some thrills, and an interesting discussion of what are good reasons for engaging in violence (hint: working for Batista or for MI6 are not acceptable choices). All, in all, a good way to spend a couple of hours or so--provided you are willing (at least for brief while) not to take dictatorships, torture, revolution, and murder too seriously.
September 24, 2020
Graham Greene classified ‘Our Man in Havana’ as one of his ‘entertainments’ and so it is. I would almost call it a slap-stick at times, although I don’t know if that was Graham Greene’s intention. Well, it was clear that he was enjoying himself dishing out some very apt observations on the silliness of spy games of MI6 and its department heads, who perceived all sort of complots where a simple objective observation would have made all the difference. Quite an enjoyable read!
January 14, 2019
Graceless, gormless Wormold, a British sales agent for an American vacuum cleaner company in barely pre-Revolution Havana, has a problem. His adolescent daughter Milly, a manipulative and materialistic minx, spends well beyond his paltry earnings in her quest to ensnare the Red Vulture. That's a person, not a bird, one Captain Segura, who is the police torturer and possessor of a cigarette case covered in human skin. (An assertion Milly makes but Segura denies.) Wormold is fighting a losing battle, trying to sell a home appliance that's less useful than a broom in a country that's teetering on the brink of collapse. The power goes off too often to make it a sensible purchase, despite Wormold's trips to Cienfuegos (the Cuban Navy's main port) and points east (where the Revolutionary Army is strongest) to drum up business. What he *does* drum up is the interest of the state security apparatus. You see, Wormold is a British spy.
Good heavens, not a real one! He was worrying his way through a daily daiquiri with his German friend Dr. Hasselbacher when a Brit called Hawthorne inveigles him into the bathroom. That sounds, well, louche is I suppose the least offensive term, but it's what happens so have a séance and take it up with Greene if it's too sordid for you. What Hawthorne wants, I suppose, is a reason to visit Havana from his base in more-staid Kingston, Jamaica. (In 1958, when the book takes place, Havana was the Las Vegas of the Caribbean.) It also doesn't hurt his standing with MI6 to have a sub-agent in uneasy, revolution-bound Cuba. Wormold gets the nod, though to be honest I don't see a single reason why...oh wait...Milly the Minx is spending Daddy into bankruptcy (her initial salvo when we meet her is to demand a horse to go with the saddle she's just bought) so of course Wormold is in need of funds. Money always talks to men with debts.
From that match-to-fuse moment, a farce of atomic power begins to whirl from one end of the world to the other. Some sage adivce given to Wormold by WWI veteran Hasselbacher, to make his reports to London out of whole cloth on the principle that no one can disprove a lie, leads to Wormold's entire life being turned upside down. As he hurries from fire to fire atop an ever-increasing reactor fire of anxiety-into-terror, Wormold's lies begin to morph into the truth. Hawthorne's sub-agent becomes London's Agent of the Month, so to speak, as the wildly inventive reports he files bear fruit. As the book was written long before the events of the Missile Crisis, it really seems as though Greene was prescient: He has Wormold invent secret bases where mysterious equipment (drawings attached to his report were actually of a scaled-up vacuum cleaner) was being assembled. MI6 wants photos, of course; Raul the pilot (an invented sub-agent of Wormold's) suddenly dies in a crash. This is evidence that Wormold is onto something, obviously.
More and more of Wormold's fabulous reports are borne out as his "contacts" begin to suffer for his lies. Wormold himself comes in for assassination by the Other Side! He averts his fate, being a devout coward, and then has to do the worst-imaginable thing to escape retribution. (Read it, you'll see.) In the end, Greene can't design a better fate for Wormold and Milly than the one he puts on the page. It's perfect, it flows naturally from what's happened in the story, and it's hilarious. The humor of this book, like most of Greene's work, is dark to black. Be warned that there is little of this sixty-year-old send-up of National Security run amok that isn't viewable as critical of the State from 2019's perspective as well. Is that sad or inevitable, or perhaps both?
My favorite moment in the story comes when Wormold, busily inventing actions for his fictitious sub-agents to get up to, muses on the creative process:
Beautifully said, Author Greene. Just beautiful. And so very true.
Good heavens, not a real one! He was worrying his way through a daily daiquiri with his German friend Dr. Hasselbacher when a Brit called Hawthorne inveigles him into the bathroom. That sounds, well, louche is I suppose the least offensive term, but it's what happens so have a séance and take it up with Greene if it's too sordid for you. What Hawthorne wants, I suppose, is a reason to visit Havana from his base in more-staid Kingston, Jamaica. (In 1958, when the book takes place, Havana was the Las Vegas of the Caribbean.) It also doesn't hurt his standing with MI6 to have a sub-agent in uneasy, revolution-bound Cuba. Wormold gets the nod, though to be honest I don't see a single reason why...oh wait...Milly the Minx is spending Daddy into bankruptcy (her initial salvo when we meet her is to demand a horse to go with the saddle she's just bought) so of course Wormold is in need of funds. Money always talks to men with debts.
From that match-to-fuse moment, a farce of atomic power begins to whirl from one end of the world to the other. Some sage adivce given to Wormold by WWI veteran Hasselbacher, to make his reports to London out of whole cloth on the principle that no one can disprove a lie, leads to Wormold's entire life being turned upside down. As he hurries from fire to fire atop an ever-increasing reactor fire of anxiety-into-terror, Wormold's lies begin to morph into the truth. Hawthorne's sub-agent becomes London's Agent of the Month, so to speak, as the wildly inventive reports he files bear fruit. As the book was written long before the events of the Missile Crisis, it really seems as though Greene was prescient: He has Wormold invent secret bases where mysterious equipment (drawings attached to his report were actually of a scaled-up vacuum cleaner) was being assembled. MI6 wants photos, of course; Raul the pilot (an invented sub-agent of Wormold's) suddenly dies in a crash. This is evidence that Wormold is onto something, obviously.
More and more of Wormold's fabulous reports are borne out as his "contacts" begin to suffer for his lies. Wormold himself comes in for assassination by the Other Side! He averts his fate, being a devout coward, and then has to do the worst-imaginable thing to escape retribution. (Read it, you'll see.) In the end, Greene can't design a better fate for Wormold and Milly than the one he puts on the page. It's perfect, it flows naturally from what's happened in the story, and it's hilarious. The humor of this book, like most of Greene's work, is dark to black. Be warned that there is little of this sixty-year-old send-up of National Security run amok that isn't viewable as critical of the State from 2019's perspective as well. Is that sad or inevitable, or perhaps both?
My favorite moment in the story comes when Wormold, busily inventing actions for his fictitious sub-agents to get up to, muses on the creative process:
Sometimes he was scared at the way these people grew in the dark without his knowledge.
Beautifully said, Author Greene. Just beautiful. And so very true.
December 10, 2016
I had come across two lists mentioning the top 100 mystery/crime novels some time back. Both the lists - one by Britain-based Crime Writers' Association and the other by Mystery Writers of America, contained multiple books by Graham Greene. You can find both the lists here Link. The CWA list was published in 1990 and the MWA list in 1995. Pretty long time back but the books included are very fine specimens of crime writing.
I had read Greene's The Human Factor long time back and for some reason that book did not impress me much. But this one was simply brilliant!
The edition I got from my library contained an introduction by Christopher Hitchens. Reading this introduction I got some insights about the author and how his childhood and beliefs influenced his works. Hitchens also says that John Le Carre had been influenced by Greene.
Greene had a victim of bullying in his childhood and this exerted no little influence on his works. His pro-Communist sympathies, dependence on alcohol, his rejection of the notion of patriotism, anti-American sentiments all are present in his books.
Hitchens also mentioned Greene's "..... spooky prescience when it came to the suppurating political slums on the periphery of America's Cold War empire." I would suggest that you check out this book and The Quiet American if you want to understand more.
Anyways, let us go to the story. The protagonist is Jim Wormold, a vacuum-cleaner saleman whose business is not doing well and whose daughter Milly had a knack of spending his money with a skill that "amazed" Wormold. Our hero is not a forceful character, it seemed to me that he, like the author, had been a victim of bullying- he is gratified when his daughter set a bully on fire and oh yes - his wife has left him for another man as well.
Wormold gets an offer to be recruited by a British agent to spy for the British Intelligence and after some initial reluctance he agrees because he needed the money for Milly's education. So he invents a false spy ring and starts feeding rubbish to British Secret Service.
There are some other interesting characters as well. Wormold's daughter Milly, Captain Segura and Dr. Hasselbacher.
Milly is a good/bad adolescent girl who is a staunch Catholic on one hand and can be a bit of a "tart" on the other.
Captain Segura of the Cuban Police is a pretty intimidating character.
Dr. Hasselbacher is the person for whom one would feel sympathy.
Greene's contempt for the British spy agency has been brilliantly presented throughout the novel - some parts are actually funny if not hilarious.
Very soon the little fraud by Wormold escalates in to something dangerous and people start dying. Betrayal, deception, subterfuge, greed, confusion, manipulation - the elements have so nicely used by the author. There is a scene -involving a certain man and his "lady" problems which was actually hilarious.
I liked the way how the character of Wormwold evolved - from a harmless man to one who would use subterfuge to outwit Segura and even plan for revenge. This reluctance to know intimate details about the man he is trying to kill so that his intended victim - a killer himself, does not turn into a human being showed his moral scruples even when he was trying to avenge a friend. The scene where Wormwold would try to outwit Segura was wonderful.
The book is full of brilliant dialogues and statements. Initially I thought of including some of them, but later I felt I should not spoil your pleasure if you plan to read it someday. In my humble opinion, the writing is excellent.
I simply have to recommend this book to fans of John Le Carre's style of thrillers. There are no fancy gadgets, car chases, femme fatales but you get a good story and some fine writing.
