Rating: 
Summary: I read the book after seeing the film.
Review: After seeing the Ralph Fiennes/Julianne Moore version of the film, "The End of the Affair," I was struck by how the narration moved me. I wanted more, so I purchased the book. I wasn't disappointed. Graham Greene was such a master at capturing thoughts that flash through our minds that we may not want to admit (such as themes of hate and jealousy), and making them almost palatable. I was surprised at how the film differed from the book, and I probably wouldn't have enjoyed the film as much if I had first read the book. The struggle to believe or not to believe in God was brilliantly handled, in my opinion, which wasn't as apparent in the film, so it was a pleasure discovering this aspect of the story as well. Overall, this is a highly memorable story, whether via book or film.
Rating:
Summary: One of Greene's best
Review: Graham Greene's work is known to be very thrilling in a most subtle way. "The end of the affair" isn't different. Told in first-person point of view, this is the story of Maurice Bendrix, a not so successful writer, Sarah, his lover and the great love of his life, and Henry, Sarah's husband. The relationship among this threesome is very complex, with most interesting and well developed characters. Setted during and after the second world war, Bendrix's life suddenly looses all meaning when Sarah stops seeing him out of nowhere. During the book, Bedrix discovers why Sarah left him, and develops a most unusual relationship with Henry. This story is also about belief and memory connected. What happens when someone you love is no longer with you? Is it possible that him/her is watching the ones left behind, hearing their thoughts, and helping them? What happens when you don't believe in anything about religion, and then you loose someone very dear to you? What do you believe in then, when there's proof everywhere that this someone is still connected to you? Or is it just one's imagination? These are some of the questions this book puts on a reder's mind. Reading the book one has to stop after a few pages and wonder what one would do if the story was personal. More than good fiction, "The end of the affair" is a novel that has a meaning and a purpose. This is one of the best of Greene's works, along with "The third man". The movie was also excellent, as almost every movie featuring Ralph Fiennes or Julianne Moore. Grade 8.9/10
Rating: 
Summary: Not quite the same as the movie
Review: If you have seen the movie with Ralph Fiennes, then you have a fairly good understanding of the plot, characters, and story. Much of it was taken almost word for word from the book. The book's focus is not only about the characters' love, but about a meditation on the existence of God. All else in this World War II drama is working to support that thesis. In the book, the supposed lover in the story (the fourth wheel?) has a larger part in this story as a philosophical dissenter who argues against the existence of God. He is the one with the skin affliction and is involved in the miraculous event. By the end of the novel, Bendrix and he are confronted with proof that they cannot refute. Thus, the novel ends with an acknowledgement that God exists. If this sounds like an overtly religious novel, I would say it isn't. All though the presence of God is a large part of it, this is still a good story and I would recommend reading it.
Rating:
Summary: Engrossing Moral Tale
Review: This summer, I have, very fortunately, had the opportunity to discover the novels of Graham Greene. There isn't enought that I can say about how wonderful those novels I've read are. Without doubt, they, and especially The End of the Affair, will stay with me the rest of my life. This novel's plot is simple, but the thought behind it is complex. It deals with a bizarre love triangle between Bendrix, Sarah, and God. In the novel, Sarah and Bendrix have had a long-term adulterous affair, and they have truly been in love. Suddenly though, and without warning, Sarah leaves Bendrix. Bendrix's reactions is complex. He is convinced that it was another man, but later events show that Sarah left him because she has begun to believe in God, and she has had to choose between her convictions and Bendrix. I don't think that I've given away too much of the plot (at least no more than anyone else has) because the study of the unique moral situation is so complex and detailed. The novel does have so much to say. It comments on the nature and price of faith. Greene is also concerned with the similarities between love and hate and the relationship between intense emotional pain, hate, and belief in God. The characterizations are all so complete as each character stuggles to believe in God and struggles with what emotions they should feel towards God. Greene speaks to so many aspects of human nature. It's a very rare thing to find a novel so powerful and thought provoking.
Rating:
Summary: simply incredible
Review: The End of the Affair depicts Maurice and his married lover Sarah during WWII. They meet during a party and have an affair, which they conduct by always meeting at a certain table at a certain restaurant. It goes on for years until one day, when Maurice checks on some intruders, a bomb falls on the house. Upon seeing that he is all right, Sarah ends the affair, and Maurice does not know why. Until years later when he runs into Sarah and they meet at their table at their restaurant again. This story is full of pathos and human tragedy, and is beautiful as a result. There is frustration in knowing that the affair ended as it did not by natural causes, but by one individual's own convictions. However, those convictions are what made them love each other in the first place.
