Travels Without my Aunt: In the Footsteps of Graham Greene

I reserve five stars for classics so four here is no slight. This is a very, very good book. I have been a fan of Graham Greene from the first time I read The Comedians for a graduate course on Haiti. Greene's keen eye for the absurdity of expatriate angst and their detached observations of the host nation and its people, be it Haiti (The Comedians), Paraguay/Argentina (The Honorary Consul), or Vietnam (The Quiet American) were nothing short of brilliant. In short Greene "got it" and thankfully for the reader of her book, Ms Llewellyn Smith does too! It is apparent from the very start that you are in the hands of an extremely confident (read clear) writer who has done her homework.She opens in Brighton, an area I know nothing about and by chapter's end, I will admit to the urge to wipe the grease from my imagined fish in chips on my pants leg - she can be that good. Each subsequent trip begins with a new set of expectations. In this way she cleverly avoids forcing the same Greene template on each country. She grasps that Greene himself grew and changed and it was entertaining to see Ms Llewellyn Smith grow as well. My critiques are minor. She lingers a bit long on friends she made in Cuba but she captures the thin veneer of frivolity in present day Cuba wonderfully. I also found a few passages to have been curiously devoid of any of the more intimate (yes,sexual)observations that were so much a part of Greene's writing. Finally, this is well written, thorougly entertaining work by an author skilled enough to make Greene real to you whether you've read him or not. I look forward to my next travels with her!

Kudos to the author, she deserves a "Rory Peck" type award for putting her life in danger while gathering the materials for this book. She "walks the walk" (way out of the mainstream)exploring regions that Greene toured decades ago and paints vivid word pictures of the current political/social/economic situations of these distant lands. This is a most impressive work of hermeneutics; her interpretations are cross-referenced with Greene's works and cause us to realize that the old adage holds true; "the more things change; the more they remain the same". She skillfully dissects Greene's plots and enables us to "suck the marrow" out of them without having to read them. As a result of this book, I am adding Paraguay and Argentina to my "must visit" list. Anyone that ventures to Sierra Leone is following their Thanatos...