Humorous, touching and an all around enjoyable read. This is probably my favorite of the half dozen Graham Greenes I've read so far.

This is the first of Graham Greene’s novels I’ve read that is classed as one of his “entertainments” – so I wasn’t at all sure what to expect. The style, tone and nature of ‘Our Man in Havana’ clearly has a very different feel to his more serious novels (‘Heart of the Matter’, ‘End of the Affair’ et al) and as such is quite distinct from that oeuvre.

‘Our Man in Havana’ is very well written as you would expect from Graham Greene and is certainly very entertaining, very funny throughout. The plot is ostensibly based on the farcical premise of an English vacuum cleaner salesman stationed in a pre-revolutionary Havana, being recruited by the British Secret Service, leading to the subsequent ‘reports’ and ‘actions’ that he takes in fulfilling his new espionage role. As such, the story often has very much the feel of a traditional farce to it – albeit an intelligent and very funny one and one contains many elements in it that feel to the reader almost feasible, almost believable!

So whilst ‘Our Man in Havana’ is essentially light-hearted and loads of fun, perhaps there are elements in and amongst which do convey a more serious message(s) and allude to more serious themes for our consideration?

Whilst maybe not considered as great, as profound, as meaningful nor of the same import as Graham Greene’s ‘serious’ novels – it is clearly not intended to be so. There is however equally a place for the intelligent, witty and well written ‘entertainment’ such as this one, just as much as for the serious novel.

This is compelling written and very evocative of a pre-revolutionary Havana. I was lucky enough to visit Havana around 15 years ago now and although faded and in some cases crumbling, the grandeur and uniqueness of Havana, frozen as it is in time since 1959, make it a special, exciting and fascinating place. The Havana described by Greene is still there very much to see albeit, in its 21st Century version.

‘Our Man in Havana’ is a very well, very compellingly written novel (Wormold is a great creation) – very funny and in a strange kind of way…almost believable.

I first read this book 30 years ago and was charmed by Greene's sardonic sendup of the spy genre (I didn't fully appreciate at the time that OMIH pre-dated most of what I thought of as the spy genre). Re-reading it again this year after a visit to Cuba, I loved (along with the wit, which sparkles as brightly as ever) the deft way Greene conveys the atmosphere of Havana (more the same than you might think, after 60 years) in very few words. In particular, understanding the history better this time around, murderous Captain Segura, with his torturable and non-torturable classes and his nest egg in Miami, comes through with his full menace.

In book after book from this era, Greene seems eerily prescient of which way the winds of history are blowing. His clear-eyed view in OMIH of the absurdity and horror of "statecraft" is as timely now as it was then. And it only takes a few hours to read!

Graham Greene is one of those authors that I've always meant to read - and following along with BrokenTune's Greene-land Adventures project increased my desire to dip into his books. The Summer of Spies gave me a perfect opportunity to check out one of his "espionage" books.

I wasn't expecting the level of farce contained in this book. It's not really a spy story - it's a story about a reluctant vacuum-salesman-turned-spy who has no intelligence to provide, but who needs to make the money he is getting for his dispatches worth the while of the British Intelligence service. So, he starts making stuff up.

There are some very funny parts of this book - the "missile drawings" that were obviously based on a vacuum cleaner is hysterical. The conversation between Hawthorne and his boss where the boss convinces himself that Wormold is actually some sort of a merchant king is bitingly funny, and also quite a propos of current politics, where, apparently, 49% of America can be convinced that a lying moron with inherited money is actually a brilliant strategist worthy of being President.

When it is in your interest to believe something, this book points out, reality is of little import.

And, as it is in life, when delusion collides with truth, someone is probably going to die. The ending is a brilliant illustration of what happens when human beings are confronted with an inconvenient and embarrassing reality - sometimes maintaining the lie is easier than acknowledging that you've been fooled.

So it goes...

The GR description calls this an espionage thriller. Whoever wrote this lives in a very different world than I do. This is a comedy - and for once, I got the humor! I even laughed out loud once. But that was in the first half, and then it simply got boring.

Greene holds up a mirror to what he believes is the ineptness of bureaucracy. Perhaps he even had knowledge of this, though I haven't read his biography. Sadly, bureaucratic ineptness certainly exists, but that it does shouldn't be funny. It's even worse that it exists in the area of national security. I acknowledge that Greene may have exaggerated the situation, but that he could even see the possibility is disgusting.

