2015 Reading Challenge - Collection of Short Stories
I'm not a frequent reader of short stories. Having said that I would say that this collection gives an insight into the English state of mind. I would also say that I realize that short story collections are not meant to be read beginning to end as I did with this one.

Hit or miss. Mostly miss with a few good hits.

(I read about 8 stories)

Simply put, an exceedingly dynamic collection of short stories covering an eclectic range of genres from a complex author. It is a great collection of work from Greene, and is great bang for buck if you enjoy his varied moods.

Mixed bag.
Review to follow.

This collection of short stories spans Graham Greene's career, from the 1920s to 1990. Many pick up on the same themes prevalent in his novels, especially the experience of World War II in Britain, life in Africa, Mexico, and the non-western world, and, to a lesser extent, the struggle of the reflective person with faith.

I hadn't read much of Greene's short fiction, and this gave me a chance to see a different side of him. Short stories give him a chance to focus tightly on particular personality traits or particular tensions -- it's something I think he's really good at. This is the kind of fiction that makes you think as well as entertains.

There were a few surprises for me in this collection. In particular, the short story, Under the Ground, presented a kind of disquieting surreal experience -- something I wasn't used to from Greene's novels, which tend to live in noirish themes or in the tension of political or religious faith. It turns out that that story is part of a collection with a running surreal theme, something I hadn't seen in his novels.

The quality of the stories run from the finely finished to the sketchy, but that's okay. This is another side of Greene that's well worth trying out.

My experience with collections of stories is, even with very good story writers such as Hemingway or Jack London, there are only a few stories in a large collection that stand out as exceptional (I always have to wade through many boring, confusing, or meaningless stories to get to the diamonds in the rough). Then there are short story writers that are able to crank out one perfect story after another, consistently hitting the mark. The few writers that come to mind in this rarefied group are Flannery O'Connor and Saki. Graham Greene has joined my particular, exclusive group of the few writers who are masters of the short story.

Most of these 49 stories are much like his novels, distilled into bite sizes. If you've read them you know what I mean. Others are wickedly funny (Doctor Crombie and Dear Dr Falkenheim). All of them will make you think. There was only one or two that I didn't care for, but they were short ones. Perhaps the best one is the only one I had previously read before (The Basement Room, which I knew as The Fallen Idol). Absolutely brilliant.

The best stories of wartime England ever written, plus a wild fantasy tale called "Under The Garden". The stories that stood out the most were tales with children that were cold, dark and unsentimental - the one about the twins (The End of The Party) being the most disturbing, but the infamous tale The Destructors was evil, too.
The story about the young couple eloping (A Drive In The Country) reads more like a descent to Hell than romantic flight.
If you enjoy the short fiction of Patricia Highsmith you will like Graham Greene's short works just as much.

Greene is one of my favorites as he always seems to capture some element of the human condition that makes me think about what I think and feel.

"The tears of longing came into my eyes when I looked at the turntable. It was my favourite piece – it looked so ugly and practical and true."

"Only in Europe is it possible for a man to be a criminal as well as a rich man."

"I couldn't help loving them. There they'd be laughing, holding hands; they liked to touch each other; it made them feel fine to know the other was around. It didn't mean anything we could understand;"

"It seemed to him unfair that he should have come so far, spent so much money, worn out a rather old body to meet his inevitable ruin in a dark tent beside a dying man, when he could just have met it just as well at home with Emily in the plush parlour."

"You couldn't keep your ideas intact when you discovered their geographical nature."

"They were not arrogant: it was simply that they were more concerned with each other, and yet perhaps, like a married couple of some years standing, not very profoundly."

"'Think of the life he would lead – with all those soft contours lapping him around.' He added, "Women always remind me of a damp salad – you know, those faded bits of greenery positively swimming...'"

"What is cowardice in the young is wisdom in the old,"

"We praise heroes as though they are rare, and yet we are always ready to blame another man for lack of heroism."

"The suitcases were yawning emptily on her bed."

AMAZING!!

Reading short stories is a really enjoyable experience and I especially liked Graham Greene's writing style, particularly his ability to write such different stories. Almost all of them were great in their own way although 2 ot 3 of them were a bit shocking. That was an intriguing book, definitely.