Graham Greene set the standard for noir writing -- arresting, powerful, dark and visual. I highlighted some of his sentences just because I thought they were possibly some of the most amazing virtuoso displays in literature, and I read a lot. As a writer, I want to consume literature that inspires and challenges me to be better, and this book, among his many others (The End of the Affair is still my favorite) is one of his most masterful. He follows the drama of separate passengers on a train to Istanbul, some of them escaping crime, some looking for love, some riding toward certain death. Published in 1932, it was adapted as the film "Orient Express" in 1934, the quick turnaround an indication of Greene's fame.

If T.S. Eliot, during his Prufrock-Sweeney-Wasteland days had sat down to write a novel, it might have come out looking like Graham Greene’s Orient Express (or, my preferred title, Stamboul Express). Written in 1933, this early novel was considered by Greene to be one of his “entertainments.” I’ve always felt this tag by Greene to be a ridiculous one. It may be a lesser novel, but it’s certainly well-written fiction. In this case, Greene throws a bunch of strangers together on a train in Ostend, Belgium, which is headed to Istanbul. Among them there are a revolutionary (who is late to his own revolution), a chorus girl, a Jewish merchant, a lesbian journalist and her companion, a fat cat burglar, and others. Basically it’s a Ship (or train) of Damned Fools, with each self a Hell to him or herself. Several times I noticed how Greene would linger over characters staring into the windows and mirrors, each of them feeling lonely, empty, a bit lost before their own image.

Yeah, the set-up does, without the brooding, sound like Agatha Christie, but in Greene’s hands the story turns into multiple reflections on good and evil, God (or not), sex, class, and anti-Semitism. Stuff does happen. There’s a murder, shots fired, sex (on a train!), a Kafkaesque trial, a chase. And there are also some fine descriptions (geography, clothing, train travel) that capture the period. Still, there were times I thought the novel just flat out anti-Semitic. Myatt, the Jewish merchant, is constantly shown checking his ledgers, considering costs, advantages to be gained, fanning his success before others like a well fed peacock, etc. And yet, when faced with the choice of love and cutting his losses, he often shows himself a good man trying to do the right thing. Oh, in the end I do think the book anti-Semitic in a murky Greene way, but because it’s Greene it also allows for sympathies and the human heart as well. Certainly nothing like what’s coming in the future Nazi-Mordor.

Guzel bir konsept ama sikici bir kitap olarak kalacakti son iki bolumde cok guzel toparladi yazar.

Roman, yazarın erken dönem eserlerinden birisi. Konusu ilginç, fikir güzel, kurgusu başarılı. Fakat bence bazı bölümler biraz ‘geveze’. Siyasi ve kültürel tartışmalar, dönemin kabusu ırkçılık ve kadına bakış açısı, metin içinde başarıyla işlenmiş.

Kolay okunan, sürükleyici bir roman.