This Gun for Hire

Rating:
Summary: Not What I'd Hoped For
Review: Given the world-class reputation of the author, I assumed I was in for a treat -- or at least a solidly diverting yarn. Unfortunately I found myself aching to put this book down and pick up something else. The story is about an assassin working for munitions suppliers who kills an influential British anti-war figure in the days leading up to WWII. He is betrayed and races to confront his betrayers before the police catch up with him. Sounds like good stuff, but for some reason it isn't. Part of the problem is that Greene gets sidetracked into painting little portraits of every peripheral character encountered. While well-fleshed out characters are required ingredients for any good story, Greene goes overboard and the story drags and suffers as a result. Next time I'll try one of his more famous books.

Rating:
Summary: solid entertainment
Review: Greene just can't be less than substantial, even when he's writing an early noir crime thriller. The depth of insight -- both spiritual and psychological -- is impressive, even by the standards of later Greene novels. His characters are real, the story unfolds with only a minimum of coincidences, the action is gritty and satisfying and unpredictable, and a rich sense of underlying humanity pervades the work. As always with Greene, compassion -- the fierce volcanic eruptions of pity in unexpected peoples and places -- is a major theme. And as usual, a subtle Catholic sensibility is at work throughout, making relevant to 20th-century man a few of the Faith's most central tenets.

Good, though sometimes grim, fun. Picture Peter Lorre in the Raven role, and Sidney Greenstreet in the Chumley part, and Hitchcock overseeing it all, and you get some idea, perhaps, of what Greene had in mind. Highly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: Early Greene crime novel captivates
Review: The assassination of an influential public figure leads to a complicated web of betrayal and murder. As the double-crossed assassin hunts down his former employers, a policeman and his fiancee find themselves on opposite sides of the fray. Graham Greene's writing style is very cinematic here; many passages played out effortlessly in my mind's eye like scenes from a vintage film noir. It almost makes me think that it may have easy for Carol Reed to direct the classic "The Third Man" (also based on a Greene story). Greene is not satisfied with simply providing an involving plot; he gives his characters depth and dimension and interesting dialogue as well. Recommended.