The prose is good, of course. The plot is also believable, unfortunately. I didn't think much of the characterizations, which, from other reading, I know Greene is quite capable of drawing. I have another of his so-called spy stories on my shelf. I can only hope it is a more serious offering, but I probably won't be finding out any time soon. This is 2-stars from me, although it probably pushes the upper limits of that group.

Our Man in Havana is an "entertaining" story of a Vacuum cleaner turned Spy set in Cuba during the Cold War era.

This was my first Graham Greene and the ease with which the story has been written cannot be missed.
This is quite a unique book and as per the introduction, Greene wrote a plethora of novels some of which were of "entertainment" categories unlike the "serious" ones he wrote which is why the book has a lot of witty lines and comic scenes.
The writing is quite crisp and easy to read.


James Wormold, the Protagonist is a mediocre vacuum-cleaner salesman who finds it hard to make his ends meet due to the growing demands of his daughter, Millie.
Hence, when he receives an offer from the British Secret Service, he immediately accepts and thus starts the story of deception, misfortunes and grave encounters at the centre of which is Wormold.


Loved Wormold's simpleton character portrayed in the book. Sort-of righteous, caring and loyal character.
It's impossible not to like Millie - Wormold's daughter's "filler" character. I loved the way Greene projects her in two modes: The one with Duenna and one without. When with Duenna, she's all righteous, good behaviour and what not and when without Duenna, she can put a guy on fire :P

A funny book, nice plot and a riveting story!

----


Fancy a real Spy/Espionage story? Nothing beats The Day of the Jackal
Checkout my spoiler-free review of the same.

This comic novel is a quirky little tale about a vacuum cleaner salesman, Mr. Wormold, in pre-Castro Cuba who is recruited by a stranger, Mr. Hawthorne, to become a British spy for the extra money. His reluctance to do the actual work leads to making fictional reports to send to the home office. Complications ensue, including becoming involved with Captain Segura, a dangerous policeman who wants to marry Wormold’s seventeen year old daughter.

3.5 stars for this quick read. It was somewhat amusing, and I did a bit of chuckling, but I prefer the more serious side of Graham Greene — the side that wrote The End of the Affair. However, I would like to see the film, which features Alec Guinness as Wormold, Noel Coward as Hawthorne, and Ernie Kovacs as Captain Segura.

Am recitit celebrul "divertisment" al lui Graham Greene din dorința de a vedea dacă și acum romanul mi se pare la fel de atractiv ca și în urmă cu aproape douăzeci de ani; ei bine, așa cum mă așteptam, răspunsul este afirmativ. Cartea reușește să combine foarte bine elemente comice și dramatice, dar și să-i furnizeze cititorului o oarecare doză de tensiune.
Este interesant de observat că Omul nostru din Havana anticipează într-o oarecare măsură nu neapărat Criza rachetelor nucleare din 1962, deși se poate specula inclusiv despre acest lucru dat fiind rapoartele fictive ale lui Wormwold, ci faptul că în Cuba urmează să se desfășoare un episod crucial din Razboiul Rece, țara urmând să treacă printr-o schimbare dramatică de regim politic, dictatorul Fulgencio Batista fiind înlăturat de la putere în 1959, la doar un an după ce cartea a fost publicată. Regimul Batista se clatină serios, în ciuda stabilității pe care o afișează și a pretinsului control pe care poliţia secretă îl are asupra rebelilor (în "tainica Jefatura", direcția poliției, se petrec "tot felul de lucruri neplăcute", iar regimul nu încurajează sub nicio formă interacțiunea dintre turiști și locuitorii din Havana). Însă nu trebuie uitat că tema principală a cărții nu este ironizarea serviciilor secrete cubaneze, ci a celor britanice.
James Wormwold, patruzeci și cinci de ani, are o fiică de șaptesprezece ani și a fost părăsit de soție cu ceva vreme în urmă. Locuiește în Havana și are o afacere nu foarte profitabilă cu aspiratoare. Singurul său prieten este doctorul Hasselbacher. Principala sa vulnerabilitate este faptul că nu știe cum să îi refuze ceva fiicei sale, Milly, o fată foarte isteață și spirituală, dar și mereu dispusă să forțeze limitele bugetului tatălui său. Prin urmare, atunci când agentul britanic Hawthorne îi propune să facă parte din "rețeaua de informații din Caraibe", Wormwold acceptă. Ceea ce va furniza însă proaspătul spion întrece cu mult așteptările britanicilor, care nu puteau decât să spere ca Wormwold și rețeaua pe care el a creat-o să aibă acces la informații atât de importante; bineînțeles, ei nu au de unde să știe că informațiile livrate de "omul nostru din Havana" sunt simple fabulații. Problema este însă că și alte servicii, în afara celor britanice, sunt convinse de justețea acestor informații și vor acționa în consecință, spre stupoarea și necazul lui Wormwold. Lectură plăcută!

