Graham Greene

It's been a while since I read any Graham Greene, and my memory of those books is hazy, but this one was unlike the others in theme and setting, although the narrator, Bendrix, is similar to Fowler, the narrator of The Quiet American -- they both are nursing/flaunting spiritual wounds; they're cynics and misanthropes who tend to behave honorably in spite of their curdled idealism and self-loathing. What's great about "Affair" are the characters -- Bendrix, his lover Sarah, her husband Henry, Smythe the evangelical atheist, Parkis the private detective. On the whole, though, this one didn't grab me as much as The Quiet American or Our Man in Havana; I just can't warm to the theological stuff (maybe that has something to do with my meh feelings about Power and the Glory) -- it's unreal to me, and so I resist it. Although I admire Greene's attempt to make God a dramatic presence -- and I think it's a brilliant idea to try to do so in the context of an adulterous affair -- as an unbeliever I find Bendrix psychologically unrecognizable as a fellow unbeliever. He only makes sense as a crypto-believer, and if that's the case, then what was the point?

This beautiful, powerful short novel is told in first person by Maurice Bendrix, a writer who has had an intense affair with Sarah, the wife of a civil servant. In the beginning, we know that she is the one who has broken off the affair, and Bendrix is filled with a passionate hatred for her and is unable to move on.

I won't expose the entire plot here, but obviously, there is an intriguing reason why Sarah has stopped seeing Bendrix, which he will discover. How Sarah's character is dawn, from the impressions of a few men around her and her mother, is fascinating and mysterious. Sarah is both well known and an enigma.

Bendrix expresses anguish and despair with an urgency that is palpable. The jealousy, suspicion, and spiteful thoughts are put down eloquently, as are his feelings of love for Sarah at other times. These feelings, this affair, is miserable and wonderful.

This is a very thought provoking novel, both because of the nature of the affair and the ending.

I would recommend it very highly.