Customer Reviews

A GUN FOR SALE

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'A gun for sale' is considered a minor Graham Greene work, two years before his acknowledged first masterpiece, 'Brighton Rock'. Admittedly, the book is hugely flawed - the plot becomes increasingly implausible; the dialogue is sometimes false; the characterisation, especially in the central relationship between Raven the runaway hitman and Anne, sometimes doesn't quite ring true. But there is so much that is excellent - the mixture of dusty, fish and chips realism with almost whimsical fantasy, precise detail clashing with a nightmare-world of physical grotesques; the brilliant control of language, in which a deliberately limited vocabulary is used to imprison characters in a social and implicitely metaphsical destiny. The first half is a superb, almost intolerably nerve-wracking, thriller, and the second, as Raven seeks revenge during a practice gas raid, is dottily surreal. The allusions to fairy tales, history , poetry, popular music, drama, philosophy etc. open the book from its generic base, and makes it infinitely richer than it first appears. It should be read anyway by anyone who loves the cinema of Jean-Pierre Melville, who based his masterpiece 'Le Samourai' on it. A flawed, yet fascinating work.

On the face of it, A Gun For Sale by Graham Greene is a genre thriller, featuring a crime committed by a confessed and declared villain, followed by a police pursuit. In the hands of a great writer, however, even clichés such as this can be transformed into thoroughly satisfying novels.

First published in 1936, A Gun For Sale is set in a Europe over which war looms constantly and threateningly, casting a shadow of fear and even depression over all human interaction. Graham Greene appears to use this context to allow the book to make a significant, yet very subtle point, an assertion that conflicts, even grand conflicts like wars, are pursued by interests, instigated by an intention to profit. The grander the conflict, the greater the potential gain. As individuals vie for influence, prominence, control and dominance, so do societies, groups, companies, even countries. And some of the protagonists play dirty, rarely receiving the comeuppance of justice. When they do, we are gratified, sensing the same rightness that a happy ending might provoke.

A Gun For Sale has several important characters, more than a review can list. Raven is the first we meet, the blackness of his name immediately suggesting a functionality for the plot, for he is the anti-hero, the hired gun who completes the bloody assignment in the book's first pages. Hare-lipped and ever resentful of his disfigurement, both physical and, as a result of a painful upbringing, psychological, he suggests a figure that the reader might be invited to despise, perhaps a pantomime bogeyman of genre fiction, always accompanied by a threatening, trademark fanfare.

But Graham Greene is not that mundane a writer. We eventually come to know Raven well. Though we are never actually invited to like him, we eventually sympathise with his plight, if only by virtue of the fact that there are some apparent social heroes who in reality are a darned sight more deserving of our contempt. Raven is double-crossed and sets out to track down the perpetrator of his humiliation.

Raven leaves a trail and a policeman, Mather, takes up the pursuit. By chance Mather's girlfriend, Anne, boards the same train as Raven from London to Nottwich, an industrial town were she will appear in the chorus line of a pantomime. Raven and Anne meet and, viewed from the distance of the pursuer, become accomplices.

Mather's fellow copper, Sanders, is an interesting foil to Raven. Both are disfigured. Raven's problem is with appearance and he yearns to be rid of the hare-lip that disfigures his face, a disfigurement that Anne plays down, thus engendering his trust. The policeman Sanders, on the other hand, stammers. He is quick of wit, but not of voice, and is aware that his impediment has cost him promotion.

Mr Davis, also known as Cholmondley, amongst other things, is the greasy lackey employed by Sir Marcus. The latter is an industrialist, owner of a steelworks in Nottwich, a business that has seen better times. Mr Davis is a right cad, regarding theatre girls as fair game, regularly picking them up and persuading them into the grubby room he rents from a truly surreal couple in order to protect his reputation. The freemason Sir Marcus is barely clinging to life, but he retains sufficient pride, or malice, perhaps, to inflict untold suffering on others, merely to retain his own status in a future he does not have.

And so Raven pursues Cholmondley, who answers to Marcus. Mather and Saunders pursue Raven, and Anne seems to be on everyone's side. And it all works out.

But Graham Greene does much more than tell a tale. Through simple language and structure, and via a plot that would grace a b-movie at best, he penetrates his characters' psyches, locates them in social class and history, and manages with a deft lightness of touch to convey a remarkably strong sense of place, setting and context. Through his simply constructed prose, we see people, places and events from a multiplicity of perspectives and are left with a complexity of associations with every character. And that, precisely, is why cliché is left far behind.

Mine is clearly a minority opinion, but I think this novel is actually more complex and interesting than many other critics and readers do. I remember first reading it in a college British literature class and finding Greene's juxtaposition of a typical crime novel, the backdrop of international intrigue and the paranoia conspiracy of traitors everywhere, Raven's disfigurement, and what was for me a very moving relationship between Raven and Anne a wonderful and engaging read. I just reread it for a critical study I've been doing and, while I agree there are holes in the plot, I'm not sure they are anymore distracting than the series of coincidences that drive Brighton Rock. I read BR recently also, for the first time, and I see why critics rate it higher--the psycho-sexual pathology of Pinkie, the moral-religious issues of his "Roman" identity, but I have to say I find lonely Raven a more memorable character in many respects.

