Review first posted on BookLikes:
http://brokentune.booklikes.com/post/...

"The God I believe in must be responsible for all the evil as well as for all the saints. He has to be a God made in our image with a night-side as well as a day-side."

The Honorary Consul is somewhat heavier fare than Graham Greene's "entertainments". The justification of man's actions based on faith or based on the conflict created by the expectations of religious instruction and the reality of life features heavily in this book.

Charlie Fortnum is an elderly, worn out diplomat, a British Honorary Consul based in northern Argentina who has been largely forgotten by the Foreign Office until he becomes inadvertently entangled in a plot to kidnap the American ambassador.
Unfortunately for Charlie, the kidnapping goes horribly wrong. Even more unfortunate, the Foreign Office don't like the idea of being reminded about Charlie.

The only ones who do care about Charlie are his wife and his doctor - two by-standers. Except of course, that this is Greene-land where soon enough things turn out different from what they appear.

n  ‘It’s not how I intended things,’ Doctor Plarr repeated. He had no anger left with which to defend himself. ‘Nothing is ever what we intend. They didn’t mean to kidnap you. I didn’t mean to start the child. You would almost think there was a great joker somewhere who likes to give a twist to things. Perhaps the dark side of God has a sense of humour.’ ‘What dark side?’ ‘Some crazy notion of León’s. You should have heard that – not the things you did hear.’
n

So, what we get in The Honorary Consul, is a tense thriller capturing the moral dilemma created by kidnapping and the desperate attempts of atonement by everyone involved.

And all of it in Greene's very dark and ironic style:

"Free Will was the excuse for everything. It was God’s alibi."

Il punto di partenza del libro è un equivoco: un console onorario viene rapito al posto di un ambasciatore americano. Ed è proprio l'equivoco il filo conduttore di questa storia, in un certo senso tragicomica, in cui si susseguono un paradosso dopo l'altro.

Tutti questi equivoci e paradossi sono resi possibili dal fatto che nessuno e nulla in questo libro (e nella realtà?) è bene o male, bianco o nero.

Il libro parte lento, ma presto ci si rende conto di quante interessanti tematiche e spunti di riflessione contenga.

A great book and the ending was very touching. Its not news but Graham Greene is an excellent writer, I don't think I have disliked any of his books I have read so far. I don't think he gets the popularity he deserves today.

The location, characters and dialogue all come together beautifully and this is truly a very enjoyable read. Somewhat dated perhaps but these books are for their time not ours.

از آنهایی بود که فهمیدمش. مثل دوستی که سراغت می‌آید و حرف‌هایی نامرتبط و پراکنده می‌زند که هیچ ربطی به موضوع اصلی ای که ذهنش را مشغول کرده، ندارد. حتی ممکن است حرفهایش تمام شود و واژه کم بیاورد و با این حال با تمام وجود میفهمی‌اش. من و گراهام گرین هم همینطوریم. گنگ می گوید و گاهی واژه کم می آورد، ولی میفهمم در دلش چه میگذرد.

پ.ن.: خواندن کتاب‌های گراهام گرین، شبیه داستایفسکی‌خواندن است. شخصیت‌های رادیکال، اتفاقات عجیب و غریب، صفحات نفس‌گیری که بی آنکه منتظرشان باشی غافلگیرت می‌کنند و به همان سرعت خاتمه می‌یابند و بیشتر از همه جدال آدم‌ها... همان جدال همیشگی شک و ایمان ...

BEYOND THE LIMIT – OLTRE IL LIMITE


Michael Caine è Charles Fortnum, il console onorario del titolo. Il magnifico attore inglese all’epoca aveva 50 anni.

Greene considerava questo romanzo del 1973 forse il suo migliore, però non fu tra i suoi commercialmente più fortunati.
Io non saprei dire se è il migliore. Forse no, credo di no. Ma, che fascino, che esotismo, quanto sottile, ingarbugliata eppure lineare, e struggente, la storia raccontata in queste pagine.


Il medico Eduardo Parr, nato in Paraguay da genitori inglesi, è interpretato da Richard Gere, all’epoca 34enne, nel pieno del suo periodo di maggior successo.

