Read as an intentional breather after finishing the last of McElroy, Greene provides exactly what is advertised: entertainment. If something is clearly marked as what it properly is, then the only fools are those that don’t read the disclaimer. Myself? I don’t read expiration dates on food. Life, dangerously.

This is meant as a fun, breezy, romping booze-cruise through pre-Castro Cuba. All morality and jabs at national actors, though present, are intentionally parodic. This is Sonny’s punching of Carlo on the sidewalk; the hilarity of how choreographed it all is likely functions as the greatest reward.

If you want to plumb the Godhead, read any of the half dozen (at least) books by Greene that contend with anything in the modern era on that front. If you want to read James Bond as an alcoholic schlub/secret Hero making adventure time with his badass love interest and vine-pluckable daughter, Lolita of Lourdes…in the Temple of Doom? This is for you. You could do worse.

An enjoyable story about Mr Wormald the vacuum salesman and his stumbles and development into a spy. For me this had echoes of Waugh's Scoop as the plot developed and Wormald enters the world of espionage and then gets noticed: by London and people in Cuba.

What is interesting away from the story's subject matter and absurdity of Wormald and what he reports is that three years later after this story was published the Bay of Pigs enters fact followed a year later by the Cuban Missile crisis. Being aware of this makes the story and indeed Greene's writing all the more interesting.

As for Jim Wormald, well I liked him as I did Milly, his daughter, who was a sparky, religious but a surprisingly worldly and down to earth teenager who helped the story and her dad bounce along.

Overall, a good fun book from a highly regarded writer.

Greene. Εξαιρετικός και -επιπλέον- διασκεδαστικός. Μου άρεσε πολύ, θα έβαζα 4,5/5 αν είχε μισά :-)

A couple of things occurred to me while reading this book. First, I thought about the Cuban Missile Crisis, which was a real event that happened a few years after this book was published and both this book and The Godfather by Mario Puzo had the real life person known as Superman as a part of the story. Neither event has anything to actually impact the story but I did think it interesting and worth mentioning.
Back to this story. Graham Greene has written a compelling and entertaining story about a British fellow raising a daughter. He is an everyday joe selling vacuums for a living. Having a child who is rather spoilt, he just doesn't make enough of an income to satisfy her wants and when approached to become a spy he reluctantly gets talked into becoming one. Of course he hasn't a clue and starts to make up stuff that appears to be events that are actually happening. The more characters that become involved the more his actions have consequences. I did enjoy the story and the writing and thought it worth reading.