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Liked It1 of 1 members found this review helpful “Wartime London is given a literary home in this slow-burning novel of intrigue, possession and that ever-prevalent them in Greene: Catholicism. A worthy counterpart to that other novel about relationship breakdown in wartime London: Elizabeth Bowen's The Heat of the Day.” see full review » see other reviews » |
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“This is my favorite book I've read by Greene. The narrator is despicable, yet attractive. His tone is cold, yet I sympathized with him. I suppose he is a smart narrator who describes his affair, the woman he loves, and the man he cuckolds, with such honest intelligence--not failing to note his own shortcomings--that his portrait is exciting for how well drawn it is, however one judges the drawer.”
HooHah wrote this review 3 days ago. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“Superb story of love, anger, devotion and tragedy. ”
sid_rw wrote this review 2 weeks ago. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“"I wrote at the start this was a record of hate." Hate, love, God, relationships, are all very much a part of this intensely personal and intriguing book. (The movie with Ralph Fiennes is terrific.) Several sources have suggested that the book is partially autobiographical and that Sarah is loosely based on Greene's affair with Catherine Walston (there is a book entitled The Third Woman about the two of them.)
Eric w wrote this review 2 weeks ago. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
Major players:
Maurice, the narrator, is not very likable, and one cannot help wondering how his viewpoint colors our perception of events. He's insanely jealous of Henry and anyone else Sarah seems to show some interest in. He suspects -- we don't know for sure if this is true or not -- that Sarah is having other affairs. He claims to be atheist, yet blames God for many of the events.
Sarah is the bored or at least unhappy wife of Henry, a British civil servant, who seems to love Sarah (virtually everyone in the book does). She falls desperately (a very appropriate word) in love with Maurice, a writer, who seems to be equally in love with her. I'm a little unclear as to how much of his love is narcissistic. (I'm still unclear about a lot of this book, but that's what makes it so good.) She makes a vow to God to end the affair if Maurice survives the bombing (I think we are supposed to believe she thinks he's dead, which has resurrection overtones that bugged the hell out of me.) She laterrenegs on the promise and resumes her affair with Maurice. (In the movie they spend a wonderful week in Brighton together.)
Henry, the aforementioned bureaucrat, may be the least appreciated of the characters. He really wants Sarah to be happy, to the point where he appears (from Maurice's point of view, anyway) to condone her affair with Maurice. He asks Maurice to live with him after Sarah's death, an invitation that strikes me as more than peculiar, but he's a weak individual. If there's an unselfish love, it's Henry's.
While I very much liked the book, and it reflects perhaps Greene's own struggles with Catholicism, I, unlike most people, I suspect, thought it made a mockery of Sarah's sudden faith. When a bomb strikes the house they are in, she believes Maurice might have been killed and prays to God that if he is allowed to live, she will never see him again. He survives and she breaks off the affair, only to have it resume two years later, just before her death from pneumonia, a death that the doctor says might have been prevented had it been treated sooner. She says at one point "I fell into belief the way I fell into love." Now that to me mocks either belief or love. And since I thought this was one of the great love stories, I chose to believe it's a mockery of belief.
I was puzzled and left empty by a lack of foreplay, oops, Freudian slip, rather the lack of development of their relationship. It seemed to come from left field, without much preparation. I missed that, but, again, we are viewing the world through limited lenses and from a man who writes that "happiness is boring." All the clues we have about Maurice come from himself and what little we find in Sarah's stolen journal.
Something I definitely did not like and thought superfluous was the attribution to Sarah of some miracles or sudden cures, as if she somehow were made "holy" by her recognition of her sinful behavior. Fortunately, the movie only touches on these and is the stronger for it. I felt the entire section after her death should have been run through the shredder. Smyth's "cleansing" was a bit much. This attempt to make Sarah saintly was a puzzle. I don't see the point at all. (And now that Benedict is thinking of canonizing Pius XII it really has me confused.).
There are some really good reviews of this book elsewhere on Goodreads (Jen's is outstanding) but I quibble with one of her comments regarding the characters having their disbelief, if you will, weakened and moved toward some kind of faith. I saw it very differently. Bendrix is angry and his hate is directed toward Sarah's mistaken belief in something that could not exist and which ruined their attempt at happiness. (Bendrix has lots of narcissistic and selfish issues of his own, but aside from that...)
I continue to wonder if books like this don't reflect an ennui peculiar to the rich middle class. Only they have the time and money to be bored in such an existential way
Some people, I suspect. might have their faith strengthened by reading this book. My lack of faith was fortified. Bendrix's last line spoken to a God he does not believe in (oh, really?) is "Leave me alone forever."”
“engaging,”
Chitra A wrote this review Tuesday, September 22 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“My first Graham Greene and it is hard to find a place to begin. With a writing style that is beautiful and unique the reader quickly comes to appreciate the imagery and characterizations that are created and built upon throughout the novel. Set during WWII, it is a story about a man named Bendrix who is full of hatred, bitterness, and jealousy and never finds his peace. The turbulent relationship he begins with a married woman named Sarah becomes a focal, obsessive point for many years of his life. And while Sarah slowly changes, or perhaps simply reveals more about herself over time, Bendrix remains this constant, fixed figure who neither grows nor finds acceptance. He even refuses to believe that Sarah may have changed, along with her beliefs. Even as the dust settles and he and Henry, Sarah's husband, become companions in the void made after her death, Bendrix and his anger continue to lash out at humanity and God with an intensity that surpasses what he had felt in the beginning of the tale.