While reading the blurb of the book I was reminded of The Tailor of Panama by John Le Carre. Later I found articles which stated that Le Carre was indeed influenced by this book. You can refer to the articles by NY Times (Link) and The Guardian (Link) if you are interested.
I had read Greene's The Human Factor long time back and for some reason that book did not impress me much. But this one was simply brilliant!
The edition I got from my library contained an introduction by Christopher Hitchens. Reading this introduction I got some insights about the author and how his childhood and beliefs influenced his works. Hitchens also says that John Le Carre had been influenced by Greene.
Greene had a victim of bullying in his childhood and this exerted no little influence on his works. His pro-Communist sympathies, dependence on alcohol, his rejection of the notion of patriotism, anti-American sentiments all are present in his books.
Hitchens also mentioned Greene's "..... spooky prescience when it came to the suppurating political slums on the periphery of America's Cold War empire." I would suggest that you check out this book and The Quiet American if you want to understand more.
Anyways, let us go to the story. The protagonist is Jim Wormold, a vacuum-cleaner saleman whose business is not doing well and whose daughter Milly had a knack of spending his money with a skill that "amazed" Wormold. Our hero is not a forceful character, it seemed to me that he, like the author, had been a victim of bullying- he is gratified when his daughter set a bully on fire and oh yes - his wife has left him for another man as well.
Wormold gets an offer to be recruited by a British agent to spy for the British Intelligence and after some initial reluctance he agrees because he needed the money for Milly's education. So he invents a false spy ring and starts feeding rubbish to British Secret Service.
There are some other interesting characters as well. Wormold's daughter Milly, Captain Segura and Dr. Hasselbacher.
Milly is a good/bad adolescent girl who is a staunch Catholic on one hand and can be a bit of a "tart" on the other.
Captain Segura of the Cuban Police is a pretty intimidating character.
Dr. Hasselbacher is the person for whom one would feel sympathy.
Greene's contempt for the British spy agency has been brilliantly presented throughout the novel - some parts are actually funny if not hilarious.
Very soon the little fraud by Wormold escalates in to something dangerous and people start dying. Betrayal, deception, subterfuge, greed, confusion, manipulation - the elements have so nicely used by the author. There is a scene -involving a certain man and his "lady" problems which was actually hilarious.
I liked the way how the character of Wormwold evolved - from a harmless man to one who would use subterfuge to outwit Segura and even plan for revenge. This reluctance to know intimate details about the man he is trying to kill so that his intended victim - a killer himself, does not turn into a human being showed his moral scruples even when he was trying to avenge a friend. The scene where Wormwold would try to outwit Segura was wonderful.
The book is full of brilliant dialogues and statements. Initially I thought of including some of them, but later I felt I should not spoil your pleasure if you plan to read it someday. In my humble opinion, the writing is excellent.
I simply have to recommend this book to fans of John Le Carre's style of thrillers. There are no fancy gadgets, car chases, femme fatales but you get a good story and some fine writing.
While reading the blurb of the book I was reminded of The Tailor of Panama by John Le Carre. Later I found articles which stated that Le Carre was indeed influenced by this book. You can refer to the articles by NY Times (Link) and The Guardian (Link) if you are interested.
January 16, 2024
Humorous spy story, with a typical Greene undertone. Especially enticing is the characterization of Wormold as a man who, against his will and skill, finds himself in an impossible situation and still manages to get out of it. It's great how Greene succeeds in combining irony with the heavy themes of responsibility and conscience. Not his best one, but greatly entertaining!
June 26, 2023
"As we always do when a man retires from a post abroad, we'll recommend you for a decoration. In your case we can hardly suggest anything higher than an O.B.E." - C, Chief of the British Secret Service
***********
Wormold is an expat British vacuum cleaner salesman with a small shop in Havana. He is friends with the elderly and alcoholic Doctor Hasselbacher. He lives with his seventeen year old daughter Milly. While studying at a convent she racks up bills from a horse, stable and country club. She meets Captain Segura, a Cuban officer who specializes in torture and mutilation. A British agent, Hawthorne, visits Wormold's shop asking questions about his business.
Within hours Wormold is manipulated into a world of coded telegrams, invisible ink and international intrigue. Having no experience with espionage he is advised by Hasselbacher to just take the money and provide useless information. Wormold creates a stable of phony agents from the country club directory. He collects salaries and expense allowances for each of his contacts and missions. His fabrications grow more elaborate until he reports rebel bases in the jungle.
Alarmed at the intelligence from Havana headquarters in London are determined to send support staff and equipment to Wormold immediately. He is given a beautiful operative, Beatrice, and a radio operator, Rudy. They outfit him with a safe, shortwave and microfilm darkroom. Rudy moves into his office and Beatrice his home. Sent to manage his contacts and protect his cover she has problems meeting with his fictitious agents who either disappear or go into hiding.
Wormold's cables had been intercepted and decoded by Hasselbacher who is working for the communists. Segura follows Wormold but is convinced he is only a decoy for the Russians or Americans. Hawthorne warns Wormold of a plot to assassinate him, proving the mysterious machines in the jungle aren't just a hoax. Beatrice and Wormold feel the first pangs of mutual affection while Milly avoids Capt. Segura's amorous advances. Murders shadow the circle of spies.
Graham Greene wrote this novel in 1958 just after 'The Quiet American'. That was a serious work while this is comedy. It was made into a movie, filmed in 1959 Havana with Castro's permission. Fidel didn't see the humor and complained it did not convey the brutality of the Batista regime. Greene depicts little of that, instead focusing on the ineptitude of the British intelligence service. It is funny although contrived. Greene had worked for MI6 during WWII and perhaps after.
***********
Wormold is an expat British vacuum cleaner salesman with a small shop in Havana. He is friends with the elderly and alcoholic Doctor Hasselbacher. He lives with his seventeen year old daughter Milly. While studying at a convent she racks up bills from a horse, stable and country club. She meets Captain Segura, a Cuban officer who specializes in torture and mutilation. A British agent, Hawthorne, visits Wormold's shop asking questions about his business.
Within hours Wormold is manipulated into a world of coded telegrams, invisible ink and international intrigue. Having no experience with espionage he is advised by Hasselbacher to just take the money and provide useless information. Wormold creates a stable of phony agents from the country club directory. He collects salaries and expense allowances for each of his contacts and missions. His fabrications grow more elaborate until he reports rebel bases in the jungle.
Alarmed at the intelligence from Havana headquarters in London are determined to send support staff and equipment to Wormold immediately. He is given a beautiful operative, Beatrice, and a radio operator, Rudy. They outfit him with a safe, shortwave and microfilm darkroom. Rudy moves into his office and Beatrice his home. Sent to manage his contacts and protect his cover she has problems meeting with his fictitious agents who either disappear or go into hiding.
Wormold's cables had been intercepted and decoded by Hasselbacher who is working for the communists. Segura follows Wormold but is convinced he is only a decoy for the Russians or Americans. Hawthorne warns Wormold of a plot to assassinate him, proving the mysterious machines in the jungle aren't just a hoax. Beatrice and Wormold feel the first pangs of mutual affection while Milly avoids Capt. Segura's amorous advances. Murders shadow the circle of spies.
Graham Greene wrote this novel in 1958 just after 'The Quiet American'. That was a serious work while this is comedy. It was made into a movie, filmed in 1959 Havana with Castro's permission. Fidel didn't see the humor and complained it did not convey the brutality of the Batista regime. Greene depicts little of that, instead focusing on the ineptitude of the British intelligence service. It is funny although contrived. Greene had worked for MI6 during WWII and perhaps after.
November 25, 2012
This is a fun read, the story of an accidental spy. Mr Wormold (love that name) sells vacuum cleaners in Havana, not very successfully, until one day he is recruited by a British agent to work for his country while living in that no longer romantic foreign outpost. To be a secret agent! Well--the story takes off from there with a cast of slightly crazy characters: Wormold's religiously manipulative daughter Milly, Captain Segura the head of the local police who has mastered torture, locals of varying nationalities, and multiple members of the spy community. (It is with considered purpose I do not use the term intelligence to describe that community.)
This is a great read that is timeless in it's message and story. Enjoy.
Edited this morning to reflect my decision that this is a 5 star book.
This is a great read that is timeless in it's message and story. Enjoy.
Edited this morning to reflect my decision that this is a 5 star book.
January 17, 2024
Note, Jan. 17, 2024: I've just caught and corrected a typo in this review.
Greene divided his own fiction between the novels and stories he considered more serious, such as The Heart of the Matter, and those he viewed as lighter "entertainments." This relatively short (247 pages --and not all of them with text) novel is one of the latter; and like many of the "entertainments" it draws on the author's World War II experiences as a spy for Britain's M-16 intelligence agency. (And it's obvious here that these weren't experiences he looked back on fondly.) Set in pre-Castro Cuba, it also draws on Greene's personal observations from his time in Cuba in 1957, when he was secretly smuggling warm clothing to Castro's rebels in the eastern hills. (He apparently continued to admire Castro until Greene's own death in 1991, though by 1983 he had come to have second thoughts about the Cuban dictator's authoritarianism.) Despite its supposedly "lighter" tone, however, this book does make philosophical statements. It also reflects Greene's status as an ambivalent and not very saintly Catholic, who was particularly disassociated from the Church's teaching on sexual morality because of his numerous extramarital affairs; Catholicism here is mainly represented by the protagonist's teenage daughter, who's outwardly scrupulous about the minutia of religious observance, but very far from modeling responsibility and altruism.