A Gun for Hire is a noir set in the dark decade of the 1930s. Most of the action occurs in the English Midlands in the fictional city of Nottwich (based on Nottingham where Greene had worked for a short time as a newspaper reporter).
The Plot: Jimmy Raven is a murderer. As the novel begins he has just murdered of the British Minister of War and an elderly secretary. He is paid for his crime by receiving banknotes which have been stolen and traced by the authorities. The chief detective on the case is a man named Mather. His girlfriend is held at gunpoint by Raven. Her name is Anne. She is the most well drawn of the characters. Anne sympathizes with Raven who has seen his father hanged and a tough life in the London slums. The story is sometimes convoluted and the characters can be hard to follow in their actions. The best part of the book is the descrption of low class in pre-World War II England.

A Gun for Sale, by Grahame Greene

Raven was a hired killer. His harelip made him easily identifiable, so he left no witnesses. [Some sort of psychological motivation?] A letter of introduction gets him admitted, and he leaves a piece of paper as "evidence". The police are searching for any clue to this murder. Raven meets Chumley and gets his payment in £5 notes (nothing smaller?). But this was stolen money and police are looking for Raven. A double cross! Raven will get his revenge by following Chumley to get to the men at the top. There are some amazing coincidences in this story. Raven meets Anne, Anne meets Chumley, Anne talks too much. Anne's boyfriend is one of the policemen looking for Raven.

There is a psychological discussion in the dark train shed. [It is not as long as in "The Ministry of Fear" and is supposed to explain motivation. Does it?] The gas mask drill sounds like some kind of perverse holiday. But it allows Raven to enter the corporate headquarters with Chumley and get Sir Marcus, the evil old man who caused it all. The last chapter ties up the loose ends in telling more about the characters in this story. The solution to the assassination averted a war - for now.

It seems implausible for Sir Marcus to use one of his flunkeys to arrange a murder directly. Usually they would use an intermediate who has no backtrail to the guys at the top; a cut-out agent. (See the James Bond films for examples.) This is a good story, even if it quite implausible for Raven to travel abroad for the murder as if he were a "James Bond". [This was titled in America as "This Gun For Hire".]

"A GUN FOR SALE," is an early-career British crime drama/thriller by much honored twentieth century English author/screen writer Graham Greene (The Third Man, The End Of The Affair). It is, I believe, the title given to Greene's This Gun for Hire, (1936) in America. The book is set in England, a country then unhappily anticipating the start of World War II.

The protagonist/anti-hero of GUN is Christian Raven, an extremely unfortunate young man who was born to poor parents who didn't much care for him, who both proceeded to die in his youth - his mother committing suicide at the kitchen table, leaving her body for her son to find. So he is sent to an orphanage, where, of course, he isn't treated well, either. In addition, he was born with a harelip that has been poorly mended, and he is ugly. He is, willy-nilly, a loner, who doesn't care for or trust other people, particularly women, whom he calls "skirts," and with whom he has little experience. He does, however, find it easy enough to use a gun and kill people, and has done so.

As the book opens, Raven is on the European continent, killing an old man who is minister of defense of some unnamed small country. Raven is executing this hit at the bidding of a man who calls himself Mr. Cholmondelay (pronounced Chumley), who will later betray the young man by giving him marked bills in payment for the job. Raven does some investigation, and follows his betrayer to a midland town Greene called Nottwich, where the young killer discovers the man who hired him is actually named Davis and works for the town's largest employer, Midland Steel. And the corporation, at the direction of Sir Marcus, its owner, has ordered this assassination in hopes of starting World War II, similarly to the way World War I was started. Along the way, Raven will meet a pretty actress, Anne Crowder, whom he tries to trust, as she helps him somewhat. But she is actually naively trying to prevent the outbreak of WWII; and she is engaged to Jimmy Mathers, superintendent at Scotland Yard.

Graham Greene (1904-1991) was one of the most illustrious British writers of the 20th century. He enjoyed a very long life, most of the century, and a very long, prolific writing career, during which he gave us The Power and the Glory (Penguin Classics), and Our Man in Havana (Penguin Classics) among others. These four books mentioned, as many others of Greene's prolific works, were made into notable films. So was This Gun For Hire (Universal Noir Collection), a popular noir film starring Alan Ladd, Veronica Lake, Robert Preston and Laird Cregar.