You are interested in a person, not in life,
and people die or leave us....But if you're
interested in life, it never lets you down.

Graham Greene’s almost farcical take on international spying, Our Man in Havana is mostly a humorous look at a vacuum cleaner salesman, who is pressed into service by M16. Jim Wormold is out of his depth from the beginning, and not being a real spy, he does what makes the most sense to him, he manufactures information and pockets money. What ensues is nearly pure humor, (I know, not what one expects when opening up a Graham Greene novel,
but the events themselves might well be harrowing if treated in a different fashion, and I suspect Greene wants us to peek beneath the veil and see the true face if we can.

This little novel is marvelously done. Jim Wormold is not in control of the events that unfold, but he has to play his part, take his chances, and sometimes face danger head-on. He seems to waver between being innately crafty and bungling but lucky. He has a spoiled and conveniently religious daughter and an interesting friend, Doctor Hasselbacher, who somewhat steals the show for me.

Written during the cold war, this is both a spoof of spying and perhaps a commentary on the way secret dealings create, rather than help, in the presence of that situation. Greene had done a stint as a M16 agent himself, so he probably understood the amount of disinformation there was floating about, the competitiveness, even between allies, that kept them from sharing real information, and the dangers that were inherent to the common practices in an atomic age.

A lot of fun and a big surprise. Graham Greene had a sense of humor--who would have guessed?

‘He said that one of the drawings reminded him of a vacuum cleaner.’
‘It couldn’t be a vacuum cleaner, sir. Not a vacuum cleaner.’

In Our Man in Havana, Graham Green takes many a jab at the spy genre conventions and intelligence service maneuverings and communication through the not-so-likely hero, Mr. Wormold, a vacuum cleaning machine salesman who just wants the best for Milly, his seventeen year old daughter. Havana, Cuba is an effective backdrop and setting Greene’s exercise in spoofing such spy games.

Our Man in Havana has a droll, dry and effectively satiric quality to it. There are several amusing scenes, particularly as our unlikely hero becomes more accustom to his new found side job—as spy.

The novel definitely has two different feels in various parts. The first half seems more of a set up in understanding Wormold’s new role as being a “spy” (before he really understands what is happening), and his unexpected “success” in this role. There’s a certain amount of intentional ridiculousness in Greene’s presentation of this role. The novel’s second half, however, the plots turn a bit more serious as Wormold realizes that some of his moves and inventions are taking on a dark life of their own. The enemy, it seems, is beginning to take action and the threat and danger are now real and hitting far too close. What can agent 59200/5 possibly do? There are definitive darkly comic elements as we head towards the finish line and concluding scene.

Overall, Our Man in Havana is definitely a nice little ‘entertainment.’

A comedy of errors in pre-Castro Cuba. James Wormold is a vacuum-cleaner salesman required by British intelligence. Due to perverse incentives, Wormold invents a network of informants to get more money from his handlers. At one point he manufactures a series of installations in the Cuban mountains, and diagrams them from vacuum cleaner parts. Then things get worse. It was as if Juan Pujol García was British, not fighting the Nazis, and also incompetent.

It would be easy to draw grand comparisons with the nature of clandestine services, Cuban politics, or Britain after the war, but really this is one of the books that Greene called an "entertainment". So it is.

So good that I bought it twice. One month apart. Goodreads is supposed to stop this happening. Finally losing my marbles.

A twee little book. Poverty stricken vacuum cleaner salesman in pre Castro Cuba is recruited by the British secret service. He is paid by results and takes to making stuff up to earn more money.

Then things take a queer turn as his made up reports start having real life consequences. People are being bumped off and attempts are made on VCSs life.

And who is the sinister police chief sniffing around his teenage daughter - lifts back from school in his car and all.

Funny in places, odd in others. Not entirely sure about this one.