The Life of Graham Greene: 8volume 2

If you grew up in the fifties reading blockbuster novels and watching hit movies based on Graham Greene's books, you will be fascinated reading about the man behind the stories. If a three-volume biography is more than you want to read about anyone, you will be more than satisfied reading the second volume of this trilogy. It covers the most productive years of Graham Greene, the man who wrote "The Power and The Glory," "The Third Man," "Our Man In Cuba," and "The Quiet American" to name just a very few; these years (1939 - 1955) are also the most interesting and challenging years for the western world in modern history. The second volume does contain an introduction which encapsulates the first volume. Norman Sherry's writing is a bit uneven, some quite good, but much fairly mediocre. The good news is that Sherry tends to devote chapters to one of three facets of Greene's life: his literature; his relationships; and, his public/private world of adventures in Africa and spying for the British. If one does not particularly care to read about his relationships, it is easy to skim a particular chapter. If one is interested in additional background to the British double spy Kim Philby, one can read slowly a chapter devoted to the relationship between Greene and Philby. It is hard to believe that Graham worked directly for Philby and may have remained in the service of her royal majesty even after Philby fled the country. It is even more difficult to believe that one man could pack so much into one lifetime: trekking across Africa because of his fascination with Joseph Conrad; seeing his house destroyed during the German blitz of London; converting to Catholicism for the sake of his first wife; hobnobbing with the major authors and film stars of the era (everyone from Truman Capote to Ingrid Bergman). At the end of the second volume, after you have read about a man who packed more into one lifetime than seems humanly possible, Norman Sherry tells the reader that Graham has "thirty-six more years wheeling obsessively round the world, compelled it would seem to wander the earth until death." I knew nothing about Graham Greene before I randomly picked up this book (I was not reading novels in the 1950's) and I was barely aware of something called "The Power and the Glory," which, by the way, resulted in a private audience with the pope for Graham Greene. I am so fascinated by him after reading this second volume, I will now read at least one of his novels. Deeply discounted soft cover copies are readily available. Try the second volume; if you enjoy it you may want to have the three-volume hardcover trilogy in your library.

Norman Sherry did an excellent job of chronicling some of the most facinating phases of Graham Greene's personal and professional life. While I found vol. 1 to be a bit slow and often uninteresting at times, vol. 2 really gives great insight into the period of Greene's most productive and important years. I'm eagerly awaiting vol. 3 to see how well Sherry tells the life of one of the more important authors of the Twentieth Century.

I have read very little of Graham Greene and I have not read Vol 1 of this biography. However I found this Vol 2 (1939-55) an enthralling read. It covers his life during the second world war and then later in Vietnam and Africa. There is a bit too much about his lovesick affair with Mrs Walston (a peculiar arrangment and a bit uninteresting at times) The record of his war service and his time in publishing is fascinating.I guess if you have read the books and are already a fan then this biography is even more valuable. The life of G.G. is a novel in itself,full of colour,sadness and bravery.These biographies can be turgid in the wrong hands but Sherry only uses the details necessary to tell a vivid story.His prose is excellent and flows along. A very enjoyable read and it made want to get reading the novels-and Vol3 which is due in 2000 I believe.