Graham Greene Short Stories Review Part 1
http://phistars.blogspot.com/2012/03/graham-greene-short-stories-review-part.html
Introduction
Graham Greene is one of the few contemporary writers that I actually like. He lived and wrote through most of the 20th century. If I remember correctly, he had writing as far as 1991. Many of his books where turned into movies. Others he formatted specifically for the big screen. This British author was a jack of all traits. He could write literary everything about everything. Still, he did avoid the fantastic subjects (he was not much of a dragon person). However, he was not shy about writing about the occult from time to time. In any case, today I am gonna blog about 9 of his short stories. You know, I don't remember how I stumble upon the purchase of the complete set of his short stories. For our purposes, it does not matter much. Ok, lets get this show on the road.
Oh wait!!! Now I remember!! Mother had recommended me this author. It was part of a huge list of forbidden authors in Cuba. It was pretty common for one of such books to be smuggled in and be passed among a huge group of eager readers. I remember how mother and father took an entire day off work to read "La Confucion de Sentimientos" by Stefan Sweig. They did not sleep a wink. The next day they were half asleep dealing with the day to day of the Hospital in Pinal del Rio. So, you see, I come from a family of hardcore book worms (who would risk life in prison to read sweet words literature). Now, we can get started.
May We Borrow Your Husband? by Graham Greene
This short story is a satire to honeymoons. The main character (first person narrator) was on vacation in a resort. He then becomes friend with two gay gentlemen. Both guys liked to hunt for a romantic partner together. Their latest victim was a honeymooner that arrived with his wife "Poppy". They quickly befriended the couple. The narrator watched half inclined to tell Poppy what was going on. However, the gay guys convinced him not to tell her because it was obvious that the husband was one of them. For days, Poppy had been alluding to marital problems.
Here is where the title comes into the picture. During that fateful honeymoon, both hunters (aka the gay guys) asked Poppy "May we Borrow Your Husband?". Quite the ironic question if you ask me (considering what happened while her husband was away). The narrator had been asked earlier to keep Poppy busy. He felt guilty at first, however, he went along with the plan cause he was in love with Poppy. Poppy played the part of the fool the entire story. She was the kind of wife that is so blinded by love that she does not realize that her husband is gay.
After the husband came back from his lil "excursion" around the country side, he was able to fulfill his marital duties. The next day, the hunters convinced Poppy to allow them to visit their country house to help decorate it. They claimed that this work was gonna take between three to five months. At this point, the narrator decided to intervene but they left. He wanted to send a letter to Poppy ,however, while he was writing it, he realized that he only had the stupid Poppy nickname to work with...
So, this short story worked pretty well. Its has a modern outlook to honeymoons. Plus, it deals with a day to day problem of closet cases marring women to fit into society. Its pretty obvious that Poppy's husband was marrying her out of social convenience. Why else would he devise such a ruse as house decoration. Poppy here too plays a tragic comic character. Like in such cases of blind love for closet cases, its gonna be years (an eternity even) before she catches onto him. Truly, this short story is 5 star worthy.
"Under the Garden" by Graham Greene
"Under the Garden" is one of those short stories that are extremely bizarre (surrealist even). Basically, the main character returns to his childhood home trying to decide whether he treats his cancer or not. While he browsed through his childhood items he runs into a short story he had written. He read it over and he remembered that it was a revised version of an event that had occurred to him in the Garden. He had wanted to write truthfully however, he knew his mother hated "secrets", the "strange" and the "bizarre".
Basically, as a child he had ran away to the garden. It had tall grass and was marshland like. That rainy day he found a hole beneath the tree. He went through it and eventually discovered an ugly old woman that lacked the top of the mouth. She could only make quaking sounds. She took him to her husband, a one legged (as in two legs fuzed into one) sage.
They spoke for a while and the sage showed him he was filthy rich. He encouraged the boy to be a rouge. The prime of the species is always decaying. Then one day once you get to the bottom (ie them) a true rouge is born. He showed him a photo of his daughter who was extremely pretty. She had gone to live in the surface world. Among other pieces of wisdom, was that one should never give one's loyalty to anyone. Even if one's loyalty has to be given, it is advised to have an exit strategy.
