“Death from a
Salesman: Graham Greene’s Bottled Ontology”
Hitchens’ introduction to Our Man in Havana, Graham Greene again. Hitchens goes through an
almost breathless walk through the action with criticisms of plot, theme and
writing quality as he goes. He summarizes his opinion by saying, “If, in his
infrequent confessions, he might have mentally reclassified some offenses as
venial rather than mortal, something of the same analogy holds throughout his
work“ and, in closing, “Writing to his mistress Catherine Walston in 1956,
Greene told her that Our Man in Havana was potentially a ‘very funny plot which
if it comes off will make a footnote to history.’ I feel almost as if I owe an
apology for having taken so long to illustrate his elementary point.” Not sure
why Hitchens thinks he owes it to us to write some much about an author he
clearly doesn’t like.
I actually found his recap and quotes hilarious. These on
Scotch, “The burned-out figures of British intelligence in The Human Factor
(1978) seem at times to be engaged in some sort of contest to amass the
greatest number of ‘blend’ labels, from J& B to Johnnie Walker, and even to
create a new pseudo-scotch by mixing White Label and Johnnie Walker on the grounds
that ‘they’re all blends anyway’” and “There is always time for a Scotch” from Our Man in Havana.
And this very funny dialogue from Our Man in Havana:
“What do you mean I wouldn’t exist?”
“You exist only in my thoughts, my friend. If I left this
room…”
“You’re nuts.”
“Prove you exist,
then.”
“What do you mean,
prove? Of course I exist. I’ve got a first-class business in real estate: a
wife and a couple of kids in Miami: I flew here this morning by Delta: I’m
drinking this Scotch, aren’t I?” The voice contained a hint of tears.
Also, find it interesting that Graham seems “to have an
almost spooky prescience” having written Our
Man in Havana three months before the Castro revolution, The Quite America “just before Dien Bien Phu” and The Comedians “in the midnight of…Duvalier’s Haiti.”
If I read a Greene book, it will definitely be Our Man in Havana,
sorry CH.
A lot of the acton evidently takes place in Sloppy Joe's, the Havana bar that later gave it's name to Hemingway's famous haunt on Key West. Strange coincidence that the one in Key West is on the corner of Greene Street.
New Learning: “…a Soviet cosmonaut took Our Man in Havana
into outer space.”
New word: ontology = a branch of metaphysics dealing with
the nature of being
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