I consoli onorari sono in fondo alla catena diplomatica: contano poco, non sono scelti tra il personale di carriera, ma tra emigrati, gente che ce l’ha fatta nel nuovo paese d’accoglienza, per lo più mercanti, che ricoprono la carica senza compenso e senza immunità, in cambio del modesto status che la carica attribuisce.
Diplomatici low cost. Anzi, a costo zero.
Grazie al non memorabile film di John Mackenzie del 1983, ma dignitosissimo e gradevole, questo console onorario ha le sembianze indimenticabili di Michael Caine, sullo schermo, che, come le pagine impongono, è dedito al bere 24/7. Fino a un dato momento.


Clara è interpretata da Elpidia Carrillo, un buon esempio di miscast.

Siamo nel nord dell’Argentina, qualche anno prima che la dittatura facesse scomparire (desaparecidos) trentamila persone scaraventandole da aerei (i voli della morte) al largo nell’oceano Atlantico dopo averle rapite torturate stuprate.
Quanti morti ci sono nel mare? Di cosa si nutrono i pesci che mangiamo?

La città è probabilmente Corrientes sul fiume Paranà, e quindi al confine col Paraguay.
Paese nel quale era, invece, già in corso una dittatura, una di quelle cui l’America Latina ci ha così solidamente abituati.
Il dittatore dell’epoca si chiamava Stroessner, nella finzione romanzesca così come nella vita reale.

C’è un medico nato in Paraguay da genitori inglesi, Eduardo Parr, che nel film ha il volto e il fisico non indifferenti di Richard Gere.
Suo padre è un oppositore del dittatore, viene arrestato, non torna più indietro.
Il figlio si porta dentro la speranza che sia ancora vivo, seppure incercerato, e quindi, la speranza di poterlo liberare.


I giovani amanti. Il film è del 1983, la regia è di John MacKenzie, meglio noto per null’altro.

Dopo la scomparsa del padre, Eduardo Parr si trasferisce dall’altra parte del fiume, e del confine, in quella città che il romanzo lascia presumere sia Corrientes, Argentina. Diventa amico della piccola comunità inglese locale: due uomini, un insegnante divorato dalla frustrazione, Humphries, e Charles Fortnum, sessant’anni, dedito al bere, console onorario. Michael Caine, come dicevo.

Una notte Eduardo Parr conosce una giovane prostituta, Clara, dalla quale è subito attratto: ma non hanno rapporto perché vorrebbe dire acquistare una mercanzia e Eduardo Parr si sottrae. Romantico fino allo stordimento.
Due anni dopo il console onorario chiama a casa sua Eduardo Parr, che non dimentichiamoci è medico: si tratta di visitare la sua giovane moglie.


Magnifico, grandioso, rimpianto, indimenticabile Bob Hoskins. Qui è il capo della polizia argentina, colui che informa Parr/Gere che fa male a sperare nella liberazione di suo padre, che è morto ormai da tempo.

Chi mai sarà la donna convolata a nozze con un sessantenne straniero, alcolizzato e disilluso?
Non può che essere Clara, la giovane prostituta, che ha marcato il cuore del medico.
Clara guarisce e inizia una storia proprio con il suo dottore, Eduardo Parr.
Rimane incinta.
Il console onorario crede che il nascituro sia suo figlio e smette di bere. Vuole cambiare, ravvedersi, iniziare una nuova vita, se mai possibile.

Nell’ambulatorio di Eduardo Parr si presenta un gruppo di terroristi paraguayani. Tra loro c’è un ex sacerdote cattolico che è stato compagno di scuola di Eduardo Parr. Chiedono l’aiuto di Parr per rapire l’ambasciatore americano in modo da poterlo scambiare con i prigionieri politici detenuti in Paraguay: tra loro c’è sicuramente il padre di Eduardo.



Il medico si presta. Ma il rapimento fallisce: nel senso che invece di rapire l’ambasciatore, sequestrano un semplice console, anzi, un misero console onorario. Proprio Fortnum.
Che, ovviamente, non vale nulla, non è merce di scambio.

Eduardo Parr è sospettato di essere complice dei sequestratori, anche perché alla polizia argentina è nota la sua relazione con Clara, la giovane moglie del console (onorario) rapito. La polizia informa Eduardo che suo padre non potrà essere scambiato con Fortnum perché morto da tempo in un tentativo di fuga.


