The End of the Affair by Graham Greene

Graham Greene protested throughout his life at being called "a Catholic novelist."  However, Catholicism is extremely prevalent in his books as he explores moral and ethical issues.  Greene also suffered from bipolar disorder, and is quoted as saying, "unfortunately, the disease is also in one's material."  The End of the Affair, number 532 on the list and published in 1951, contains evidence of both religious thought and mental instability.  (Interestingly, though, Greene dedicated the book "to C" in the British edition and "to Catherine" in the American edition.   This woman is Lady Catherine Walston, with whom Greene carried on a lengthy affair and based the character of Sarah on.  Perhaps his own Catholicism wavered at times.) 

Sixty pages in, Maurice Bendrix seems to be the sort of man that is extremely difficult to get along with.  He has no self-esteem and depends heavily on what others think of him.  He is living in the past, in an affair that ended years ago.  He has no focus in his life and is just drifting from novel to novel, trying to find direction.  One day, he encounters Henry Miles, the husband of Sarah, whom he had an affair with some time ago.  Henry is distraught over Sarah's unusual behavior and is suspicious that she might be having an affair.  Henry asks Bendrix to go to a private investigator on his behalf, but retracts the request soon after and rushes out of the restaurant where the two are meeting.  Bendrix, however, ignores the retraction and finds himself in the office of a private investigator.  He begins taking reports from Parkis, a detective.

When Bendrix finally tells Henry what he has done, Henry realizes that Bendrix was once Sarah's lover.  In the edition of the book that I have, this event occurs on page 67, and I'm sad to say that this is as far as I got.  I never saw the Catholicism that both Sharon and Wikipedia tell me are present within the book.  I did not got to the point in the book where the reader begins to sympathize with Sarah.    At the point at which I stopped, Parkis was nothing more than a minor character encountered in passing. 

However, I do not believe my failure is a reflection of the book's content or writing style.  Rather, it's a reflection on our ignorance when choosing this book:  asking Ellie to pick a random number between 1 and 1001 and then automatically agreeing to read that book might not be the best way to go.  I'll admit that I was eager to read the book only because Ralph Fiennes' name is clearly on the front cover, and Jason Isaacs' is on the back.  After reading the part of the book that I did, though, I have very little interest in seeing the movie.   

I've chosen March's book because it sounds interesting, and hopefully I will be able to finish it by the end of the month.  And maybe someday, after I've experienced heartbreak and learned to care what William Faulkner (he says The End of the Affair is "for [him] one of the most true and moving novels of [his] time, in anybody's language") thinks, I will return to Greene's novel, and finish it.

Here's to better luck in March.   

The End of the Affair. Graham Greene

Disclaimer: The last 40 pages made me want to start slashing my wrists.

I think I’m a little too young/naive for this book. Since it deals with love, religion, affairs, etc. However, since Natasha and I bravely plunged into the shark-infested waters of the 1001 list and damnit, since I read it all I’m going to write a review about it! So here goes:

Short Summary:The book is almost anachronistic. The affair has already happened. Usually a book is about the affair not a few years after. Maurice Bendrix, the main character, is an interesting fellow. An author, he’s very critical of himself & enjoys making fun of people yet he shows traits of goodness. “I put 2 biscuits beside his bed in case he woke up later“ He’s infatuated with Sarah Miles who unfortunately is married to Henry. There aren’t too many climactic moments so this is a pretty decent summary.

A quote to start us off:

"The opposite of love is not hate, it's indifference. The opposite of faith is not heresy, it's indifference. And the opposite of life is not death, but indifference between life and death." - Elie Wiesel

The themes:

1. Fear of the end of love: Everybody in this story feels this. Parkis the PI says, "Perhaps he didn’t really trust me to remember him..." Maurice is constantly doubting Sarah, suspecting that she has other lovers. When they’re not together, he wonders if she’s physically with somebody else but when they are together, he wonders if maybe she’s thinking of somebody else at the current moment. He never trusts her, hindering his love for her. The only time he feels that she’s truly his is when they’re having sex. [lovely] However, we find out at the end by reading Sarah’s journal, that she was more in love with him than he could’ve possibly known. Henry even though he doesn’t love sarah fears that one day she’ll leave him, divorce him. It doesn’t matter that he doesn’t love her, isn’t intimate with her, but there’s still fear that she’ll leave him permanently. This fear is part of human nature though.
2. Pain. None of the characters are every truly happy. EVER. Bendrix says he finally gained respect for Henry when he began to suffer. "I could no longer patronize him; he was one of misery’s graduates." It’s as if pain is indispensable to a fully-realized life. Through pain, Sarah’s love for Maurice is heightened. [happiness annihilates us: we lose our identity]
3. Religion. This is a biggie. We’ll go character by character. Sarah- baptized a Catholic @ age 2 though she didn’t realize it finds her way back to religion. She becomes a sort of saint after her death. Her piece of hair to Smythe heals his disfigured cheek. Her book heals Parkis’ son. She causes Maurice to hate God – but in hating god, he becomes a believer. Much as he doesn’t want to be. Smythe – from his hardships, he doesn’t believe there is a god. His views are later shared by Maurice. Maurice – he doesn’t want to believe. In his torment against god, he disallows Sarah to have a catholic burial, he tears up her journal, he refuses to believe in the [miracle] of smythe’s face. As Elie Wiesel’s quote states, Maurice’s hate though is his proof of his belief. He realizes this and that makes him hate God even more.

Should you read this book? IDK that’s up to you! There's definitely some powerful universal themes present, and the book will cause you to reflect on your own personal beliefs. However, the plot line is as slow as the elderly driver in front of you. You just want to yell, "GET ON WITH IT."

but...according to Bendrix,

[a true story has no beginning and no end]