Nicole wrote this review Thursday, September 17 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
The questions about the secret relationships between a man and a woman, a person and God, and strangers one meets on the street are provocative and revealing. Are we capable of having more than one intensely emotional relationship at a time, or even during a lifetime? The struggles one might feel in balancing multiple commitments are meticulously played out, particularly through Sarah's journal entries.
A wonderful novel. Highly recommended.”
“Synopsis: A deeply bitter writer reflects on his aborted affair with a married woman during WW2 London when years after the conclusion of their relationship, he runs into the woman’s husband. Hatred and contempt for self, women and God flows freely.
Tim W wrote this review Thursday, September 17 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
My Take: I have mixed feelings about Graham Greene. One the one hand, he’s an extremely talented writer and a very sharp observer of the human condition. No one does world-weary cynicism as amusingly, or as insightfully as Greene. But on the other hand, his outlook on life is just too bleak for me to really embrace. I mean the guy is so curmudgeonly that he defamed Shirley Temple. Further, the source of a lot of Greene’s cynicism – Catholic guilt and the reaction against it – isn’t exactly a resonant theme to someone of my decidedly agnostic/protestant upbringing. As a result, I find the experience of reading Grahame Greene to be almost equal parts head nodding and eye-rolling depending on the prevailing bitterness of his writing.
The End of the Affair is definitely one of the more misanthropic of Greene’s books. The story of the end of the relationship between the writer Maurice Benedrix and the married Sarah Miles has the kind of evocative bitterness that can only come from personal experience. In this regard, it’s interesting that the British edition of the novel is dedicated to ‘C’ and the American version to ‘Catherine’, dedications that are widely viewed as referring to Lady Catherine Walston, a married Catholic woman with whom Greene carried on a long-term affair. What Lady Walston felt about having a book dedicated to her that at times borders on the misogynistic in the strength of its hatred I have no idea – but it really gives Greene’s writing in this book a real intensity of emotion.
At this point, I’m sure lots of Greene fans are saying “You’re missing the point – the book wasn’t about hatred – it was about exploring the conflicts between love of another and love of God”. Well yes, I appreciate that. And the novel certainly succeeds in posing these philosophical questions in quite a challenging way. But it’s not a conflict that speaks to me. I don’t feel the presence of God intervening to bring me joy or sadness in any of my relationships. I’ve never blamed God for the rejection of a girl, thanked Him for the love of a woman or felt the need to choose between Him and another. I appreciate that it sounds shallow – but it all seems like pointless angst to me. If God can make you hate someone as much as Benedrix hated Sarah in this book, I know who I’d chose to end my relationship with.”“One of my favorites! Read it many times....”
Viv wrote this review Friday, September 4 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“Not what I expected. Michael Kitchen (Inspector Foyle) gave an exceptional reading of a jealous and angry lover. I found the jealousy the most interesting aspect of the book, but then tried to follow the 'is god real?' arguments and found that intriguing. His jealousy was very real. It seemed a chronic disease, wearing and destructive. Such a turn-around when he finally had complete information, through the diary, instant relief and liberation. Lovers don't realise how imperfect information 'kills' the jealous person. His jealousy seemed very reasonable and plausible to me, but ultimately was his own construct.”
Lesley B wrote this review Wednesday, August 26 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“One of my favorite books. Graham Greene has penned one of my favorite literary females, Sarah. I love her. This book describes itself as an account of hate, rather than love. To me, it's a tale of obsession being misconstrued as love, and tacked on...the knowledge that forgiveness/redemption doesn't always deliver happiness.
Matthew R wrote this review Tuesday, August 18 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
I truly love this book.
And I love that David Sedaris dedicated an entire short story to it in Naked. (or Dress Your Family...I can't remember.)”
“I have watched the 1999 movie first of course and fell in love with it.I became curious and watched the original starring Deborrah Kerr, I liked it but not quite as the Julianne Moore version and I finally find the book, bought it and read it.
Chris V wrote this review Sunday, August 9 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
The book was interesting.The 1955 adaptation is more faithfull to the book and now that I have read it made me appreciate the black and white version more but I still will prefer the 1999 version.
The characters are very well developed andthe book is very well written.In the book it is more clear that the affair of the title is not between a man and a woman, but a man and God.It tells the story of a complete atheist who his affair with a married and unfaithful woman he realised that God does exist and he decided to "break up" with him. (If you can use this term concerning a relationship between a man and a God.)
Although it's written almost half a century ago it will not show its age.I particularly like the relationship between the lover and the husband and how the fact that after Sarah's death they grew fond of each other.Their common lost and pain united them.Do not expect to read a book about a passionate love affair full of lust, sex and secret meetings.No doubt their affair was strong enough to make an atheist aknowledge God's existance but there are no descriptions of stolen moments full of passion and lust.No doubt those existed between them but is more like a backround noise not the main theme.”
