656. The Honorary Consul

The Honorary Consul
Graham Greene
1973
Around 335 pages

I was disappointed to discover this is the last Graham Greene novel on the List. I thought we had more time! Okay, you could argue at eight novels, he is slightly overrepresented, but I personally enjoyed every single one of his offerings. As is tradition for the VIP members of this List, we now must complete our official ranking:

1. The Honorary Consul

2. The End of the Affair

3. The Quiet American

4. England Made Me

5. The Power and the Glory

6. Brighton Rock

7. The Heart of the Matter

8. The Third Man

As you can see, The Honorary Consul is top of the list, and I'm always impressed when novelists can finish with their strongest work (at least for the purposes of this blog). 

Eduardo Plarr is an unmarried doctor living in a provincial village in Argentina. The only English inhabitants of the village are Humphries, an old teacher, and Charles Fortnum, the alcoholic honorary consul. Plarr is attracted to Fortnum's wife Clara, and becomes involved in a plot aimed at freeing prisoners in Paraguay, Plarr's father being among them.

This is a fast paced, exciting novel. Greene has finally mastered all the things he wanted to say in his earlier works about political upheaval, Catholicism, even death. I wasn't surprised to learn that Greene considered this one of his best novels. When you have such rich characters, it's thrilling just to watch them think, so I enjoyed the lengthy imprisonment scenes the best.

GG, you will be missed! Why couldn't you take Pynchon with you??

RATING: *****

Interesting Facts:

Adapted into a 1983 film with Michael Caine and Richard Gere.

UP NEXT: Crash by J.G. Ballard