Il console onorario, magnifico cornuto, in compagnia della sua giovane moglie e del suo miglior amico.

La polizia interviene per liberare il console onorario e nel conflitto a fuoco muore Eduardo Parr. Fortnum si salva. Torna a casa. Apprende che il bimbo che sta per nascere non è suo, ma di Parr. Lo chiameranno Eduardo.

Distillato della quintessenza di Greene, lo scrittore inglese è tutto dentro queste pagine: intreccio e divertissement, suspense e thriller, che prima di tutto è psicologico, umano – occidentali trapiantati ai tropici, o giù di lì – senso di colpa, religione, cattolicesimo – contraddizioni dei sentimenti – peccatori in un mondo abbandonato da dio verso i quali è impossibile non provare empatia – rigidità morale coniugata con la pietas - romanticismo declinato con una robusta dose di disincanto - propensione al bere.
Adoro Graham Greene, amo questo romanzo.

Surprisingly for such a prolific writer, Graham Greene only published two novels in the seventies: The Honorary Consul (1973) and The Human Factor (1978). Both are generously old-fashioned masterpieces and still highly readable.

The value of human life, (the illusion of) power and the tricky balance between private and public life are the big themes of Greeneland, but the author always stirs them up in existential religious doubts. This might make his novels old school to some, but I just love them. And of course there’s rivers of whiskey and a plot packed with action.

Previously Greene labelled his fictional work as either novels or mere entertainments, but it appears he found this distinction ever more difficult to make and I assume that by the time he wrote The Honorary Consul he must have given up. His best work is serious, full of philosophical, religious and political ideas…AND highly entertaining at the same time.

Greene is a writer of show, don’t tell. Characters are defined by their actions, which – paradoxically – can also be the words they speak.

Greene is always quotable. Here’s two examples from part one of this novel:

“Life is absurd. Because it’s absurd there is always hope.” (p.8)

“Contrary to common belief the truth is nearly always funny.” (p.13)

And Greene is often downright hilarious. The drunken entrée that the Honorary Consul makes in part two of the novel had me laughing out loud.

The story here takes place in Latin America and involves a drunken British Consul (called ‘honorary’ because he doesn’t really do anything), his unfaithful wife and a third man who’s very much part of the intrigue. Does that ring a bell? Readers who are familiar with Malcolm Lowry’s Under The Volcano will have a field day. At times The Honorary Consul reads almost as a parody of Lowry’s masterwork. Here the Consul gets kidnapped by mistake, as the kidnappers (including a priest) thought he was the American ambassador. It’s all very much tongue-in-cheek and great fun to compare.

There is also a novelist involved who keeps popping up to give his literary views. He’s a bit of an alterego for Greene, yet Greene himself doesn’t really seem to like him much.

And in the end, of course, there’s the religious philosophy. The devil, it seems, is just God when he’s drunk, or something of that kind. It’s a bit drawn out, perhaps a bit overdone for today’s tastes, but I don’t mind.

Another thing which might upset readers now is the machismo of the novel. Greene condemns it in his Latin American characters, yet he himself is not free from it at all. Again, frankly my dear, I don’t mind.

Graham Greene is a literary giant and he has every right to be old-fashioned. If you get tired of yet another contemporary attempting to reinvent the craft of literature, read Graham Greene.

Over the last few months I have read several Graham Greene novels and once again another enjoyable read. I can see why this was Greene's favourite novel. The plot about kidnapping gone wrong draws you in to the comedic and tragic story. The betrayal, good versus evil, corruption, loneliness themes in a South American dictatorship is excellent.

Dr Plarr is a weak character in his beliefs and Charley becomes the stronger one even though he is an alcoholic and corrupt. The God that is evil and good is a common theme in his books. An enjoyable and thought provoking read.

Amateur hour in Argentina. In my mind South America has always been a place of magic and mystery, and so it is hardly surprising that I am easily enchanted by any work of fiction (The Bridge of San Luis Rey, A Book of Common Prayer) that is set there. This one was no exception. The protagonist, Eduardo Plarr, is not a particularly likeable character, but Charley Fortnum, the Honorary Consul of the title, more than makes up for him. With his weakness for Long John scotch and his fear of getting old, it is easy to worry about what will happen to him when he is mistakenly kidnapped. Unfortunately Charley is small beer in diplomatic terms and to most his kidnapping is a very small affair.