Stylistically, this book has certain things in common with the earlier one I cited above (and which is the only other Greene novel I've read). Greene wrote well, in that his prose flows quickly, he tells an attention-holding and often suspenseful story, and that he's insightful regarding human character and interactions when he's trying to be serious. It also has in common with the other book the fact that despite the relatively exotic setting, there's little sense of a physical and cultural setting outside of the transplanted bubble of the expatriate Europeans, and what we observe of the non-European world is primarily sordid; we get the impression that the primary industry of 1957 Havana was prostitution/pornography. (What aspects of an unfamiliar place a foreign observer actually observes, of course, may tell us more about the observer than about the place itself.) Afro-Cubans are twice designated, by sympathetic characters, with the n-word (one usage slaps you over the head as the very second word in the first sentence), a term that appears in the older book as well. But this book differs in that it often tries for a tone of satirical humor in places; too often, it tries too hard, making the dialogue ridiculous and the characters and situations unrealistic caricatures, and the juxtaposition of the serious and the satirically humorous doesn't always gel.
Greene's main philosophical message here seems to be that any loyalty higher than that to family and friends --particularly, any abstract loyalty such as patriotism or support for a social principle-- is misguided and misplaced. To be sure, loyalty to human beings we love will naturally, for most of us, take precedence over loyalty to abstractions; and when it comes to guiding our actions, moral principle must always trump political or social agendas. (It should also trump family interests --swindling a bureaucracy out of money doesn't become moral if we're doing it for a son or daughter, though Greene here may come close to suggesting that it does.) But the wall-to-wall cynicism of Greene's view of the Cold War, as purely a struggle for power between morally equivalent shady rivals, which decent people would be better off to ignore, doesn't ultimately convince this reader. (And I lived through much of the Cold War period, being born in 1952.) In the broader landscape of espionage fiction, Greene's worldview is much like le Carre's in The Spy Who Came In from the Cold (though the latter book is a lot more serious), rather than, say, Manning Coles.' But in hindsight, most people in the captive populations behind the Iron Curtain might well have had a perspective more similar to Coles' (while not canonizing M-16 and the CIA).
Greene divided his own fiction between the novels and stories he considered more serious, such as The Heart of the Matter, and those he viewed as lighter "entertainments." This relatively short (247 pages --and not all of them with text) novel is one of the latter; and like many of the "entertainments" it draws on the author's World War II experiences as a spy for Britain's M-16 intelligence agency. (And it's obvious here that these weren't experiences he looked back on fondly.) Set in pre-Castro Cuba, it also draws on Greene's personal observations from his time in Cuba in 1957, when he was secretly smuggling warm clothing to Castro's rebels in the eastern hills. (He apparently continued to admire Castro until Greene's own death in 1991, though by 1983 he had come to have second thoughts about the Cuban dictator's authoritarianism.) Despite its supposedly "lighter" tone, however, this book does make philosophical statements. It also reflects Greene's status as an ambivalent and not very saintly Catholic, who was particularly disassociated from the Church's teaching on sexual morality because of his numerous extramarital affairs; Catholicism here is mainly represented by the protagonist's teenage daughter, who's outwardly scrupulous about the minutia of religious observance, but very far from modeling responsibility and altruism.
Stylistically, this book has certain things in common with the earlier one I cited above (and which is the only other Greene novel I've read). Greene wrote well, in that his prose flows quickly, he tells an attention-holding and often suspenseful story, and that he's insightful regarding human character and interactions when he's trying to be serious. It also has in common with the other book the fact that despite the relatively exotic setting, there's little sense of a physical and cultural setting outside of the transplanted bubble of the expatriate Europeans, and what we observe of the non-European world is primarily sordid; we get the impression that the primary industry of 1957 Havana was prostitution/pornography. (What aspects of an unfamiliar place a foreign observer actually observes, of course, may tell us more about the observer than about the place itself.) Afro-Cubans are twice designated, by sympathetic characters, with the n-word (one usage slaps you over the head as the very second word in the first sentence), a term that appears in the older book as well. But this book differs in that it often tries for a tone of satirical humor in places; too often, it tries too hard, making the dialogue ridiculous and the characters and situations unrealistic caricatures, and the juxtaposition of the serious and the satirically humorous doesn't always gel.
Greene's main philosophical message here seems to be that any loyalty higher than that to family and friends --particularly, any abstract loyalty such as patriotism or support for a social principle-- is misguided and misplaced. To be sure, loyalty to human beings we love will naturally, for most of us, take precedence over loyalty to abstractions; and when it comes to guiding our actions, moral principle must always trump political or social agendas. (It should also trump family interests --swindling a bureaucracy out of money doesn't become moral if we're doing it for a son or daughter, though Greene here may come close to suggesting that it does.) But the wall-to-wall cynicism of Greene's view of the Cold War, as purely a struggle for power between morally equivalent shady rivals, which decent people would be better off to ignore, doesn't ultimately convince this reader. (And I lived through much of the Cold War period, being born in 1952.) In the broader landscape of espionage fiction, Greene's worldview is much like le Carre's in The Spy Who Came In from the Cold (though the latter book is a lot more serious), rather than, say, Manning Coles.' But in hindsight, most people in the captive populations behind the Iron Curtain might well have had a perspective more similar to Coles' (while not canonizing M-16 and the CIA).
December 27, 2021
Our Man in Havana was a delightful and satirical novel about the Cold War as only Graham Greene could do. James Wormold, an Englishman in Havana is recruited into espionage as a spy for MI6. Wormold, is a struggling vacuum cleaner salesman for Phastkleaners in Havana, Cuba, and left by his wife years ago. But he loves his delightful sixteen year-old daughter Millie who is torn between the rigors and rituals of her Catholic faith and spending frivolously, the latest expenditure a horse necessitating a stable and a country club for riding lessons. Alas, Wormold, a respected member of the European Traders' Association, succumbs to the temptation. And our accidental spy becomes "our man in Havana."
His British contact Hawthorn sets him up with the code books needed for espionage, two identical copies of Lamb's Tales from Shakespeare.
"The secret of successfully using an agent is to understand him. Our man in Havana belongs--you might say--to the Kipling age. Walking with kings--how does it go?--and keeping your virtue, crowds and the common touch."
Our man in Havana with little taste for espionage but in need of funds, decides to fabricate spies working for him and questionable drawings obtained, those bearing remarkable similarities to parts of vacuum cleaners. To justify his payments, he needed to supply regular reports. But at some point fantasy becomes some sort of frightening reality. This was a classic that looks at the Cold War unflinchingly.
"It is a great danger for everyone when what is shocking changes."
His British contact Hawthorn sets him up with the code books needed for espionage, two identical copies of Lamb's Tales from Shakespeare.
"The secret of successfully using an agent is to understand him. Our man in Havana belongs--you might say--to the Kipling age. Walking with kings--how does it go?--and keeping your virtue, crowds and the common touch."
Our man in Havana with little taste for espionage but in need of funds, decides to fabricate spies working for him and questionable drawings obtained, those bearing remarkable similarities to parts of vacuum cleaners. To justify his payments, he needed to supply regular reports. But at some point fantasy becomes some sort of frightening reality. This was a classic that looks at the Cold War unflinchingly.
"It is a great danger for everyone when what is shocking changes."
Read
August 9, 2019When I was a youngster I read a lot of Graham Greene. This one feels to me to be less typical, Catholicism isn't such a feature and guilt isn't quite such an overwhelming presence as in some of his other novels. By contrast this is fairly light.
It's an enjoyable read and there's a value that still seems fairly relevant in it's message of being mindful of the potential sources of intelligence information.
Greene seems to have suffered a fall in Grace as according to the county library catalogue he is not even on the shelves any more, perhaps other writers meet the public need for neo-Catholic guilt and religious strivings today?
It's an enjoyable read and there's a value that still seems fairly relevant in it's message of being mindful of the potential sources of intelligence information.
Greene seems to have suffered a fall in Grace as according to the county library catalogue he is not even on the shelves any more, perhaps other writers meet the public need for neo-Catholic guilt and religious strivings today?
November 1, 2020
You are interested in a person, not in life,
and people die or leave us....But if you're
interested in life, it never lets you down.
Graham Greene’s almost farcical take on international spying, Our Man in Havana is mostly a humorous look at a vacuum cleaner salesman, who is pressed into service by M16. Jim Wormold is out of his depth from the beginning, and not being a real spy, he does what makes the most sense to him, he manufactures information and pockets money. What ensues is nearly pure humor, (I know, not what one expects when opening up a Graham Greene novel,
but the events themselves might well be harrowing if treated in a different fashion, and I suspect Greene wants us to peek beneath the veil and see the true face if we can.
This little novel is marvelously done. Jim Wormold is not in control of the events that unfold, but he has to play his part, take his chances, and sometimes face danger head-on. He seems to waver between being innately crafty and bungling but lucky. He has a spoiled and conveniently religious daughter and an interesting friend, Doctor Hasselbacher, who somewhat steals the show for me.
Written during the cold war, this is both a spoof of spying and perhaps a commentary on the way secret dealings create, rather than help, in the presence of that situation. Greene had done a stint as a M16 agent himself, so he probably understood the amount of disinformation there was floating about, the competitiveness, even between allies, that kept them from sharing real information, and the dangers that were inherent to the common practices in an atomic age.
A lot of fun and a big surprise. Graham Greene had a sense of humor--who would have guessed?
and people die or leave us....But if you're
interested in life, it never lets you down.
Graham Greene’s almost farcical take on international spying, Our Man in Havana is mostly a humorous look at a vacuum cleaner salesman, who is pressed into service by M16. Jim Wormold is out of his depth from the beginning, and not being a real spy, he does what makes the most sense to him, he manufactures information and pockets money. What ensues is nearly pure humor, (I know, not what one expects when opening up a Graham Greene novel,
but the events themselves might well be harrowing if treated in a different fashion, and I suspect Greene wants us to peek beneath the veil and see the true face if we can.