The author's books were very well-written, highly literate; much praised by the critics, and enjoyed a wide readership, frequently being best sellers. The writer was also one of the better-known Catholic converts of his time; many of his thrillers, as this one, deal with Catholic themes of guilt and redemption. He created vivid characters with internal lives; they faced struggles and doubt. Sometimes his characters despaired, or suffered world-weary cynicism - they were always self-aware. But Greene, who also worked as a screenwriter, always created a tight thriller, in a lean, realistic style that boasted almost cinematic visuals. However, if you've never read him before, I wouldn't recommend starting here. It's one of the grimmest of his books, also hard to find. Might as well start with something more entertaining, like The Comedians (Penguin Classics), or Travels with My Aunt (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition).

"A Gun for Sale" is a study like a nested Russian Doll: of duality, of an evil act, of revenge, of abuse, of evil visited upon you and created by you. It is most comparable with Conrad's "Secret Sharer" and is obviously a major influence on Le Carre's "Smiley's People."

The plot follows assassin Raven who is like the Peter Lorre character in "M": a misshapen monster driven by a perverse need. But Greene's thesis with Raven is some characters extend sympathy to him because of his inalible humanity. Following his latest assassination of a top political figure who is the key to a major decision to go to war, Raven is befriended by Anne, engaged to Police detective Mather, who has been given the case of hunting for Raven. Anne is sympathetic to Raven on the surface, but narrates her own internal doubts when he kidnaps her as a shield. She is torn not so much in her attachments as in her offering of her charity to Raven, a stark contrast to her fidelity to her straight ahead law-and-order black and white fiancée Mather. Raven's dark complexity attracts her dormant need to shed a little light and make the world incrementally better as Europe is hunched on the brink of chaos and war.

Perhaps the most overlooked and subtlest of themes is that for the first time Greene introduces a shadowy conspiracy that smacks of Judeo-Masonic proportions. Thankfully it is only a literary device and not some full-on paranoid screed, but it is subtly there nonetheless. An industrialist of obscure background and immense power is reveled to be the money behind the political assassination, and Raven is on his trail as he chases the reprobates' bagman back to his lair to seek revenge for his being cheated on his fee. The Svengali then moves all his pieces against Raven, which includes corrupt politicians, the Masonic lodge members, and local police: but in an attempt to silence Raven and hide the conspiracy rather than a reversal of his decision to assassinate an old fiend. War is lucrative for his industry.

The setting is England's (then) bleak industrial north, and Greene does not hesitate to use fog, smoke, clouds, rain, and the incessant dreary grays of the entire landscape to color his narrative as occurring at a twilight between good and evil.

Greene's prose is lean, his descriptions are sketches that reveal worlds, and his characters are rich from only snatches of dialogue, small gestures, and descriptions of their superficially banal inner reflections. The sort of reflections anyone goes through on a daily basis. But it is from this thin tapestry that a world of moral choice is created and we shudder as we see ourselves in the mirror. True literature.

A major masterpiece disguised as genre, not a minor novel at all.

Murder didn't mean much to Raven. It was just a new job. You had to be careful. You had to use your brains. It was not a question of hatred. He had only seen the minister once : he had been pointed out to Raven as he walked down the new housing estate between the little lit Christmas trees--an old rather grubby man without any friends, who was said to love humanity. -Graham Greene, This Gun for Hire

Raven is a hired killer with a harelip. His profession and his deformity combine to give him a passion for privacy. But when he's hired to kill a socialist minister who's active in the peace movement and ends up also shooting an elderly woman from his household staff too, he's suddenly one of the most sought after men in England. And when the man who hired him, Mr. Cholmondeley, pays him off in counterfeit notes, he becomes an easy man to track. In addition, his strong sense of professional ethics lead him to try and find Cholmondeley and whoever's behind him, rather than simply hiding out.

Through a circuitous set of circumstances, Raven is helped in his search by a young woman, Anne, whose boyfriend just happens to be the lead detective on his case. She recognizes how dangerous Raven is, but feels sorry for him and, with Europe sliding into war, thinks she can use him to strike back at the shadowy forces who wanted the peace loving minister dead.

Though it lacks the universal moral tension of some of Greene's better work, this is an entertaining noir thriller. The plot depends on a few too many fortuitous twists, but if you take it in the spirit of say The 39 Steps or a Hitchcock movie, the implausabilities aren't unbearable. Perhaps the most interesting reading of the book is as a forecast of the central ethical dilemma of WWII. Think of Raven as the USSR and of Anne as the Allies. She accepts Raven out of sympathy for his physical and spiritual deformities and assumes that he, despite his amorality, can be twisted to serve her own noble purposes. In the end, a lot of folks die as a result of her naiveté.

GRADE : B-

This seems more to be a book of psychology than actions. I found it difficult to become interested in the plot, which had continuity but lacked spark. Greene emphasizes the inner bitterness of the main character, but the personal transformation was not as touching or dynamic as it should have been. The grossness of Raven's deformity sticks with the reader, and the scenarios are painted expertly, as usual, but this one just lacks...Oomph.