Not sure whether Greene considered this one of his serious novels or one of his entertainments, but in this one he strikes an almost perfect balance between the two—from the more somber ruminations of a lapsed priest or a poet criminal to the hilarity of Doctor Plarr recounting the story of the Three Bears while having sex with a woman whose husband is asleep nearby and will remain asleep as long as there is a steady murmur of conversation. There is a tortured novelist and a self-styled Doctor of Letters, each with a flair for the dramatic. A literary joke:

n  "I don't blame him for that. Do you know the Ambassador travels with an icebox full. of Coca-Cola? I wouldn't have drunk so much of that bloody wine if he hadn't watched me with those New England eyes of his. I felt like that girl in the book who had a scarlet letter A on her dress. A for Alcoholism."
"I think it was Adultery, dear."
"I daresay. I only saw the film. Years ago. They didn't make it clear."n

The story loses steam somewhat in the last section as God becomes more of a presence:
n  

"Christ was a man," Father Rivas said, "even if some of us believe that he was God as well. It was not the God the Romans killed, but a man. A carpenter from Nazareth. Some of the rules He laid down were only the rules of a good man. A man who lived in his own province, in his own particular day. He had no idea of the kind of world we would be living in now. Render unto Caesar, but when 'our' Caesar uses napalm and fragmentation bombs...

n With much rumination on the nature of love.n  

"Love" was a claim which he wouldn't meet, a responsibility he would refuse to accept, a demand... So many times his mother
had used the word when he was a child; it was like the threat of an armed robber, "Put up your hands or else…" Something was always asked in return: obedience, an apology, a kiss which one had no desire to give.

n Finally and completely beside the point: there is much anticipation by one of the characters about 'the new Agatha Christie,' even though by then the Queen of Crime was churning out one disaster after another.

یکی از بهترین رمان های گراهام گرین؛ که در "کورینتس"، شهری در شمال آرژانتین، نزدیک مرز پاراگوا رخ می دهد. "ادواردو پلار"، پزشک جوانی ست که در نوجوانی همراه مادرش به بوینس آیرس گریخته. پدر انگلیسی اش در پاراگوا مانده و خبری از او نشده. پلار با دو انگلیسی؛ معلمی تلخ به نام "همفری" و یک الکلی مطلقه به نام "چارلز فورتنوم" که عنوان کنسول افتخاری دارد، آشناست. پلار در فاحشه خانه ای شیفته ی دختری می شود که با مرد دیگری می رود. دو سال بعد، هنگام معالجه ی کلارا، همسر تازه ی آقای فورتنوم، حس می کند این همان دختر است. هم کلاسی های دوران مدرسه ی پلار، خبر می دهند که پدر او زنده است و در پاراگوا زندانی ست و از پلار می خواهند در ربودن سفیر آمریکا به آنها کمک کند تا سبب آزادی زندانیان سیاسی در پاراگوا، از جمله پدر پلار، شوند. اما گروه به اشتباه، کنسول افتخاری را می ربایند. پلیس به پلار مظنون می شود. به کنسول نیز، در حال فرار، شلیک می شود و امیدی به زنده بودنش نیست. پلیس کلبه را محاصره می کند، گروگان گیرها و پلار کشته می شوند... ئ فورتنوم که معالجه شده، به کلارا می پیوندد و....
برای شناخت شخصیت و آثار گراهام گرین، "مردی دیگر" اثر "ماری فرانسواز آلن"، توصیفی ست چند بعدی و گویا؛ مصاحبه ای روان شناختی در شناساندن نویسنده ای پیچیده و افسونگر. گویا این کتاب را خانم فرزانه ی طاهری به فارسی برگردانده. این برگردان را ندیده ام اما خواندن توام با دقت کتاب را به علاقمندان توصیه می کنم.

Very unusual book! Makes you want to know more about the author and the varied experiences he had been through. I was shocked by the very bleak, hopeless, violent, even diabolic social and political pictures of certain South American nations to which the author exposed his readers over here. Easily several eerie of parallels could be drawn today: especially with minority persecution in Myanmar, and several Middle East nations which have imploded into civil war, religious extremism and macabre realities! It's a disturbing read!