This little novel is marvelously done. Jim Wormold is not in control of the events that unfold, but he has to play his part, take his chances, and sometimes face danger head-on. He seems to waver between being innately crafty and bungling but lucky. He has a spoiled and conveniently religious daughter and an interesting friend, Doctor Hasselbacher, who somewhat steals the show for me.
Written during the cold war, this is both a spoof of spying and perhaps a commentary on the way secret dealings create, rather than help, in the presence of that situation. Greene had done a stint as a M16 agent himself, so he probably understood the amount of disinformation there was floating about, the competitiveness, even between allies, that kept them from sharing real information, and the dangers that were inherent to the common practices in an atomic age.
A lot of fun and a big surprise. Graham Greene had a sense of humor--who would have guessed?
May 25, 2017
This is the first of Graham Greene’s novels I’ve read that is classed as one of his “entertainments” – so I wasn’t at all sure what to expect. The style, tone and nature of ‘Our Man in Havana’ clearly has a very different feel to his more serious novels (‘Heart of the Matter’, ‘End of the Affair’ et al) and as such is quite distinct from that oeuvre.
‘Our Man in Havana’ is very well written as you would expect from Graham Greene and is certainly very entertaining, very funny throughout. The plot is ostensibly based on the farcical premise of an English vacuum cleaner salesman stationed in a pre-revolutionary Havana, being recruited by the British Secret Service, leading to the subsequent ‘reports’ and ‘actions’ that he takes in fulfilling his new espionage role. As such, the story often has very much the feel of a traditional farce to it – albeit an intelligent and very funny one and one contains many elements in it that feel to the reader almost feasible, almost believable!
So whilst ‘Our Man in Havana’ is essentially light-hearted and loads of fun, perhaps there are elements in and amongst which do convey a more serious message(s) and allude to more serious themes for our consideration?
Whilst maybe not considered as great, as profound, as meaningful nor of the same import as Graham Greene’s ‘serious’ novels – it is clearly not intended to be so. There is however equally a place for the intelligent, witty and well written ‘entertainment’ such as this one, just as much as for the serious novel.
This is compelling written and very evocative of a pre-revolutionary Havana. I was lucky enough to visit Havana around 15 years ago now and although faded and in some cases crumbling, the grandeur and uniqueness of Havana, frozen as it is in time since 1959, make it a special, exciting and fascinating place. The Havana described by Greene is still there very much to see albeit, in its 21st Century version.
‘Our Man in Havana’ is a very well, very compellingly written novel (Wormold is a great creation) – very funny and in a strange kind of way…almost believable.
‘Our Man in Havana’ is very well written as you would expect from Graham Greene and is certainly very entertaining, very funny throughout. The plot is ostensibly based on the farcical premise of an English vacuum cleaner salesman stationed in a pre-revolutionary Havana, being recruited by the British Secret Service, leading to the subsequent ‘reports’ and ‘actions’ that he takes in fulfilling his new espionage role. As such, the story often has very much the feel of a traditional farce to it – albeit an intelligent and very funny one and one contains many elements in it that feel to the reader almost feasible, almost believable!
So whilst ‘Our Man in Havana’ is essentially light-hearted and loads of fun, perhaps there are elements in and amongst which do convey a more serious message(s) and allude to more serious themes for our consideration?
Whilst maybe not considered as great, as profound, as meaningful nor of the same import as Graham Greene’s ‘serious’ novels – it is clearly not intended to be so. There is however equally a place for the intelligent, witty and well written ‘entertainment’ such as this one, just as much as for the serious novel.
This is compelling written and very evocative of a pre-revolutionary Havana. I was lucky enough to visit Havana around 15 years ago now and although faded and in some cases crumbling, the grandeur and uniqueness of Havana, frozen as it is in time since 1959, make it a special, exciting and fascinating place. The Havana described by Greene is still there very much to see albeit, in its 21st Century version.
‘Our Man in Havana’ is a very well, very compellingly written novel (Wormold is a great creation) – very funny and in a strange kind of way…almost believable.
April 22, 2023
Entertaining.
Not only was Our Man in Havana a satirical allegory for the absurdity of Cold War espionage, it also felt like an allegory for the absurdity of being a paid author of fiction. The author makes stuff up and gets a paycheque for his efforts. Of course that wasn't the point of the book; desire begets desperation, the architects of war require building materials, war is bad and all that, but there seems to be an awareness that Greene himself is quite like his own antihero.
When reading Greene, one will always find references to his 'entertainment' fiction. Our Man in Havana falls into that category. What bothers me about that classification is one would have to assume anything outside that category is not entertaining. So would I read another of his books, knowing the author himself has flagged it as not entertaining? At the very least I would search out another of his entertainments for my entertainment.
Fun book. 3.5ish stars.
Not only was Our Man in Havana a satirical allegory for the absurdity of Cold War espionage, it also felt like an allegory for the absurdity of being a paid author of fiction. The author makes stuff up and gets a paycheque for his efforts. Of course that wasn't the point of the book; desire begets desperation, the architects of war require building materials, war is bad and all that, but there seems to be an awareness that Greene himself is quite like his own antihero.
When reading Greene, one will always find references to his 'entertainment' fiction. Our Man in Havana falls into that category. What bothers me about that classification is one would have to assume anything outside that category is not entertaining. So would I read another of his books, knowing the author himself has flagged it as not entertaining? At the very least I would search out another of his entertainments for my entertainment.
Fun book. 3.5ish stars.
April 1, 2021
So good that I bought it twice. One month apart. Goodreads is supposed to stop this happening. Finally losing my marbles.
A twee little book. Poverty stricken vacuum cleaner salesman in pre Castro Cuba is recruited by the British secret service. He is paid by results and takes to making stuff up to earn more money.
Then things take a queer turn as his made up reports start having real life consequences. People are being bumped off and attempts are made on VCSs life.
And who is the sinister police chief sniffing around his teenage daughter - lifts back from school in his car and all.
Funny in places, odd in others. Not entirely sure about this one.
A twee little book. Poverty stricken vacuum cleaner salesman in pre Castro Cuba is recruited by the British secret service. He is paid by results and takes to making stuff up to earn more money.
Then things take a queer turn as his made up reports start having real life consequences. People are being bumped off and attempts are made on VCSs life.
And who is the sinister police chief sniffing around his teenage daughter - lifts back from school in his car and all.
Funny in places, odd in others. Not entirely sure about this one.
November 13, 2023
Jim Wormold, divorcé, lives in Havana with his pretty teenage daughter, Milly. He has one friend, Dr. Hasselbacher and struggles to make ends meet as a none-too-successful vacuum cleaner salesman. Then an unexpected person walks into his life—with what you might call an ‘opportunity too good to refuse’. He can become the undercover British Agent in Havana, watch for/report on suspicious activity, recruit his own agents, set up an expense account, and start earning that second income he so desperately needs.
The only trouble is Wormold is about as ill-suited to this line of work as an elephant for bead-work. He is a very shy man. Did I mention he only has one friend? This friend suggests he start inventing fake reports, imaginary agents and – by extension – an appropriate expense account. This solves Wormold’s financial shortages but causes all sorts of other problems especially when London becomes concerned that it is too much work for just one man and they send him a secretary and radio operator.
And then things get even worse as real people with the same names as Wormold’s fictitious agents start dying. Despite the murders, this is a very funny book! Dry humor, but really good! I especially liked the scenes where Wormold went to warn a couple of ‘agents’, their lives might be in danger. Greene was superb.
I half read, half listened to this book because I was so anxious to finish it. Hope to go back sometime and listen to the whole thing. An excellent reading of it!
The only trouble is Wormold is about as ill-suited to this line of work as an elephant for bead-work. He is a very shy man. Did I mention he only has one friend? This friend suggests he start inventing fake reports, imaginary agents and – by extension – an appropriate expense account. This solves Wormold’s financial shortages but causes all sorts of other problems especially when London becomes concerned that it is too much work for just one man and they send him a secretary and radio operator.
And then things get even worse as real people with the same names as Wormold’s fictitious agents start dying. Despite the murders, this is a very funny book! Dry humor, but really good! I especially liked the scenes where Wormold went to warn a couple of ‘agents’, their lives might be in danger. Greene was superb.
I half read, half listened to this book because I was so anxious to finish it. Hope to go back sometime and listen to the whole thing. An excellent reading of it!
September 1, 2022
I had so much fun reading this book … it is an espionage tale told with a deliciously witty British humor … laugh out loud funny …
Mr. Wormold is a middle-aged divorced man who manages a vacuum cleaner store in Havana in the 1950s … every day he meets his friend, Dr. Hasselbacher, at a bar for drinks … he has a teenage daughter who goes to Catholic school with a blithe devotion …
Then Hawthorne enters his life … he wants to recruit Mr. Wormold as a secret agent for the British Secret Service … reluctantly, he agrees, but all Wormold is interested in is earning and saving money for his daughter … he makes up profiles for his imaginary contacts in Cubs … the twist is that real secret agents have a list of his false contacts and have tried to murder each contact …
This book is steeped with sarcasm and irony, a gentle satire of the espionage genre … the characters are colorful and hilarious … the plot twists are brilliant and unexpected … a definite must-read, especially if you are a fan of wry British humor …
Mr. Wormold is a middle-aged divorced man who manages a vacuum cleaner store in Havana in the 1950s … every day he meets his friend, Dr. Hasselbacher, at a bar for drinks … he has a teenage daughter who goes to Catholic school with a blithe devotion …
Then Hawthorne enters his life … he wants to recruit Mr. Wormold as a secret agent for the British Secret Service … reluctantly, he agrees, but all Wormold is interested in is earning and saving money for his daughter … he makes up profiles for his imaginary contacts in Cubs … the twist is that real secret agents have a list of his false contacts and have tried to murder each contact …
This book is steeped with sarcasm and irony, a gentle satire of the espionage genre … the characters are colorful and hilarious … the plot twists are brilliant and unexpected … a definite must-read, especially if you are a fan of wry British humor …
September 17, 2022
3.5 stars
One of what Greens called his Entertainments. I vaguely remember the film starring Alec Guinness (it has also been turned into an opera and a play). During the War Greene worked for MI6 and this is a satirical comedy about the security services set in Cuba in the late 1950s, just before the revolution.
