Graham Greene had a wicked sense of humor which is clearly shown in several of his short stories. He was an incredibility talented writer and he painted pictures with his words. I highly recommend this collection of stories. The few stories that are not up to par are far outweighed by the many gems contained in this volume. Many of these stories are ones that you will want to read again.

An absolutely exquisite collection of short stories. In the same realm as Nabokov--less fantastical, though somehow more "out there." An excellent read.

solid short stories that compensate for his weak novels

Difficult to separate the wheat from the chaff.

I love Graham Greene's writing and rate many of his novels amongst the finest of the 20th century for wit, depth, humour and meaning. Many of the short stories reflect those qualities and were absolutely pleasant to read and left me unable to read the subsequent one until I had digested the meaning of the proceedindg one.

That said, there were unfortunately too many that left me feeling dry, unimpressed or disconnected from the characters and the story. Because this is a collection of short stories, why didn't I, you may ask, skip to the next? Well, because it is a collection of short stories. It is difficult to separate the chaff from the wheat until you are well into, or nearly finished the story.

The book is a collection of 54 short stories divided into 5 categories:

1) 21 Stories
2) A Sense of Reality
3) May We Borrow Your Husband
4) The Last Word and Other Stories
5) Newly Collected

The Introduction by Pico Iyer is completely forgetable and Michale Gorra's suggestions for further reading was similarly useless. On the strength of the short stories, this is four stars, but the Introduction, Suggested Further Reading and the binding drop the value of the book. At 600 pages, this is too long for such a flimsy Penguin Paperback and I anticipate the book falling to pieces rather quickly.

That said, the short stories can be roughly divided up into four categories:

1) Catholic Pessimism (like The Power and the Glory)
2) Political/business travel satire (Dr Fischer or the Bomb Party would be a good example of this type)
3) Romance and infidelity (similar to The End of the Affair)
4) Chaff

Now the lines are not always clear, some stories (such as The Blessing) straddle two categories, much like Our Man in Havanna is has both aspects of Catholic pessimism and business/political satire. Often these are the best stories as they combine the theological reflection on existence with a comedic situation leaving the reader both amused and reflective.

The only problem is the reader needs to read them for themselves in order to decide what belongs in the fourth category.

Yikes, some of this did not age well. Some enjoyably "Graham Greene" stories, though.

Before this collection I was only familiar with Greene's work by way of "The Destructors." That is certainly a miracle of a short story, but I did not know Greene's range and ability as a storyteller. He certainly can tell a good story and this collection has it all. I love how this collection binds together Greene's four collections in their original order, adding on a few unpublished stories at the end. When an author collects stories together there is a larger meaning that arises than that of the individual components. If you just jam all an author's stories together all randomly you lose that larger meaning. This book, however, presents the larger perspective that is the scope of Greene's entire short work while still preserving the vision of those individual collections. It is a good introduction to Greene. I will have to look into his novels.

read 25%

I had forgotten how much I love Graham Greene. The short stories are a bit more offbeat than the novels, though.

Contains the stories (noted by collection below):

Twenty-One Stories
The Destructors
Special Duties
The Blue Film
The Hint of an Explanation
When Greek Meets Greek
Men At Work
Alas, Poor Maling
The Case for the Defence
A Little Place Off the Edgware Road - 4/5 - be careful who you sit next to in the theater
Across the Bridge
A Drive in the Country
The Innocent
The Basement Room - 3/5 - basis for the film The Fallen Idol
A Chance for Mr Lever
Brother
Jubilee
A Day Saved
I Spy
Proof Positive
The Second Death
The End of the Party

A Sense Of Reality
Under the Garden
A Visit to Morin
Dream of a Strange Land
A Discovery in the Woods

May We Borrow Your Husband? & Other Comedies of the Sexual Life
May We Borrow Your Husband?
Beauty
Chagrin in Three Parts
The Over-Night Bag
Mortmain
Cheap in August
A Shocking Accident
The Invisible Japanese Gentlemen
Awful When You Think of It
Doctor Crombie
The Root of All Evil
Two Gentle People

The Last Word and Other Stories
The Last Word
The News in English
The Moment of Truth
The Man Who Stole the Eiffel Tower
The Lieutenant Died Last
A Branch of the Service
An Old Man's Memory
The Lottery Ticket
The New House
Work Not In Progress
Murder for the Wrong Reason
An Appointment with the General

Newly Collected

The Blessing
Church Militant
Dear Dr Falkenheim
The Other Side of the Border

“It was the biggest protest he had ever allowed himself to make against the condition of life.”

Graham Greene. “Two Gentle People.” Complete Short Stories. p.427.