The Honorary Consul, Graham Greene

The Honorary Consul is a British thriller novel by Graham Greene, published in 1973. The story is set in the city of Corrientes, part of the Argentine Littoral, on the shore of the Paraná River. Eduardo Plarr is an unmarried medical doctor of English descent who when a boy left Paraguay with his mother to escape the political turmoil for Buenos Aires. His English father remained in Paraguay as a political rebel and aside from a single hand-delivered letter, they never hear from him again. ...

تاریخ نخستین خوانش: روز پانزدهم ماه جولای سال1978میلادی

عنوان: کنسول افتخاری؛ نویسنده: گراهام گرین؛ مترجم: احمد میرعلایی؛ تهران، کتاب زمان، سال1356؛ در386ص؛ چاپ دیگر: تهران، علم، سال1385؛ در402ص؛ شابک9644056094؛ موضوع داستانهای نویسندگان بریتانیا - سده20م

هشدار: اگر میخواهید این کتاب را بخوانید از خوانش ریویو خودداری کنید

داستان «ادواردو» یک پزشک انگلیسی است، که پدرش زندانی سیاسی در «پاراگوئه» است؛ یکی از گروهکها با او تماس میگیرند، و از او میخواهند تا در دزدیدن سفیر «آمریکا»، به آنها یاری کند، تا در قبال آزادی کنسول، بخواهند پدر او و دیگر زندانیان سیاسی را آزاد کنند؛ «ادواردو» میپذیرد اما افراد گروه به جای سفیر «آمریکا»، کنسول افتخاری «انگلیس»، «چارلی» را که دوست «ادواردو» نیز هست، میدزدند؛ ...؛

تاریخ بهنگام رسانی 06/02/1400هجری خورشیدی؛ 10/10/1400هجری خورشیدی؛ ا. شربیانی

Any modern novel set in Central Africa or South America that features a weary middle-aged man as its protagonist is invariably compared to a book from Graham Greene's oeuvre. To me, the country where he places his characters (Argentina, Sierra Leone, Mexico, Vietnam) isn't important, it's only the fact that they are outsiders, keeping British values in countries where these moral codes have become irrelevant, that is significant.

Although the setting of Greene's books is interchangeable, the details are often the same: a conflicted (anti)hero, a love triangle, a pyrrhic victory, a difficult mother, an absent or bullying father (or Father, or Father-in-heaven). The antagonists (Major Jones, Alden Pyle, and, in this novel, Charley Fortnum) are foolish men, or at least the opposite of the protagonist: verbose, emotional, innocent.

I find it ironic that Greene is cited as a Catholic novelist when, in his later novels at least, there is no right or wrong or black and white, no concept of original sin, just a kind of agnostic Greeney-grey. Pinkie Brown or Harry Lime could be said to be the embodiment of pure evil, but most of his characters are neither philanthropists nor misanthropes, they do the wrong thing for the right reasons, or vice-versa.

However, the novel seems to be less about the Honorary Consul or his friend and cuckolder Dr Plarr, but the Priest-turned-revolutionary Father Leon, who has come to his own version of Christianity: God, like humankind, is both good and bad, and the more vicious humans are, the more indifferent and destructive he is in turn. You could just explain this as a vicious circle, but Leon the Catholic, Aquinas the Marxist, Fortnum the incurable romantic, people who have something to hold onto, to believe in, are portrayed as preferable to those who, like Dr Plarr, are clear-sighted but care for nothing.

GG is also a master of description, both of people ("His white hair was streaked the colour of youth by nicotine") and places ("The white naked statue in the belvedere shined under the lamplight and the coca-cola sign glowed in scarlet letters like the shrine of a saint.")

At first reading, the ending seems to be a happy one, but if you've read the clues, as Father Leon reads his Conan Doyle, it becomes ambiguous: it all depends if you want the book to be a tragedy or a comedy. As Greene says, via his characters:

"The truth is nearly always funny. it's only tragedy which people bother to imagine or invent."

"Life isn't noble or dignified. Nothing is ineluctable. Life has surprises. Life is absurd. Because it is absurd, there is always hope."