Jim Wormold is a vacuum cleaner salesman in Havana who somewhat accidentally is recruited to a British security agency (based on MI6). He is divorced with a teenage daughter (who is a practising Catholic) who has expensive tastes. He discovers he is supposed to recruits agents to gather information and send regular coded reports. He makes up some of the agents and for others, he picks names of people he doesn’t know, but who seem vaguely relevant (engineers, academics and the like). He also does some drawings of vacuum cleaner parts and passes them off as scientific equipment:
“When he was alone, Wormold unscrewed the cleaner into its various parts. Then he sat down at his desk and began to make a series of careful drawings. As he sat back and contemplated his sketches of the sprayer detached from the hose-handle of the cleaner, the needle-jet, the nozzle and the telescopic tube, he wondered: Am I perhaps going too far? He realised that he had forgotten to indicate the scale. He ruled a line and numbered it off: one inch representing three feet. Then for better measure he drew a little man two inches high below the nozzle. He dressed him neatly in a dark suit,and gave him a bowler hat and an umbrella.”
All of this impresses London and he suddenly acquires a secretary and staff. Then suddenly things start to happen to the names on the list and the plot thickens. George Smiley this is not. The recruitment takes place in a pub toilet.
Greene’s Catholicism is fairly tangential in this one, but there are a few in jokes. Wormold is a non-believer, but his daughter says her novenas to get a horse. She also tells her father that he doesn’t need to become a Catholic as he is already “invincibly ignorant”. One of Wormold’s friends Dr Hasselbacher has the following exchange with a stray American in a bar, they are talking about the next day’s lottery which Hasselbacher imagines he has already won:
““I have won them as certainly as you exist, my almost unseen friend. You would not exist if I didn’t believe you existed, nor would those dollars. I believe, therefore you are.”
“What do you mean I wouldn’t exist?”
“You exist only in my thoughts my friend. If I left this room…”
“You’re nuts”
“Prove you exist then.”
“What do you mean prove? Of course I exist. I’ve got a first-class business in real estate: a wife and a couple of kids in Miami: I flew here this morning by Delta: I’m drinking this Scotch, aren’t I?”
The voice contained a hint of tears”
Plenty of twists on Theology and Existentialism there!
Greene also throws in lots of one-liners, as he is wont to do:
“A picture postcard is a symptom of loneliness”
“Someone always leaves a banana-skin on the scene of a tragedy”
“A big wardrobe stood open and two white suits hung there like the last teeth in an old mouth”
There’s also a fair amount of whisky involved as there is in The Power and the Glory. The part where Wormold plays checkers with Captain Segura with whisky miniatures is very funny.
There are however several racial slurs, one on the first page, which do jar and cannot be ignored.
On the whole this is funny and a good counterpoint to Smiley and Bond.
One of what Greens called his Entertainments. I vaguely remember the film starring Alec Guinness (it has also been turned into an opera and a play). During the War Greene worked for MI6 and this is a satirical comedy about the security services set in Cuba in the late 1950s, just before the revolution.
Jim Wormold is a vacuum cleaner salesman in Havana who somewhat accidentally is recruited to a British security agency (based on MI6). He is divorced with a teenage daughter (who is a practising Catholic) who has expensive tastes. He discovers he is supposed to recruits agents to gather information and send regular coded reports. He makes up some of the agents and for others, he picks names of people he doesn’t know, but who seem vaguely relevant (engineers, academics and the like). He also does some drawings of vacuum cleaner parts and passes them off as scientific equipment:
“When he was alone, Wormold unscrewed the cleaner into its various parts. Then he sat down at his desk and began to make a series of careful drawings. As he sat back and contemplated his sketches of the sprayer detached from the hose-handle of the cleaner, the needle-jet, the nozzle and the telescopic tube, he wondered: Am I perhaps going too far? He realised that he had forgotten to indicate the scale. He ruled a line and numbered it off: one inch representing three feet. Then for better measure he drew a little man two inches high below the nozzle. He dressed him neatly in a dark suit,and gave him a bowler hat and an umbrella.”
All of this impresses London and he suddenly acquires a secretary and staff. Then suddenly things start to happen to the names on the list and the plot thickens. George Smiley this is not. The recruitment takes place in a pub toilet.
Greene’s Catholicism is fairly tangential in this one, but there are a few in jokes. Wormold is a non-believer, but his daughter says her novenas to get a horse. She also tells her father that he doesn’t need to become a Catholic as he is already “invincibly ignorant”. One of Wormold’s friends Dr Hasselbacher has the following exchange with a stray American in a bar, they are talking about the next day’s lottery which Hasselbacher imagines he has already won:
““I have won them as certainly as you exist, my almost unseen friend. You would not exist if I didn’t believe you existed, nor would those dollars. I believe, therefore you are.”
“What do you mean I wouldn’t exist?”
“You exist only in my thoughts my friend. If I left this room…”
“You’re nuts”
“Prove you exist then.”
“What do you mean prove? Of course I exist. I’ve got a first-class business in real estate: a wife and a couple of kids in Miami: I flew here this morning by Delta: I’m drinking this Scotch, aren’t I?”
The voice contained a hint of tears”
Plenty of twists on Theology and Existentialism there!
Greene also throws in lots of one-liners, as he is wont to do:
“A picture postcard is a symptom of loneliness”
“Someone always leaves a banana-skin on the scene of a tragedy”
“A big wardrobe stood open and two white suits hung there like the last teeth in an old mouth”
There’s also a fair amount of whisky involved as there is in The Power and the Glory. The part where Wormold plays checkers with Captain Segura with whisky miniatures is very funny.
There are however several racial slurs, one on the first page, which do jar and cannot be ignored.
On the whole this is funny and a good counterpoint to Smiley and Bond.
February 17, 2021
"Childhood was the germ of all mistrust. You were cruelly joked upon and then you cruelly joked. You lost the remembrance of pain through inflicting it."
Our Man in Havana is a satirical espionage parody set in Cuba. The novel was published just few months prior to Fidel Castro toppling the Batista’s regime. James Wormold, a vacuum cleaner salesman is recruited by MI6 to spy and to set up spy network without any clear instructions on as to what he is to spy on. There begins the fabrication of concocted operatives, fictional intelligence reports, sketches of vacuum parts that pass as architectural drawings of rebel buildings.
"It couldn’t be a vacuum cleaner, sir. Not a vacuum cleaner.’
‘Fiendish, isn’t it?’ the chief said… I believe we may be on to something so big that the H-bomb will become a conventional weapon."
There is a conglomeration of Russian, American, British spy emissaries and Cuban secret police spying on each other, intercepting intelligence and trying to outdo each other. Hidden among the folds of the absurdity is logic, authenticity, intuition and an endearing story of friendship and love.
"At least if I could kill him, I would kill for a reason. I would kill to show that you can't kill without being killed in your turn. I wouldn't kill for my country. I wouldn't kill for capitalism or Communism or social democracy or the welfare state - whose welfare? I would kill Carter because he killed Hasselbacher. A family-feud had been a better reason for murder than patriotism or the preference for one economic system over another. If I love or if I hate, let me love or hate as an individual."
November 7, 2020
I really enjoyed this, it was funny, beautifully written, I was drawn into the story from the start and it’s a gentle satire which I thought made it’s points well.
Wormold, the central character is an English vacuum cleaner seller with a teenage daughter with expensive tastes living in Cuba. He’s almost unwittingly recruited by Hawthorne to be a spy and the story unfolds around him with lots of unseen consequences. I loved the ending, it seemed so appropriate!
Wormold, the central character is an English vacuum cleaner seller with a teenage daughter with expensive tastes living in Cuba. He’s almost unwittingly recruited by Hawthorne to be a spy and the story unfolds around him with lots of unseen consequences. I loved the ending, it seemed so appropriate!
September 18, 2017
Greene. Εξαιρετικός και -επιπλέον- διασκεδαστικός. Μου άρεσε πολύ, θα έβαζα 4,5/5 αν είχε μισά :-)
December 20, 2011
spoilers!
Uncorrected Transcript of Oral Evidence
Taken before the Intelligence and Security Committee Tuesday 15 July 1958
Members present:
Mr. Paul Anderson, in the Chair
Mr. Jonathan Blakeley
Mr. Richard Cunningham QC
Witnesses: MR. JAMES WORMOLD, O.B.E., former SIS operative in Havana, Cuba, 1955-1957; and MRS. BEATRICE WORMOLD (NEE SEVERN), formerly a secretary at the SIS headquarters.
Q1 Chairman: Mr. and Mrs. Wormold, may I welcome you to this hearing, which purpose is to examine the veracity of the contents of Dossier No. 1801 dated 24 October 1957 (hereinafter referred to as the Dossier), issued by the SIS or otherwise popularly known as the MI6. This Committee hopes that both of you will be able to shed light on certain events described in the Dossier, which have been challenged by other sources. Everything that transpires in this hearing shall be treated as a matter of national security and be held in the strictest confidence. Let me start with the first question: Mr. Wormold, is it true that you were recruited by an SIS agent, who went under the name of Hawthorne, in Havana during the winter of 1955?
Mr. Wormold: It is true, sir.
Q2 Chairman: Please describe the recruitment process.
Mr. Wormold: I was drinking with my old friend Dr. Hassellbacher at Sloppy Joe’s. Agent Hawthorne was there. He corralled me into the Gents and suggested to me that I should join the Secret Service.
