Our Man in Havana (Penguin Classics) [Paperback]

Graham Greene (Author), Christopher Hitchens (Introduction)

Book Description

Release date: July 31, 2007 | Series: Penguin Classics

Graham Greene?s classic Cuban spy story, now with a new package and a new introduction

First published in 1959, Our Man in Havana is an espionage thriller, a penetrating character study, and a political satire that still resonates today. Conceived as one of Graham Greene?s ?entertainments,? it tells of MI6?s man in Havana, Wormold, a former vacuum-cleaner salesman turned reluctant secret agent out of economic necessity. To keep his job, he files bogus reports based on Lamb?s Tales from Shakespeare and dreams up military installations from vacuum-cleaner designs. Then his stories start coming disturbingly true.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. Actor Jeremy Northam (Gosford Park, Tristram Shandy) has himself a ball with Greene's comic suspense novel, its Cuban setting and panoply of international characters. He downplays the religious and political undertones of the book in favor of Greene's comedy of a vacuum-cleaner salesman turned secret agent. Greene's array of Germans, Brits and native Cubans allows Northam to trot out some of the choicest examples from his stable of voices, all cleverly done. The brief bits of salsa music that punctuate the breaks between chapters underscore Northam's jaunty reading. This is one classic novel meant to be enjoyed for entertainment, not self-improvement. (June)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Audio CD edition.

Review

The ultimate chronicler of twentieth-century manÆs consciousness and anxiety. (William Golding)

As comical, satirical, atmospherical an ÆentertainmentÆ as he has given us. (The Daily Telegraph, London)

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Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Penguin Classics; Reissue edition (July 31, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0142438006
• ISBN-13: 978-0142438008
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 5.2 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (101 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #14,237 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

111 of 114 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Satirical spoof. I found myself giggling throughout. May 9, 2003

By Linda Linguvic HALL OF FAMETOP 500 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback

This 1958 novel was a complete surprise to me. I'd read three books by this author before and found them dark and introspective. But "Our Man in Havana" is a satirical spoof and I found myself giggling throughout. It deals with a theme that Greene has revisited on many occasions - that of a spy in a foreign country. But this time, it's all in fun, although between the 220 pages of this slim volume, he manages to say a few important things about social class, the Catholic Church, and the absurdity of international relations.

The hero of the story is Jim Wormold, a divorced vacuum cleaner salesman from England in pre-Castro Cuba. His 17-year-old daughter is growing up fast and he finds he needs money. So when the British Secret Service recruits him, he invents a whole world of secret agents and intrigues just to keep the money flowing. He is even sent a secretary, which introduces a bit of romance to the outrageous plot. All of a sudden, the lies he has invented seem to be coming true and the plot thickens, moving along at a breakneck pace. I was totally involved, and found myself laughing out loud at times. What a delightful read! Highly recommended.

51 of 53 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Wickedly entertaining March 7, 2004

By Andrew McCaffrey VINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback

I went into OUR MAN IN HAVANA with very few expectations. I was under the vague impression that it was a thriller of sorts and I somehow knew that there had a been a film made out of it a number of decades back. So I was a bit surprised when I started reading the book and found out that it was a comedy. Surprised and delighted, because OUR MAN turned out to be one of the more understated and enjoyable satires that I've read in a good long time.

The book is a smart send up of a lot of the standard material one would have found in the noir films and books of the time (the novel was published in 1958, when the genre was starting to wear itself out). A British secret agent, looking to increase his community of contacts, has arranged for an ordinary vacuum cleaner salesman to file reports of any unusual activity in the area. The merchant, Mr. Wormold, reluctantly agrees to this arrangement for no reason other than the lure of extra money; he has a teenage daughter with very expensive tastes (to whit: men and horses). To keep himself employable, Wormold constructs a whole world of intrigue to write home about. The back-cover hints at one of the book's funnier gags, but all of Wormold's fictions (and especially the reaction they receive at the other end) are hilarious.

Despite the comic portions of the plot, the characters themselves are allowed to retain a certain dignity. The prose is also as lush as one would expect from a Graham Greene novel. One particular scene stood out as a wonderful piece of writing. Placing two main characters inside a dark, dingy saloon, Greene describes the other inhabitants as looking like paratroopers about to parachute out of an airplane. Their quick glances at the door and their hushed demeanor are all exquisitely described.... I like comedies as much as the next guy, but it's rare to find one that is simply this literate and also so entertaining.

OUR MAN IN HAVANA is a relatively short novel; my copy clocks in at just two hundred twenty pages. It makes for a quick read, but not a throwaway one. It's smooth enough to be read as a straightforward thriller, if that's what you're in the mood for, as its comedy is more on the subtle than on the broad side. But, that said, the neat cuts of satire make this a hilarious and whimsical tale. Read more ›

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars His Best and Most Humorous Entertainment November 13, 2001

By A. Ross HALL OF FAMETOP 1000 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback

More successful than most of Greene's "entertainments," this comic spy tale set in pre-Castro Cuba concerns an insignificant little man-a vacuum cleaner salesman to be precise-who, against his better judgment, becomes MI6's "man in Havana." A longtime Havana resident, Englishman Jim Wormold is divorced, but the custodian of his beautiful, Catholic teenage daughter, Millie. One day he is approached by Hawthorne-a hilariously daft MI6 agent, whose speech is littered with upper crust slang-who shanghais him into becoming a spy. Although he is resistant to the whole notion, his best friend (a German named Hasselbacher), suggests he simply manufacture his sources and intelligence and take the ample money. Millie's expensive tastes and his own devotion to her result in his succumbing to this temptation, and he spends a few happy weeks inventing subagents and fake intelligence. For the first time in years he's doing something interesting, and no longer has money worries-in the funniest bit, he submits drawings of vacuum cleaner parts as sketches of a new Cuban weapons installation.

Of course, this being Greene, complications arise. He is sent reinforcements from the London office, and must scramble to keep them in the dark as to his deception. At the same time, his inventions seem to be taking on a life of their own as people start dying around him, and somebody seems to think he's a real spy. Integral to all this is the ever-present Captain Seguras, a policeman of some renown as a sadist who seeks Millie's hand in marriage. Although a deep melancholy and tragedy lurks in the background, and there's a rather lame love injected, it remains a delightfully absurd tale, one of Greene's better efforts.... One is rather reminded of Joseph Conrad's classic, The Secret Agent, in which an ordinary shopkeeper receives payment as a spy for doing nothing-payments which allow him to keep the company of a beautiful woman-and whose misguided scheme ultimately crumbles around him. Read more ›

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the best spy novels, ever.... March 9, 2006

By JR Pinto

Format:Paperback

This is perhaps the most enjoyable Graham Greene novel I have yet read. Greene dubs it one of his "Entertainments" and it certainly IS entertaining. I am a huge Ian Fleming fan and Greene covers some of the same territory here: British spies in exotic locales. In fact, both Fleming and Greene worked for the British Secret Service around the same time. However, whereas Fleming is sympathetic to the Secret Service, Greene is more severe.

The story concerns a vacuum-cleaner salesman in Cuba named Wormold. One day, he meets a very eccentric man from MI6 who wants Wormold to be Britain's man in Havana. Wormold takes the job in order to get money for his daughter. However, he is not very adept at being a spy, so he starts making up the reports...which suddenly begin to come true.

Greene portrays the British Secret Service as a bunch of fools who are ready to believe whatever Wormold tells them. It is a typical Greene story in that it deals with the moral ambiguities of life and it has an extremely flawed hero. This is one of the best spy novels I've ever read.