Ah, ‘the condition of life’ is a phrase apt to sum up Graham Greene’s literary output. “Two Gentle People” is not the best or most exciting story in the Penguin volume, but it demonstrates all of the hallmarks of Greene’s narrative strength: what is said is not said, with the reader as implicated witness; the unintentional slip of speech that betrays one character to another or, the character to the reader; and the often indeterminate and inconclusive ending to a Greene ‘entertainment,’ or novel.

Two middle-aged people, a French woman and a British man, meet and share a park bench. They each have their separate life and each is polite and civilized. They strike up a superficial conversation. A pigeon is injured; falls down, its injury fatal. The man, out of compassion, kills the bird and respectfully disposes of the body. The woman observes and admires him. There is brief moment of silence after the act of violence. They resume their conversation. They get on well. He invites her to lunch. They have lunch at a brasserie. Attraction, as mutual admiration but not lust, bubbles up through the text. He offers to walk her home. She declines. They talk some more after their meal. She uses the intimate tu pronoun form instead of the formal vous form in her French with him when her speech lapses momentarily. Is it a slip? She catches herself. He says nothing and they part.

The story seems almost genteel reportage – a story about nothing -- until both characters return home. She hears her husband with the ‘boys.’ She is well off. As she takes off her jewelry, every object she removes and every object on her vanity reminds her of the sexless liaison that afternoon. Is she cheating because the reader knows she had contemplated it for a moment? The man returns home and his wife – named Patience – says, ‘I can smell a woman on you.’ He is late coming home and she thinks that he has been out womanizing at the Rue de Douai. Has he had mistresses before? Does she know her husband better than we, the reader, have come to know him? Is he to be trusted?

Greene’s writes horror on par with Stephen King in “A Discovery In The Woods.” It is that creepy. “I Spy” and “The End of the Party” are stories from a child’s point of view. “Doctor Crombie” is one of his humorous stories: all those who have died from cancer have also had had sex so therefore sex might be the cause of cancer. His short story “The Destructors” is his novel Brighton Rock (1947) in miniature.

Greene, like his friend Kim Philby, remains elusive and evasive. His prose style is lean by comparison to British authors in his day. Not quite Hammett but it is lean and nuance. Greene is a master of the subjunctive mood. The themes in his novel are what will make his writing durable. As to the man himself, I think the best answer or insight comes from E.M Forester's essay "What I Believe" which appeared in The Nation in 1938. He states:

“If I had to choose between betraying my country and betraying my friend I hope I should have the guts to betray my country.”

Introduction, by Pico Iyer
Suggestions for Further Reading

Twenty-One Stories
--The Destructors
--Special Duties
--The Blue Film
--The Hint of an Explanation
--When Greek Meets Greek
--Men At Work
--Alas, Poor Maling
--The Case for the Defence
--A Little Place Off the Edgware Road
--Across the Bridge
--A Drive in the Country
--The Innocent
--The Basement Room
--A Chance for Mr Lever
--Brother
--Jubilee
--A Day Saved
--I Spy
--Proof Positive
--The Second Death
--The End of the Party

A Sense of Reality
--Under the Garden
--A Visit to Morin
--Dream of a Strange Land
--A Discovery in the Woods

May We Borrow Your Husband?
--May We Borrow Your Husband?
--Beauty
--Chagrin in Three Parts
--The Over-Night Bag
--Mortmain
--Cheap in August
--A Shocking Accident
--The Invisible Japanese Gentlemen
--Awful When You Think of It
--Doctor Crombie
--The Root of All Evil
--Two Gentle People

The Last Word and Other Stories
--The Last Word
--The News in English
--The Moment of Truth
--The Man Who Stole the Eiffel Tower
--The Lieutenant Died Last
--A Branch of the Service
--An Old Man's Memory
--The Lottery Ticket
--The New House
--Work Not In Progress
--Murder for the Wrong Reason
--An Appointment with the General

n  Newly Collectedn

--The Blessing
--Church Militant
--Dear Dr Falkenheim
--The Other Side of the Border

I tend to prefer novels to short stories; for some reason I can't connect to characters in short stories as well as I might be able to in novels. Greene, though, Greene is different. I have never enjoyed a short story as much as I have with his. He is such a brilliant story teller, and not only are each of his stories different, they each have the ability to stand on their own. They're nothing like the stories I was forced to read in English last year!

What I love about his writings in this book is the sincere, tender, and sometimes heartbreaking aspect of certain stories. It's so beautiful to read a story with characters such as the ones Greene has written. He's my favorite short story author and I will reread these tales for years and years.

PS my current favorite is The Blue Film!