An Ode to Mr.Greene

For all the “reading” that I do, it is a pity that I had not attempted reading Greene earlier. I happened to be idly shopping for books, something of a pastime now, when an interesting title caught my eye.

“May we borrow your husband?” Err.......take a guess......

I was standing there wondering what the hell I would say to someone who asked me that. I did not miss the “we” either. Well, of course I bought the book. It turns out to be one of Greene’s travel writings. It is a cluster of isolated stories, his observations of people during his visit to Antibes. And curiously, most of the book deals with homosexuality. So, when the “we” borrowing the husband turned out to be two men, the book had my undivided attention. Not much of a plot, though, just a compilation of random incidents.

His style of writing is gripping. He calls the book a comedy. The humor, in my opinion, is very subtle and underplayed. There isn’t a quick repartee thrown in here and there. The tone is one of a simple conversation. All the same, he smoothly leads the readers into the layers of his characters, a difficult task to achieve, given the brevity of every story. By the end of each piece the reader is left with a little something of each story.

It was a welcome novelty, reading Graham Greene. At a time when we are bombarded with writers losing themselves in a web of words, a simple narrative is all it takes to hold one’s attention.

So, there it is, my little token to a very interesting writer. I sure know what to look out for on my next book-shopping excursion.