Q3 Chairman: Any particular reason why the deed was done in the Gents?
Mr. Wormold: Uh --- I don’t know, sir. He said that it’s more secure in case anyone barged in. He kept the tap running while speaking to me, to confuse the mike, he said. I said I didn’t want the job, but he insisted. Then he shoved me into a closet and walked away.
Q4 Mr. Cunningham: Did he give you any reason for your recruitment?
Mr. Wormold: Yes, sir. He said that I was a patriotic Englishman who had been living in Havana for years, besides being a respected member of the European Traders Association. He also said that they must have their man in Havana, and that submarines need fuel and dictators drift together. I didn’t quite catch his drift then, sir.
Q5 Mr. Cunningham: What kind of business did you run in Havana, Mr. Wormold?
Mr. Wormold: I ran a vacuum cleaner shop, sir. We carry the finest, most modern machines such as the Atomic Pile Suction Cleaner, the Midget Make-Easy Air Powered Suction Small Home Cleaner and the Turbo, which is the no. 1 brand in Cuba for four years running. We are Phastkleaners’ sole agent for the whole of Cuba.
Q6 Mr. Blakeley: The Dossier describes you as a “well-connected merchant king with a substantial machinery importing business.” How many persons were employed in your business, Mr. Wormold?
Mr. Wormold: One, sir. It was just a small store.
Mr. Blakeley: Interesting. The Dossier also describes you as “stable”, and “uninterested in women.”
Mrs. Wormold: (snickers)
Chairman: Mrs. Wormold, we respectfully ask you not to speak until requested to do so.
Q6 Mr. Cunningham: Mr. Wormold, you initially refused the job, why did you change your mind?
Mr. Wormold: It was because of my daughter, Milly. She was just sixteen at that time. Convent schoolgirl, very good girl. She wanted to buy a horse and rode in the Country Club. The horse alone costed 300 pounds, sir, and the Country Club was even more expensive. Not to say of the bridles, saddles and riding lessons. And I wanted to have enough money to retire in England and take her with me. There was this native person called Capt. Segura who had designs on her.
Q7 Mr. Blakeley: Isn’t he the head of police in Vedado?
Mr. Wormold: The one and the same. Do you know what people in Havana call him, sir? The Red Vulture. He tortured prisoners. He had a wallet made of human skin. This person wanted to marry my daughter. You see, I had to get her out of Cuba. Pronto!
Mrs. Wormold: He is such a good father!
Chairman:: Mrs. Wormold ---
Mrs. Wormold: Not to speak until spoken to. Understood.
Q8 Mr. Cunningham: The Dossier records that you received a lump sum payment of 1,000 pounds in April 1956. Could you confirm what the funds were used for?
Mr. Wormold: To join the Country Club and recruit several sub-agents.
Q9 Mr. Cunningham: Engineer Cifuentes, Professor Luis Sanchez and Lopez. Who’s Lopez?
Mr. Wormold: My employee at the store. He wanted an additional 25 pesos per month. The other two names were from the Country Club’s roster. I had to justify the payments.
Q 10 Mr. Cunningham: I see. And the transfer of 1,500 dollars in June 1956 was for what purpose?
Mr. Wormold: To procure intelligence reports and drawings of the secret military installations in the mountains of Oriente Province.
Chairman: These are the drawings, gentlemen. According to the Dossier, these depict the parts of a massive weapon of mass destruction, very possibly nuclear.
Mrs. Wormold: Actually, those were the drawings of the parts of the Atomic Pile Suction vacuum cleaner.
Q11 Chairman: Is that true, Mr. Wormold?
Mr. Wormold: Uh yes, sir.
Q12 Chairman: Who made them, Mr. Wormold?
Mr. Wormold: I did, sir. I took the Atomic Pile apart and drew the parts. Then I altered the scale to make them seem gigantic.
Mr. Blakeley: He had even drew a little man with a bowler hat next to the drawings --- see?
Chairman: How did these absurd drawings got through the experts at the SIS?
Mr. Blakeley: To be fair, this particular drawing here does look like some kind of a massive cannon bore.
Mrs. Wormold: It’s a drawing of the Atomic Pile’s nozzle. I love it that Jim could be so devious!
Q13 Chairman: Since you seem to be exceedingly eager to speak, Mrs. Wormold, let’s commence with your part. Who sent you to Havana?
Mrs. Wormold: Miss Jenkinson, sir. The head of the secretarial pool at the SIS HQ. Agent Hawthorne specifically requested a Spanish-speaking secretary for the assignment.
Q14 Chairman: Did you speak Spanish? Did you have any other abilities that might have been useful there?
Mrs. Wormold: No Spanish, but I’m half French. At the SIS, they think that all Latin tongues are the same anyway. I could encode and do microphotography. I also have a good knowledge of electrodynamics.
Q15 Mr. Blakeley: What’s that?
Mrs. Wormold: Let’s just say that if you have any trouble with your fuse box at home, you can give me a call.
Mr. Blakeley: Er --- all right.
Q16 Mr. Cunningham: What happened when you arrived in Havana? Did Mr. Wormold’s activities as an agent seemed suspicious to you from the start?
Mrs. Wormold: We first met at the Copacabana --- it was so romantic --- all those palm trees, the Parisian songs, the cabaret…
Chairman: Please answer Mr. Cunningham’s questions, Mrs. Wormold.
Mrs. Wormold: Where were we? Oh yes, I was not suspicious at first. I thought that he was kind of bumbling, but what a sweet man! And then someone shot at Cifuentes and everything started to unravel. He took me to the Shanghai Theater to warn Teresa ---
Mr. Blakeley: One of the alleged sub-agents, a “nude dancer who is the mistress of both the Minister of Mines and the Director of Post & Telegraph.”
Mrs. Wormold: That’s the girl. We got her into Jim’s car and we rode to Professor Sanchez’s house to warn him too ---
Q17 Mr. Blakeley: Is this the incident described in the police report attached to the Dossier, in which Mr. Wormold was arrested for driving around with a naked girl and breaking into Professor Sanchez’s home?
Mrs. Wormold: Yes. It was quite funny, actually. It was a total farce. I wished that he had just told me, though. No need for all that merry go round --- right, darling?
Mr. Blakeley: Apparently, there were other murky incidents after that --- it’s rather difficult to understand what actually happened from the Dossier. But at the end Mr. Wormold successfully eliminated several suspected enemy operatives while providing us with an invaluable list of foreign agents.
Mr. Cunningham: May I point out that Mr. Wormold could not be charged under the Official Secrets Act as he hadn’t actually given any secrets away? He invented secrets, and such an act is not covered by the OSA.
Chairman: I think that I can speak for this Committee --- on the balance, Mr. and Mrs. Wormold’s actions had brought us more benefits than disadvantages, although it must be said that we have some concerns about the sheer amount of invention that was involved. But such is the nature of intelligence work. It is in our national interest that we concur with the conclusion of the SIS’ internal inquiry: Mr. Wormold deserves his O.B.E., and Mrs. Wormold does not deserve to be sent to Jakarta.
Mr. Blakeley and Mr. Cunningham: We agree.
Mr. Wormold: May I say something, sir?
Chairman: Certainly, Mr. Wormold.
Mr. Wormold: This is the lesson that I’ve learned from all of this. The cruel come and go like cities and thrones and powers. They have no permanence. But the clown whom I had seen last year with my daughter at the circus --- that clown is permanent, for his act never change.That is the way to live: the clown is unaffected by the vagaries of public and the enormous discoveries of the great.
Chairman: Umm, yes. Quite an interesting sentiment. Is that all?
Mr. Wormold: One more: thou shalt not invent a weapon of mass destruction where there is none.
Chairman: I agree. May I thank you on behalf of the Committee? You both have been most helpful.
End of Transcript
Uncorrected Transcript of Oral Evidence
Taken before the Intelligence and Security Committee Tuesday 15 July 1958
Members present:
Mr. Paul Anderson, in the Chair
Mr. Jonathan Blakeley
Mr. Richard Cunningham QC
Witnesses: MR. JAMES WORMOLD, O.B.E., former SIS operative in Havana, Cuba, 1955-1957; and MRS. BEATRICE WORMOLD (NEE SEVERN), formerly a secretary at the SIS headquarters.
Q1 Chairman: Mr. and Mrs. Wormold, may I welcome you to this hearing, which purpose is to examine the veracity of the contents of Dossier No. 1801 dated 24 October 1957 (hereinafter referred to as the Dossier), issued by the SIS or otherwise popularly known as the MI6. This Committee hopes that both of you will be able to shed light on certain events described in the Dossier, which have been challenged by other sources. Everything that transpires in this hearing shall be treated as a matter of national security and be held in the strictest confidence. Let me start with the first question: Mr. Wormold, is it true that you were recruited by an SIS agent, who went under the name of Hawthorne, in Havana during the winter of 1955?
Mr. Wormold: It is true, sir.
Q2 Chairman: Please describe the recruitment process.
Mr. Wormold: I was drinking with my old friend Dr. Hassellbacher at Sloppy Joe’s. Agent Hawthorne was there. He corralled me into the Gents and suggested to me that I should join the Secret Service.
Q3 Chairman: Any particular reason why the deed was done in the Gents?
Mr. Wormold: Uh --- I don’t know, sir. He said that it’s more secure in case anyone barged in. He kept the tap running while speaking to me, to confuse the mike, he said. I said I didn’t want the job, but he insisted. Then he shoved me into a closet and walked away.
Q4 Mr. Cunningham: Did he give you any reason for your recruitment?
Mr. Wormold: Yes, sir. He said that I was a patriotic Englishman who had been living in Havana for years, besides being a respected member of the European Traders Association. He also said that they must have their man in Havana, and that submarines need fuel and dictators drift together. I didn’t quite catch his drift then, sir.
