Surely a masterpiece.
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Henry Pulling is a recently retired bank manager. He was offered an arrangement after many years of devoted service when his bank was taken over by another. He is looking forward to spending more time with the dahlias that are his pride and joy, and also rubbing shoulders with his former customers in Southwood, an unremarkable London suburb that seems to be populated entirely by retired officers from the armed forces. He mentions Omo quite a lot and is vaguely embarrassed by the fact that he shares initials with a well known brand of sauce. And then he meets his long lost aunt, Agatha Bertram.
Henry's mother has just died. His father died forty years before. He never really knew the father and his relationship with his mother was perennially tense. After the funeral, Agatha takes him on one side and calmly informs him that his father was something of a rogue and that his "mother" was really his step-mother, his true biological mother being one of his father's bits on the side. Henry Pulling finds himself attracted to his aunt, not because she is something of an eccentric, unpredictable old bird, but also because she retains, somewhere, the secret of his own origins. When she suggests they travel together, he eagerly accompanies, despite the fact that he has never been one for straying far from the nest.
Graham Greene has Henry and Aunt Agatha travel as far afield as Brighton, Istanbul and South America. Together, via stories from Aunt Agatha's past, they relive the first half of the twentieth century, from late Victorian roots to 1960s drug culture, from fascism to dictators, from war to peace. Throughout, Henry Pulling comes across as a genial, predictable gent in his late fifties, whilst Aunt Agatha seems to be a confirmed member of Hell's Grannies. Europe - the world even - seems to be littered with her conquests, with hardly a country passing by without some faded memory of hers coming back to life.
As it unfolds, Travels With My Aunt reveals itself as a true masterpiece of twentieth century fiction. The characters really do live through the century's history, but the events are never pressed onto the surface of their lives. On the contrary, they are entwined within the fabric of Aunt Agatha's being, a character whose complexity unfolds as the story progresses.
Throughout Henry Pulling is a truly comic character. He seems out of his depth, naïve, a product of an over-protected suburban existence, over-burdened with the assumptions of his upbringing. But he comes into his own and eventually it is no surprise when he describes his new life, which is almost as far removed from a suburban bank manager's office as it is possible to get. And, of course, the story's denouement, when it arrives, is also no surprise. And is not less because of that.
There are many laughs along the way, not least as a result of Henry's being constantly taken aback by his aunt's bluntness and lust for life. Particularly memorable, however, were scenes where Henry put his personal foot in it. On Paraguay's national day, he carries a red scarf on his aunt's advice so he can show allegiance to the ruling party and the dictator. He just happens to be outside the military and political headquarters when he sneezes and uses the scarf as a hankie. A nearby soldier records the snotting into the national emblem as deeply insulting and irreverent, duly beats him up and slaps him in jail. Situation comedy at its best.
Travels With My Aunt is quite simply a must read and must re-read book. Graham Greene's immense skill provides a simplicity of style and construction to communicate a complex plot alongside powerful characterisation, and all this accomplished with true but elegant economy. It is a beautifully crafted book, expertly written, full of surprises and humour, all set against a deadly serious plot: surely a masterpiece.
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Dated but Entertaining
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This novel seems very dated when viewed through the jaded lens of the twenty first century but I suspect it felt that way even on it's day of publication. The central character seems out of place in the swinging sixties and belongs back in thirties and the realm of the stiff upper lip. Not so his outrageous ageing Aunt, who drags Henry Pulling almost by the neck, into the open air and confronts him with present day (the 60's) realities.
The first half of this novel details Henry first meeting his Aunt and being persuaded on a voyage from London to Istanbul. The style is largely anecdotal and hugely entertaining. Greene's prose is second to none and his velvety words slip past effortlessly. The second half of the book is darker and less about the journey than the destination. The light tone and comedy of the first section are lost; characters become more sinister and the novel is driven by plot rather than character. Unusually for Greene the plotting is rather lazy and unsatisfactory, leaving the reader disappointed. After an excellent beginning I had expected rather more.
Travels with my Aunt is still a very good novel, written by a master craftsmen and definitely worth reading but I have been left somewhat deflated by a second half that pales when compared with the brilliance of the first.
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I was expecting more
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I have only read two other novels by Graham Greene - 'Brighton Rock' and 'The End of the Affair'. I enjoyed them very much and have always been telling myself to pick up more of his work. So I thought 'Travels With My Aunt' would be a good point to carry on where I left off - but I have been left disappointed...
I think what displeased me most was how the narrative structure was essentially a series of anecdotes from Aunt Augusta - all of which were fanciful and none of which were particularly amusing. Yes, she has never lost her lust for life and yes, she has seen and done some fantastic things - but her tales left me uninterested and uninspired. I felt myself wanting to say: "Get over yourself."
Wordsworth, the only black character, was hackneyed and presented in a somewhat racist light (even for 1969). Moreover, although he popped up in the most unlikely places, his presence in the plot was mostly pointless (except when cannabis was involved - a substance that Greene really does obsess about too much here in a very stuffy English way.)
The novel is supposed to be about Henry Pulling's awakening from the dull constraints of English suburbia - under the influence of his aunt. But for most of the second half of the book, the story decides to centre on the character of Mr. Visconti...a war criminal whose exploits I really couldn't have cared less about. I was hoping that the story would stick with Henry and Aunt Augusta, but it went off on a tangent and stayed on it until Aunt Augusta was eclipsed and Mr. Visconti - not present for most of the novel - took centre-stage for a rushed, unconvincing finale.
Oh, and there's a twist in the tale: but it has lost so much impact by the time it arrives that a shrug and a quietly muttered 'oh I see' may well be all that it elicits. Disappointing for Graham Greene. It hasn't turned me off him for good, but this probably wasn't the best choice from his back-catalogue.
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Dated
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Other reviewers have been very enthusiastic about this book, but the opening chapters read as though they were written between the World Wars. The book was published in 1969, but it is only when a young American girl is introduced that there is any sense that the action is taking place in the 1960s. Even then, the contrast between her idiom and the older characters' speech is less amusing than it presumably was at the time. Even worse is the incorrect English of the novel's one black character. The passages where these characters appear are dull. It is only when Aunt Augusta forms part of the narrative that the book is really amusing.
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genius comic timing!!!
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I bought this cassette when it was first released in 1997 and have enjoyed listening to it many times since. I always seem to want to listen (to at least a portion!!) when i,m in the mood for a slice of dry comic genius, as I do when I listen to "round the horne" (a la kenneth williams). Charles Kay and Dame Hilda Bracket make a great comic duo, not to mention the rest of the excellent cast. Thats not to say it will bring a smile to your face all of the time, the piece contains some moving stiff-upper-lip moments from the main actors that are typically british. Give it a try, its on my ipod forever now. R.I.P Dame Hilda (Patrick Fyffe died in 2002) - very much underrated and lovingly missed.....
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