I picked up Orient Express because it had the makings of a good noir—set in the 1920s, about a cast of characters whose fortunes collide on a train to Constantinople. And noir it satisfyingly is, complete with atmospheric locales, murder, intrigue, romance, and near misses. It takes a little too long for the many disparate elements to a coalesce into a coherent plot, but Graham Greene’s evocative prose carries you happily through from beginning to end.

And for a mere “entertainment”—as Greene distinguished his mercenary ventures from his literary novels—it is surprisingly affecting. The characters are types, yet most of them are complicated and interesting. What they add up to is a chillingly cynical portrayal of humanity, a humanity that as a whole is not innately sadistic or evil, but nevertheless self-interested to the point of disregard for fellow human beings. This makes the naiveté and sincerity of Coral—the simple chorus girl who falls in love from an act of kindness—all the more poignant and tragic by contrast. Almost as impressive is the object of her affection, Myatt, who is propelled by common decency despite not being fueled by a reciprocating love. Genre fiction this is, but also an astute character study.

The end is exasperating, but I have to hand it to Greene for not delivering the “happily ever after” he sets us up for. Mirroring the truth if not the facts of real life, his conclusion is neither of extreme happiness nor extreme sadness. It is frustrating yet right.

Greene's first so called 'Entertainment' with the goal to separate them from his more serious work. Well, this was entertaining, but unlike some of his other Entertainments - some a little bit silly but still fun - this one did have a more serious and sombre side to it too. At least that's what I got from it. The cast of characters aboard the train could have been plucked straight from Murder on the Orient Express (but then, Greene's novel came two years earlier so maybe Agatha Christie read this and got the idea). And indeed, right at the start we have a killer sneaking onto the train; throw in some of the big issues of the time - two being Communism and anti-Semitism - and a whole lot of snobbery, and it turned into quite a deft little thriller. The journey itself; the exterior world passing on by through the windows, doesn't really come in to it so forget scenic imagery: It's all about the probing of his cast of characters in the carriages, who are vividly portrayed, and keeps you wondering of the outcome, which, although there are no real easy resolutions, still left me satisfied. Considering my expectations weren't that high, I was quite surprised; however, it's far off what I'd say are my 4 or 5 favourite Greene novels.

I would categorize this one as a very long short story, not even a novella, let alone a novel. Slow to start, though the second half has plenty of tension. The casual, matter-of-fact antisemitism managed to both shock and bore me at the same time. Greene sure did know how to put together an interesting mix of characters!

Review first posted on BookLikes:


"I’m tired of being decent, of doing the right thing."

Stamboul Train is the story of a number of individuals who are thrown together within the confines of a train journey - a microcosm, in a way - and Greene offers us a peek into the relationships that develop between the characters and the difficulty that each of the individuals has to adapt to the society they form.

It took a while to get into the story - just because every character has a story about how they came to embark on the journey on the Orient Express from Ostend to Istanbul.

At first, I thought this was going to be an easy read - because it is still an early one of Greene's entertainments - but it soon turned out that Stamboul Train seems to mark quite a turning point in Greene's writing:

Greene maintains his focus on the themes of individualism and social perception from a variety of angels which cannot be combined, and which - because of their incompatibility - now create a highly atmospheric state of disillusionment.

"Then the man spoke to her, and she was compelled to emerge from her hidden world and wear a pose of cheerfulness and courage."

More importantly to my reading enjoyment, though, Stamboul Train shows a consistent use of that refined prose which only shimmered through in The Man Within:

"He saw the express in which they had travelled breaking the dark sky like a rocket. They clung to it with every stratagem in their power, leaning this way and leaning that, altering the balance now in this direction, now in that. One had to be very alive, very flexible, very opportunist. The snow on the lips had all melted and its effect was passing. Before the spill had flickered to its end, his sight had dimmed, and the great shed with its cargo of sacks floated away from him into the darkness. He had no sense that he was within it; he thought that he was left behind, watching it disappear. His mind became confused, and soon he was falling through endless space, breathless, with a windy vacancy in head and chest, because he had been unable to retain his foothold on what was sometimes a ship and at other times a comet, the world itself, or only a fast train from Ostend to Istanbul."

Being a big fan of travels, he placed his plots somewhere related to some place.

3* The Third Man
4* The End of the Affair
4* Our Man in Havana
3* The Captain and the Enemy
3* The Quiet American
4* The Ministry of Fear
4* The Power and the Glory
4* The Honorary Consul
3* Orient Express
TR Brighton Rock
TR Travels With My Aunt
TR The Tenth Man
TR Monsignor Quixote
TR The Heart of the Matter

Surprisingly modern for a novel published in 1932. Wikipediatells us this was Greene's "first true success".

Is this an anti-semitic novel? For sure, it depicts anti-semitism in the areas that the Orient Express travels through. Myatt faces hostility and discrimination along the journey, and is only comfortable once he is ensconced back in the world of business in Istanbul, a familiar world where he carries clout. I concluded that this is a book that depicts antisemitism (which of course was mostrously real in that setting) but does not justify it. Myatt is an imperfect man (but he is far from the most imperfect in its cast of characters), and  he turns out to be quite a schemer in the end, but he is also kind, brave and honourable at various points, including when he leaves the train and takes risks to get his mistress out of trouble. The wipipedia article on the book has some interesting pointers on this subject. Is the novel homophobic? Again, the lesbian in the book is not likeable. But then there are other characters who are less likeable, not the least among them a complete lout of a thief. So again, it's hard to say. I might be clouded by my love of Greene, but I decided to treat this as he wanted it to be treated, an entertainment (he disowned a couple of novels that he wrote before this one).