Q5 Mr. Cunningham: What kind of business did you run in Havana, Mr. Wormold?
Mr. Wormold: I ran a vacuum cleaner shop, sir. We carry the finest, most modern machines such as the Atomic Pile Suction Cleaner, the Midget Make-Easy Air Powered Suction Small Home Cleaner and the Turbo, which is the no. 1 brand in Cuba for four years running. We are Phastkleaners’ sole agent for the whole of Cuba.
Q6 Mr. Blakeley: The Dossier describes you as a “well-connected merchant king with a substantial machinery importing business.” How many persons were employed in your business, Mr. Wormold?
Mr. Wormold: One, sir. It was just a small store.
Mr. Blakeley: Interesting. The Dossier also describes you as “stable”, and “uninterested in women.”
Mrs. Wormold: (snickers)
Chairman: Mrs. Wormold, we respectfully ask you not to speak until requested to do so.
Q6 Mr. Cunningham: Mr. Wormold, you initially refused the job, why did you change your mind?
Mr. Wormold: It was because of my daughter, Milly. She was just sixteen at that time. Convent schoolgirl, very good girl. She wanted to buy a horse and rode in the Country Club. The horse alone costed 300 pounds, sir, and the Country Club was even more expensive. Not to say of the bridles, saddles and riding lessons. And I wanted to have enough money to retire in England and take her with me. There was this native person called Capt. Segura who had designs on her.
Q7 Mr. Blakeley: Isn’t he the head of police in Vedado?
Mr. Wormold: The one and the same. Do you know what people in Havana call him, sir? The Red Vulture. He tortured prisoners. He had a wallet made of human skin. This person wanted to marry my daughter. You see, I had to get her out of Cuba. Pronto!
Mrs. Wormold: He is such a good father!
Chairman:: Mrs. Wormold ---
Mrs. Wormold: Not to speak until spoken to. Understood.
Q8 Mr. Cunningham: The Dossier records that you received a lump sum payment of 1,000 pounds in April 1956. Could you confirm what the funds were used for?
Mr. Wormold: To join the Country Club and recruit several sub-agents.
Q9 Mr. Cunningham: Engineer Cifuentes, Professor Luis Sanchez and Lopez. Who’s Lopez?
Mr. Wormold: My employee at the store. He wanted an additional 25 pesos per month. The other two names were from the Country Club’s roster. I had to justify the payments.
Q 10 Mr. Cunningham: I see. And the transfer of 1,500 dollars in June 1956 was for what purpose?
Mr. Wormold: To procure intelligence reports and drawings of the secret military installations in the mountains of Oriente Province.
Chairman: These are the drawings, gentlemen. According to the Dossier, these depict the parts of a massive weapon of mass destruction, very possibly nuclear.
Mrs. Wormold: Actually, those were the drawings of the parts of the Atomic Pile Suction vacuum cleaner.
Q11 Chairman: Is that true, Mr. Wormold?
Mr. Wormold: Uh yes, sir.
Q12 Chairman: Who made them, Mr. Wormold?
Mr. Wormold: I did, sir. I took the Atomic Pile apart and drew the parts. Then I altered the scale to make them seem gigantic.
Mr. Blakeley: He had even drew a little man with a bowler hat next to the drawings --- see?
Chairman: How did these absurd drawings got through the experts at the SIS?
Mr. Blakeley: To be fair, this particular drawing here does look like some kind of a massive cannon bore.
Mrs. Wormold: It’s a drawing of the Atomic Pile’s nozzle. I love it that Jim could be so devious!
Q13 Chairman: Since you seem to be exceedingly eager to speak, Mrs. Wormold, let’s commence with your part. Who sent you to Havana?
Mrs. Wormold: Miss Jenkinson, sir. The head of the secretarial pool at the SIS HQ. Agent Hawthorne specifically requested a Spanish-speaking secretary for the assignment.
Q14 Chairman: Did you speak Spanish? Did you have any other abilities that might have been useful there?
Mrs. Wormold: No Spanish, but I’m half French. At the SIS, they think that all Latin tongues are the same anyway. I could encode and do microphotography. I also have a good knowledge of electrodynamics.
Q15 Mr. Blakeley: What’s that?
Mrs. Wormold: Let’s just say that if you have any trouble with your fuse box at home, you can give me a call.
Mr. Blakeley: Er --- all right.
Q16 Mr. Cunningham: What happened when you arrived in Havana? Did Mr. Wormold’s activities as an agent seemed suspicious to you from the start?
Mrs. Wormold: We first met at the Copacabana --- it was so romantic --- all those palm trees, the Parisian songs, the cabaret…
Chairman: Please answer Mr. Cunningham’s questions, Mrs. Wormold.
Mrs. Wormold: Where were we? Oh yes, I was not suspicious at first. I thought that he was kind of bumbling, but what a sweet man! And then someone shot at Cifuentes and everything started to unravel. He took me to the Shanghai Theater to warn Teresa ---
Mr. Blakeley: One of the alleged sub-agents, a “nude dancer who is the mistress of both the Minister of Mines and the Director of Post & Telegraph.”
Mrs. Wormold: That’s the girl. We got her into Jim’s car and we rode to Professor Sanchez’s house to warn him too ---
Q17 Mr. Blakeley: Is this the incident described in the police report attached to the Dossier, in which Mr. Wormold was arrested for driving around with a naked girl and breaking into Professor Sanchez’s home?
Mrs. Wormold: Yes. It was quite funny, actually. It was a total farce. I wished that he had just told me, though. No need for all that merry go round --- right, darling?
Mr. Blakeley: Apparently, there were other murky incidents after that --- it’s rather difficult to understand what actually happened from the Dossier. But at the end Mr. Wormold successfully eliminated several suspected enemy operatives while providing us with an invaluable list of foreign agents.
Mr. Cunningham: May I point out that Mr. Wormold could not be charged under the Official Secrets Act as he hadn’t actually given any secrets away? He invented secrets, and such an act is not covered by the OSA.
Chairman: I think that I can speak for this Committee --- on the balance, Mr. and Mrs. Wormold’s actions had brought us more benefits than disadvantages, although it must be said that we have some concerns about the sheer amount of invention that was involved. But such is the nature of intelligence work. It is in our national interest that we concur with the conclusion of the SIS’ internal inquiry: Mr. Wormold deserves his O.B.E., and Mrs. Wormold does not deserve to be sent to Jakarta.
Mr. Blakeley and Mr. Cunningham: We agree.
Mr. Wormold: May I say something, sir?
Chairman: Certainly, Mr. Wormold.
Mr. Wormold: This is the lesson that I’ve learned from all of this. The cruel come and go like cities and thrones and powers. They have no permanence. But the clown whom I had seen last year with my daughter at the circus --- that clown is permanent, for his act never change.That is the way to live: the clown is unaffected by the vagaries of public and the enormous discoveries of the great.
Chairman: Umm, yes. Quite an interesting sentiment. Is that all?
Mr. Wormold: One more: thou shalt not invent a weapon of mass destruction where there is none.
Chairman: I agree. May I thank you on behalf of the Committee? You both have been most helpful.
End of Transcript
October 21, 2022
“You should dream more, Mr Wormold. Reality in our century is not something to be faced.”
Two old friends meet every day for drinks on their lunch break, in the city of Havana, on the eve of a revolution.
Dr Hasselbacher is listening to the complaints of Mr. Wormold, the sales representative for the Phastkleaners company in Cuba: his business is going nowhere, his daughter is spending more than he earns, his wife has left him and there is no point to his existence.
Mr Wormold is about to discover that he is actually living in interesting times, as defined in an old Chinese curse.
>>><<<>>><<<
This is the funniest novel by Graham Greene that I have read so far. He has a great sense of timing in witty repartee and in screwball situations, but the major note of the story is satirical. These barbed arrows are aimed directly at the secret services of various nations engaged in the Cold War and in particular at the British spies, of which secret organizations the author was himself a member. So I can trust him that he knows what he is talking about when he exposes the incompetence, the arrogance and the self delusions that resulted in so many internal scandals.
Briefly, the vacuum cleaners salesman is approached by a posh agent from London and offered a job to spy for his country. Wormold initially refuses, citing his lack of expertise, but confronted with the immoderate spending by his teenage daughter Milly, he accepts to set up a Havana station and to recruit his own local agents.
Wormold, a shy and rather transparent man, must now learn how to deceive. And his first choice is to deceive his new employers by creating fictional agents and writing fictional reports – an extremely tangled web. He gets so caught in the game of make believe and so creative with his expense accounts that very soon his reports from Havana have the higher up rajahs in London up in arms with rumours of secret bases and military build-ups.
It astonished Wormold how quickly he could reply to any questions about his characters; they seemed to live on the threshold of consciousness – he had only to turn a light on and there they were, frozen in some characteristic action.
Well pleased with their man in Havana, these rajahs decide to expand his operation and to send over a secretary and a radio operator to Wormold, threatening his carefully build yet teetering house of cards.
Can we write human beings into existence? And what sort of existence? Had Shakespeare listened to the news of Duncan’s death in a tavern or heard the knocking on his own bedroom door after he had finished the writing of Macbeth?
Oh, and did I mention that his daughter Milly is ‘dating’ a captain in the secret police of Batista, a man who sports a leather case for cigarettes made out of human skin?
>>><<<>>><<<
I should stop now revealing more of the intricacies of the plot. It’s true that I laughed out loud more than once at the troubles Wormold tries to extricate himself from, but this is Graham Greene we are talking about here: even when he writes ‘entertainments’, he knows how to touch on much deeper themes than a standard slapstick comedy.
They both laughed, drinking daiquiries. It is easy to laugh at the idea of torture on a sunny day.
