Our Man in Havana

"Say what you will, this is a distinguished narrative idea, worthy of its distinguished author. Had he taken a walk around the block, decided to believe his own tale, and told it with simple conviction, it might have been hair-raising, all the more so from his personal knowledge of its background. Instead, he has used tricks, and achieved mostly unreality. His characters lack bone, flesh and blood, and only occasionally seem lifelike. They are dumb when convenience requires, rarely showing initiative on their own. The mystery doesn't mystify but mainly begets confusion, and the same can be said for the daughter's Catholicism....All in all, as little as a Greene fan likes to say it, this book misses, and in a thoroughly heartbreaking way, for it misses needlessly where it might have rung the bell.Graham Greene is the author of 'Our Man in Havana' with ISBN 9780783897578 and ISBN 078389757X.