#94 The Heart of the Matter, by Graham Greene (Vintage)

After The Ministry of Fear gave me such a wonderful introduction to Graham Greene, I'm afraid I was again left slightly disappointed by The Heart of the Matter, my third Greene novel of the year.

On reflection, I think it's been the pace of The Heart of the Matter and The Quiet American which has caused this reaction. Throughout both novels, you feel like you're meandering your way through the story, to the extent that it feels like there is a lack of purpose. That might not be true, but that's the impression created - one which dovetails quite nicely in the attitude of Scobie, the main character in The Heart of the Matter.

Scobie is a police officer in a war-time African state, forced to endure the heat, the mistrust of colleagues, a struggling relationship with his wife and more. He stoicly tries to do his job and maintain his faith, only to end up with an equally loveless and complicated relationship with another woman and blackmailed by a local gangster.

It's a story about suffering, whether that's the incidents which Scobie must investigate, his relationships or the inner turmoil he endures, and perhaps because of that, it's a difficult novel to warm to, and rarely enjoyable, for all that it retains the reader's interest.

So, rating time:

#94 The Heart of the Matter, by Graham Greene (Vintage) - 6/10

Next up: Player One, by Douglas Coupland (William Heinnemann)

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#77 The Quiet American, by Graham Greene (Vintage)

Well, here’s a turn-up for the books (challenge). I was really looking forward to reading another Graham Greene, and The Quiet American is acknowledged as one of his classics, but I really didn’t enjoy it very much at all.

My main problem was that I struggled to follow the story. It’s not that I didn’t understand it (or at least I don’t think so!), but rather it never became readable enough for me to want to fully comprehend the metaphors and the allegories.

At the heart of the tale, set in 1950s Indochina, is a love triangle between a native woman, who wants merely to ensure a future for herself, an ambiguous if jaded English reporter and an American officer who turns out to be more than he appears. It’s a hugely political book, with the trio each representing their nations and wider political beliefs, with the Vietnamese Phuong torn between her two suitors, with tension ever increasing on journalist Fowler, one of nature’s observers, to take sides.

As the evidence mounts of American Pyle’s duplicity and treacherous intentions, despite his honourable behaviour towards Phuong, Fowler realises he has to take action. And so the book, which begins with Pyle’s death, concludes as it was destined. But the route there was so slow and meandering that I only started to care when a particularly horrible explosion takes place late in the piece.

I can see how The Quiet American, with its relevance to the Vietnam war, can be admired, and perhaps even reviled by some due to its anti-American stance, but either way, it never captured my full attention.

So, rating time:

#77 The Quiet American, by Graham Greene (Vintage) - 5/10

Next up: The Grapes of Wrath, by John Steinbeck (Penguin Group)

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#36 The Ministry of Fear, by Graham Greene (Vintage)

If, like me, you like a bit of cake, the start and opening plot device of The Ministry of Fear is irresistible.

I'll recite the blurb on the reverse: "For Arthur Rowe, the charity fete was a trip back to childhood, to innocence, a welcome chance to escape the terror of the Blitz, to forget 20 years of his past and a murder... Then he guesses the weight of a cake, and from that moment on he's a hunted man, the target of shadowy killers, on the run and struggling to find the truth." It's definitely one to hook baking aficionados.

Better known for novels such as The End of the Affair, The Third Man, Our Man in Havana and The Quiet American, The Ministry of Fear was the first of Greene's work I had read (although I've seen a few film adaptations), and I enjoyed it greatly.

Reading up on Greene, it seems he separated his work into what he called 'entertainments', which were typically crime suspenses, and 'novels', which were what he considered more significant examples of his craft as an author. This book falls firmly into the former category, but that's no bad thing in my eyes.

Set in a London where you can hear the bombs falling around you, Greene sets off at a roaring pace and only pauses for breath when he needs to introduce a contemplative note. The plot twists and turns more than Ronaldo in full flight and chapters frequently end with a cliffhanger which implores the reader to turn the page and continue.

Consequently, I raced through the novel, and from the mysterious Rowe, about whom new details are cleverly introduced, to the spy ring war plot which blossoms from a case of mistaken identity, there is barely a word out of place. The best book I've read so far this year.

So, rating time:

#36 The Ministry of Fear, by Graham Greene (Vintage) - 9/10

Next up: Hell to Pay, by George Pelecanos (Orion)

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Just as an aside, it seems that Greene greatly enjoyed parody, even of himself. Apparently, in 1949, when the New Statesman held a contest for parodies of Greene's writing style, he submitted an entry himself - and won second prize.