It’s all fun and games until someone looses an eye, and the cloak and dagger business is one of the dirtiest ones around. Wormold thought he can fool around with make believe agents, but when his reports get taken seriously in the offices of different powers around the globe, real people get hurt. I’m not naming names, but some people very close to our salesman are targeted and he himself is thrown to the wolves.
‘We should all be clowns, Milly. Don’t ever learn from experience.’
Serious people start wars and build atomic bombs and torture innocent people. Wormold is making faces in the mirror, trying to find something to laugh about, but his reality is getting harder and harder to face, just as his friend Hasselbacher warned.
The solution found by the author is extremely clever, and funny in that classic Charlie Chaplin or Buster Keaton way: with a tear rolling down your cheek. It really makes the reader think about the sort of things we are laughing at. And ask ourselves where do we go from here, what have we learned from the experience?
Would the world be in the mess it is if we were loyal to love and not to countries?
>>><<<>>><<<
The review is finished, but I still have a couple of bookmarks about young Milly, my favorite troublesome teenager and a much smarter kid than we give her credit for.
‘Why did you set fire to Earl?’
‘I was tempted by the devil,’ she said.
‘Milly, please be sensible.’
‘Saints have been tempted by the devil.’
‘You are not a saint.’
‘Exactly. That’s why I fell.’
- - - - -
He could distinguish the approach of Milly like that of a police-car from a long way off. Whistles instead of sirens warned him of her coming. She was accustomed to walk from the bus stop in the Avenida de Belgica, but today the wolves seemed to be operating from the direction of Compostella.
Two old friends meet every day for drinks on their lunch break, in the city of Havana, on the eve of a revolution.
Dr Hasselbacher is listening to the complaints of Mr. Wormold, the sales representative for the Phastkleaners company in Cuba: his business is going nowhere, his daughter is spending more than he earns, his wife has left him and there is no point to his existence.
Mr Wormold is about to discover that he is actually living in interesting times, as defined in an old Chinese curse.
>>><<<>>><<<
This is the funniest novel by Graham Greene that I have read so far. He has a great sense of timing in witty repartee and in screwball situations, but the major note of the story is satirical. These barbed arrows are aimed directly at the secret services of various nations engaged in the Cold War and in particular at the British spies, of which secret organizations the author was himself a member. So I can trust him that he knows what he is talking about when he exposes the incompetence, the arrogance and the self delusions that resulted in so many internal scandals.
Briefly, the vacuum cleaners salesman is approached by a posh agent from London and offered a job to spy for his country. Wormold initially refuses, citing his lack of expertise, but confronted with the immoderate spending by his teenage daughter Milly, he accepts to set up a Havana station and to recruit his own local agents.
Wormold, a shy and rather transparent man, must now learn how to deceive. And his first choice is to deceive his new employers by creating fictional agents and writing fictional reports – an extremely tangled web. He gets so caught in the game of make believe and so creative with his expense accounts that very soon his reports from Havana have the higher up rajahs in London up in arms with rumours of secret bases and military build-ups.
It astonished Wormold how quickly he could reply to any questions about his characters; they seemed to live on the threshold of consciousness – he had only to turn a light on and there they were, frozen in some characteristic action.
Well pleased with their man in Havana, these rajahs decide to expand his operation and to send over a secretary and a radio operator to Wormold, threatening his carefully build yet teetering house of cards.
Can we write human beings into existence? And what sort of existence? Had Shakespeare listened to the news of Duncan’s death in a tavern or heard the knocking on his own bedroom door after he had finished the writing of Macbeth?
Oh, and did I mention that his daughter Milly is ‘dating’ a captain in the secret police of Batista, a man who sports a leather case for cigarettes made out of human skin?
>>><<<>>><<<
I should stop now revealing more of the intricacies of the plot. It’s true that I laughed out loud more than once at the troubles Wormold tries to extricate himself from, but this is Graham Greene we are talking about here: even when he writes ‘entertainments’, he knows how to touch on much deeper themes than a standard slapstick comedy.
They both laughed, drinking daiquiries. It is easy to laugh at the idea of torture on a sunny day.
It’s all fun and games until someone looses an eye, and the cloak and dagger business is one of the dirtiest ones around. Wormold thought he can fool around with make believe agents, but when his reports get taken seriously in the offices of different powers around the globe, real people get hurt. I’m not naming names, but some people very close to our salesman are targeted and he himself is thrown to the wolves.
‘We should all be clowns, Milly. Don’t ever learn from experience.’
Serious people start wars and build atomic bombs and torture innocent people. Wormold is making faces in the mirror, trying to find something to laugh about, but his reality is getting harder and harder to face, just as his friend Hasselbacher warned.
The solution found by the author is extremely clever, and funny in that classic Charlie Chaplin or Buster Keaton way: with a tear rolling down your cheek. It really makes the reader think about the sort of things we are laughing at. And ask ourselves where do we go from here, what have we learned from the experience?
Would the world be in the mess it is if we were loyal to love and not to countries?
>>><<<>>><<<
The review is finished, but I still have a couple of bookmarks about young Milly, my favorite troublesome teenager and a much smarter kid than we give her credit for.
‘Why did you set fire to Earl?’
‘I was tempted by the devil,’ she said.
‘Milly, please be sensible.’
‘Saints have been tempted by the devil.’
‘You are not a saint.’
‘Exactly. That’s why I fell.’
- - - - -
He could distinguish the approach of Milly like that of a police-car from a long way off. Whistles instead of sirens warned him of her coming. She was accustomed to walk from the bus stop in the Avenida de Belgica, but today the wolves seemed to be operating from the direction of Compostella.
May 13, 2020
***SPOILERS ALERT***
Our Man in Havana is a satirical spy novel set in Havana during the cold war. British influence over the rest of the world is on the wane. An alcoholic British expatriate Jim Wormold - who owns a shop that sells vacuum cleaners is hired by a British intelligence agency as their man (spy) in Havana.
Wormold is a lot like Henry Scobie in Greene's The Heart of the Matter. He is a middle aged man who does not know what he is to do with the rest of his life. How will he go on? How will he fund the exorbitant lifestyle of his Catholic daughter Milly? He drifts through life, drinking daiquiris with another dejected British expatriate Dr. Hasselbacher at Havana's numerous bars. But when he is assigned the job of a spy by Hawthorne (the British intelligence agent who arrives as a customer at Wormold's shop), there is something to do. He begins to make money. He makes up fake events and people in his dispatches to the intelligence agency. But then his dispatches begin to come true.
I think Wormold and Hasselbacher represent post-war Britain - tired and without any motive or passion to go on, conceding hegemony to America. But I doubt whether Greene was a patriot. His attitude could be reflected in these lines by Wormold - “I don't care a damn about men who are loyal to the people who pay them, to organizations...I don't think even my country means all that much. There are many countries in our blood, aren't there, but only one person. Would the world be in the mess it is if we were loyal to love and not to countries?”
Our Man in Havana is filled with poignant similes and comedic set pieces. But one setpiece where a rival agent tried to poison Wormold at a trade meeting does not really work. The book's second half does not really measure upto its first half.
The sheer absurdity of the intelligence agencies activities is captured perfectly by Greene especially in the scenes towards the end where Wormold is bestowed with a teaching post at the agency despite him running circles around them.
While this book is classified as one of Greene's entertainments, Wormold's predicament is quite depressing. It is a predicament that most of us might face at some point in our lives - especially the middle aged. What are we to do with our lives? How are we to go on in this modern world? I recently watched Trainspotting 2 and the middle aged Mark Renton who has just had a heart surgery has the same question - "They told me I am going to be allright for the next thirty years but what they did not tell me was what I'm supposed to do with those thirty years."
Our Man in Havana is a satirical spy novel set in Havana during the cold war. British influence over the rest of the world is on the wane. An alcoholic British expatriate Jim Wormold - who owns a shop that sells vacuum cleaners is hired by a British intelligence agency as their man (spy) in Havana.
Wormold is a lot like Henry Scobie in Greene's The Heart of the Matter. He is a middle aged man who does not know what he is to do with the rest of his life. How will he go on? How will he fund the exorbitant lifestyle of his Catholic daughter Milly? He drifts through life, drinking daiquiris with another dejected British expatriate Dr. Hasselbacher at Havana's numerous bars. But when he is assigned the job of a spy by Hawthorne (the British intelligence agent who arrives as a customer at Wormold's shop), there is something to do. He begins to make money. He makes up fake events and people in his dispatches to the intelligence agency. But then his dispatches begin to come true.
I think Wormold and Hasselbacher represent post-war Britain - tired and without any motive or passion to go on, conceding hegemony to America. But I doubt whether Greene was a patriot. His attitude could be reflected in these lines by Wormold - “I don't care a damn about men who are loyal to the people who pay them, to organizations...I don't think even my country means all that much. There are many countries in our blood, aren't there, but only one person. Would the world be in the mess it is if we were loyal to love and not to countries?”
Our Man in Havana is filled with poignant similes and comedic set pieces. But one setpiece where a rival agent tried to poison Wormold at a trade meeting does not really work. The book's second half does not really measure upto its first half.
The sheer absurdity of the intelligence agencies activities is captured perfectly by Greene especially in the scenes towards the end where Wormold is bestowed with a teaching post at the agency despite him running circles around them.
While this book is classified as one of Greene's entertainments, Wormold's predicament is quite depressing. It is a predicament that most of us might face at some point in our lives - especially the middle aged. What are we to do with our lives? How are we to go on in this modern world? I recently watched Trainspotting 2 and the middle aged Mark Renton who has just had a heart surgery has the same question - "They told me I am going to be allright for the next thirty years but what they did not tell me was what I'm supposed to do with those thirty years."
Displaying 1 - 30 of 2,662 reviews