Just Finished Reading: Our Man in Havana by Graham Greene (FP: 1958) [225pp]

It wasn’t really an offer he could refuse. Not that it was an offer really, or even a demand, it was more of an expectation, a duty, an obligation to Queen and Country. It was only after he’d returned home that he began to understand what he had just done. He had accepted the role of an agent, a spy, without the least idea of what was required of him. After all he was a man who sold vacuum cleaners for a living and, to be honest (at least to himself), business was not great in fact the business was failing. It wasn’t long of course before his ‘handler’ in London demanded something from him – a list of agents in place, the beginnings of an organisation on the ground, reports back home of economic, political and military activities on the island. Cuba was becoming important in East-West relations and he, Wormold, was in the centre of things. He’d better have his finger on the pulse of things. So he did the only thing he could think of – he started to fabricate what he could not possibly accomplish on his own. He created an alcoholic pilot who knew things and had seen strange devices in the jungle. He invented an exotic dancer who had relations with several high place officials in Havana’s government. To his delight London sent him money and demanded to know more. Soon his ‘organisation’, his detailed reports (cribbed from the local papers and back issues of magazines) and his bank balance grew making his profligate teenage daughter very happy indeed. Naturally it wasn’t too long before London was so impressed with his work that they offered him something he couldn’t possibly refuse and couldn’t possibly allow – help, in the form of staff sent from home base. What was worse the local authorities and some very big players indeed started to believe his fabrications too. Things are going to get very hot indeed for our man in Havana.

It’s highly likely that I’ve seen the 1959 Alec Guinness movie based on this book but had long forgotten the plot. Going in to this slim classic novel I didn’t even realise that it was a gentle comedy rather than an actual espionage novel. Saying that I soon fell in love with the brilliantly rendered cast of characters – Wormold himself, his surprisingly level headed daughter, his German friend Dr Hasselbacher (I felt SO sorry for him throughout the book) and his new personal assistant Beatrice. I also found myself relaxing into the cosy plot – with the occasional if brief moments of threat and tension – often chuckling at the absurdities and knots that Wormold had to tie himself into to extract himself from his own fantastical machinations. This is my first Graham Greene novel and most definitely won’t be my last. I found the whole reading experience to be delightful and finishing it left a smile on my face for days afterwards. Not laugh out loud funny too often but most definitely chucklesome with some very astute observations about human nature and the absurdities of the Cold War. Excellent and most recommended. This was my 4^th Classic novel this year and, although I don’t have any more scheduled just yet, expect to squeeze at least a few more in before the end of the year. I hear Miss Marple calling me…… [grin]