It works as an entertaiment, for sure. The cast of characters includes a vain writer whose works have sold 100,000 copies (apparently a certain writer threatened to sue the publisher when he read the proofs), the aforesaid lesbian who is an aggressive journalist, a chorus girl, and above all, a communist revolutionary. It gets off to a slow start, but picks up speed soon enough. Bullets fly and there is a fair amount of mayhem... and the good men and women do not have the best luck. Some of the most poignant moments happen in the minds of two key characters -- the revolutionary and the chorus girl -- first, and then in the things that happen to them. The rotating points of view of the insecure, doubt-ridden cast in the midst of the fast-paced action make this a very sophisticated work.

I listened to the audiobook superbly narrated by Michael Maloney.

Published in 1932, this is a fairly early novel by Graham Greene and takes place mostly aboard the Orient Express, as it travels from Ostend to Constantinople. There are a mixed group of passengers aboard, including a Jewish businessman, an impoverished chorus girl, a lesbian journalist and an escaped communist leader.

I have had rather a mixed experience with Graham Greene - having loved some of his books and not been as keen on others. I feel this is one that, although I am pleased I read it, dragged somewhat. However, it is clear that Greene made an effort to create an entertaining novel, looking for commercial success and there is a lot of action, with people being arrested, escaping and general subterfuge and love affairs.

This has not aged particularly well. The constant anti-Semitism, while obviously relevant for the period, is uncomfortable to read and some of the characters seem quite stereotypical. That said, an interesting thriller, with a good setting.

Greene himself grudgingly let this, his 4th novel, be reprinted in the Collected Edition when Heinemann and Bodley Head decided to bring it out. I can understand why. It was, after all, his first financial success, being taken as a Book Society Choice (and guaranteeing at least 10,000 copies sold). For the first time, you see the later Greene beginning to emerge - with a "sort-of" plot (very derivative of "Grand Hotel"), distinctively-drawn characters (although almost caricatures). The jarring feature of the book was the anti-Semitic tropes delineated for one of the main characters. Perhaps that can be put down to "the times" (before Hitler and WWII), but it stands out. I must say that this experiment of reading all of Graham Greene in chronological order within one year has been most disheartening so far. I wonder if this is an error?

Orient Express is another wonderful classic by Graham Greene first published as Stamboul Train until the title changed when it was published in the United States as the Orient Express. It details the journey on a train from Ostend to Constantinople, later known as Istanbul. I have long had a fascination and love for trains from the time I was a small child sitting with my grandfather on many afternoons at a train station enthralled with all of the activity as he told me stories of his time with the railroad. I boarded my first train on a journey alone at age nine. My experiences on that memorable trip still remains as one of my most vivid and favorite memories.

A classic this book is, and it should be. It was riveting literature from beginning to end. This wonderful novel where we meet a lot of diverse characters traveling for very different motivations and purposes as their lives become intertwined over the course of their journey in many unpredictable ways. There is a sense of unease throughout the book that keeps you on edge. I will continue to work my way through the works of Graham Greene. And this underlying theme of anxiety is foreshadowed in the beautiful and lyrical epigraph:

n  

"Everything is lyrical in its ideal existence; tragic in its fate and comic in its existence."

n --- GEORGE SANTAYANA

"All down the restaurant-cars fell the sudden concerted silence which is said to mean that an angel passes overhead. But through the human silence the tumblers tingled on the table, the wheels thudded along the iron track, the windows shook and sparks flickered like match heads through the darkness."

I liked many aspects of Stamboul Train, but it had one huge, unpleasant flaw which I found it impossible to ignore.

Greene creates a fine atmosphere of the train itself and the journey across Europe in 1932. He also creates some interesting characters whom he treats largely with insight and intelligence, whose stories make an absorbing and sometimes tense narrative – the scene at a small, almost lawless border post, for example, is atmospheric and very unsettling. It’s a good story (or stories), well told – but…

Myatt, one of the main characters is Jewish, and the anti-Semitism with which he is portrayed really made this a tough read for me in places. I know that one must make allowances for prevailing attitudes when reading fiction from almost a century ago, but this was written in 1932 and given what happened in Central Europe just a few years later, it’s hard to take. It’s not even that Greene is just pointing out the anti-Semitic attitudes of many people – although he does do that – but many of those attitudes are entrenched his own narrative and description. Myatt is often referred to as “the Jew” and scarcely a scene goes by without some reference made to his “race” and its supposed characteristics. It is as if Greene is diligently working through all the offensive stereotypes trotted out by anti-Semites; as an example, Greene has Myatt thinking to himself “I am a Jew, and I have learned nothing except how to make money.” I rest my case.

So, for me this was a good book with a huge, ugly scar. It makes it very hard to rate; I enjoyed many aspects of it, but I can’t give it more than two stars. Approach with caution.

La prima parte non mi è piaciuta per niente, l'ho trovata noiosa e prolissa. La seconda metà del libro è di gran lunga migliore, ed è il motivo per cui ho dato un voto così alto. Fortunatamente non l'ho abbandonato!

Graham Greene's Grand Hotel on a European train in 1932. He wanted to write something that gave him pleasure, he said, and also make money. "Stamboul Train" (original UK title) did both. Doomed passengers include a passionate political rebel, a Jean Rhysian chorus girl, a kindly Jewish merchant who suffers snubs, and best of all, a braying lesby reporter out for the scoop of a lifetime between her swigs of gin (the star of the piece for me) and a jealous obsession about a departing tootsie. There's also a simpering travel writer, based on J B Priestley -- or so J B hollered. A helluva trip through sleet and snow with engines hooting and belching steam. "Premier Service" in the restaurant-car.