Rating:
Summary: A lament on god
Review: There is a phrase I very much like in The Razor's Edge, A character says: You are a religious man who does not believe in god. I think the character Bendix is such a figure. Crying out to believe, wanting to believe, but unable to believe. I suspect we have the closest vision of Graham Greene himself in this work. It is a lament on the inability to believe in god. It is a masterpiece.
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Summary: Soliloquy with God
Review: Graham Greene has his charectors soliloquy with God. Here we have Maurice Bendrix, the narrator of the story, who is in love with Sara Miles. They both converse with God just like Major Scobie did in "The Heart of the Matter" with equally devastating outcome. Sara is married to Henry and is stuck in a loveless, sexless union, falls in love with the famous writer, Maurice. In the funniest scene, jeu d'es.prit, where Henry confesses to Maurice about his doubts regarding Sara's fidelity and wants to have a detective follow her. Actually it is Mauruce who hires Mr. Parkis and procures Sara's dairy. After he realizes her true love for him, he runs to claim her and take her away from Henry. But-----, if life were that simple. Sara, during Blitz, prays to God, if He would save Bendrix life, then she would give him up for ever. It is the tug of war between faith and love, a dichotomy which really consumes her. Maurice, who is the most human of all charectors in the book, shows, envy, jealousy, love, friendship, and faith or lack of it. Greene always has his women pure and loving and men display petty jealousy. Great insight into humar consciousness and duty to God. A wonderful read.
Rating:
Summary: Man loves woman loves God loves man
Review: Two men love a single woman (Sarah). Her husband (Henry) is the first man, but he isn't much of a lover. Her lover (Bendrix) is the second, but he isn't much of a man. The story is told from the POV of Bendrix and he goes on about how much he hates everything. Sarah left him and he's hurt to no end. Bendrix imagines all of the other men she is now seeing, and it makes him mad with rage. As the book unfolds, we learn that every ounce of Bendrix' hate was once measured by an equal amount of passionate love for Sarah. Maybe the natural end of a jealous foolish lover, but the book is really about a whole lot more. Specifically, the book is about the power of God and the argument of whether God actually touches and influences our lives or whether he sits on the sidelines idly. Most of the characters in the book don't believe in God or violently try to disbelieve. They cling to the notion that God can neither be proved nor disproved. As the book progresses, Greene puts his characters into subtle situations that show the hand of God in their lives. The characters do all they can to cling to the rationalism that will explain it all away. Sarah feels the real spirit of God, but she wants to disprove him to enjoy life. Henry is just plain rational and unromantic, he doesn't see anything. Bendrix is a flame of passion and he comes to hate God for all of his troubles, while refusing to admit his existence. Oddities occur and are uneasily explained away by Bendrix as mere coincidences. The result is that the reader is challenged to examine the unexplainable situations in their own lives. How many times has something happened to us that we've belittled that may have had a divine origin? Greene has done a tremendous job using beautiful writing and characters to make us examine ourselves. This was my first attempt at reading Greene, and I would recommend it as a good first choice. It's relatively short, and it can also be read in conjunction with viewing the well-done 1999 film of the same name.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful
Review: I remember more quotes from this wonderful work than any other. Graham Greene seems to be at his best with this rather short work. Its darkness touched not only my emotions but my soul and I don't think that I wil ever think of love in the same light. It has changed me forever. "I am too old and tired to learn of love... leave me alone forever."
Rating:
Summary: i hate it when that happens...
Review: so the woman you love has gone away and you don't know why. well, it's probably that meddlesome GOD character again. greene's meditation on god and love and loss is exquisite. given the subject matter and plot, this work could have easily wandered off into the world of melodrama; but greene's genius has been to capture a divine mystery within the ordinary lives and passions of his perfectly realized characters. the character of Sarah will haunt this reader just as she haunts the minds and hearts of all the men whose lives she touches within the covers of greene's intensly personal work. greene's gritty realsim reaches surprising heights of ache and longing. so sit down some lonely night and let the author, Bendrix, tell you a story about the woman he loved more than anything in the world... this is not a romance. this is not a call to belief in the supernatural. it is just a moment in time. a perfectly ordinary creature caught in glittering amber.
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