The main character eventually decided to leave. At first the wierdos wanted to keep him. However, the next "day" he traveled down the tunnel. He was found half way and given a parting gift of a golden pot. He went away vowing to travel the world to find the pretty rouge and marry her (he did travel world. This was alluded to at the start of the story). When he reached the outside he dropped the pot near the grass. Now as an adult he went to check up on it. He noticed that the hole was not a tunnel but a rabbit hole. The grass was not as tall as he imagined. Plus, the pot was not made of gold.
In the end, one is left wondering about how shiftiness of one's memory is. The main character could half imagine hearing the quacking of the mole woman. I think this story was meant to cloak in weirdness Greene's outlook on the world. I guess he never remained disloyal to the end. In the story, he did state how the brave and loyal are the first to die. One has a duty to the human race to survive. I guess it makes sense. One should price one's safety above all else. Still, I can't find that outlook in life quite promising.
Then again, we get this intel from an event that might have never happened. It is quite common in modernist books to discredit the author. There is also the opposing trend of dressing fiction with "facts". Mark Twain was a master in this sort of art. His historical novels where hardly historical (but that's a subject for a different blog). In the end of Greene's story, he removes the air of the fantastic by showing the true nature of the physical evidence that proved veracity of the narrator's memory. For such witty narrative tactics, "Under the Garden" deserves 5 star rating.
"The Last Word" by Graham Greene
This short story is the nightmare of all atheist. Basically, they won the eternal battle with religion. All the objects of the Vatican had become a thing of the past. They were displayed in the same manner that we host ancient Greek statues of Gods. The main character is a general that is taking the last Pope to be executed. He had orders to quench the last remnants of religion from the face of the earth.
The Pope was humble and acceptance about his execution. Like a martyr he took the situation with good grace. As he prepared the Pope for his execution, he asked him if he had any last word. The Pope had nothing. He was certain of his salvation. The moment that the general ordered the firing squad to shoot he was hit by a strange thought. What "if" the Pope was right?
I guess it was too little too late to have such doubts. He had succeed in his quest to vanquish all religion. This "if" question pertained to Graham Greene's conversion to Catholism. His fiance was Catholic. For her sake, he decided to learn a bit about the limits of the Catholic religion to decide on what lines not to cross when dealing with his wife. At first he could not make heads of tails of the Catholic religion. However, the more he spoke with the priest the less the impossible the "if" seemed to him.
I guess all atheist secretly wonder if God truly exist. After all, they can never get past the Big Bang theory (which is based on the observation of Galaxies ever growing apart in a wave style.Its a theory based on a pattern and nothing else). All, their laws prove that matter cannot be created nor destroyed. So, something must have created matter. Everything boils down to whether you believe that everything has always existed or that God(s) created everything.
But whatever, this short story works pretty well. Plus, its relevant to the author's life. This one deserves 5 star rating. I hope that you have enjoyed my blog. I decided to cut this blog intro three sections. It was turning out to be longer than I expected. Plus, I wanted to publish something for March 1st.
Description: My Review of Graham Greene's Short Stories • About: The ones I reviewed are all disturbing • Accountable Person: Fernando Blanco • Author: Teresita Blanco • Awards: None • Content Location: books • Content Rating: 5 • Contributor: Fernando Blanco • Copyright Holder: Teresita Blanco • Copyright Year: 2012 • Creator: Teresita Blanco • Editor: Fernando Blanco • Genre: books • Headline: Graham Greene Short Stories Review Part 1 • Keywords: anecdota, atheism, banned, black, blonde, books, comedy, cuba, garden, gay, graham greene, honeymoon, marriage, paintings, photos, Pope, short story, surrealist, thinking, white, • Mentions: Graham Greene • Provider: Me • Publisher: Phi Stars • Publishing Principles: Teresita Blanco • Source Organization: Phi Stars • Version: 7 • Item Reviewed: Three Short Stories • Review Rating: 5 •
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