Customer Reviews

This Gun for Hire

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Greene just can't be less than substantial, even when he's writing an early noir crime thriller. The depth of insight -- both spiritual and psychological -- is impressive, even by the standards of later Greene novels. His characters are real, the story unfolds with only a minimum of coincidences, the action is gritty and satisfying and unpredictable, and a rich sense of underlying humanity pervades the work. As always with Greene, compassion -- the fierce volcanic eruptions of pity in unexpected peoples and places -- is a major theme. And as usual, a subtle Catholic sensibility is at work throughout, making relevant to 20th-century man a few of the Faith's most central tenets.

Good, though sometimes grim, fun. Picture Peter Lorre in the Raven role, and Sidney Greenstreet in the Chumley part, and Hitchcock overseeing it all, and you get some idea, perhaps, of what Greene had in mind. Highly recommended.

The assassination of an influential public figure leads to a complicated web of betrayal and murder. As the double-crossed assassin hunts down his former employers, a policeman and his fiancee find themselves on opposite sides of the fray. Graham Greene's writing style is very cinematic here; many passages played out effortlessly in my mind's eye like scenes from a vintage film noir. It almost makes me think that it may have easy for Carol Reed to direct the classic "The Third Man" (also based on a Greene story). Greene is not satisfied with simply providing an involving plot; he gives his characters depth and dimension and interesting dialogue as well. Recommended.

"This Gun for Hire," (1936) 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). 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, he 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 usThe 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 book, 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; greatly honored; 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 always created a tight thriller, in a lean, realistic style that boasted almost cinematic visuals. If you've never read him before, you really might like his work, but I wouldn't recommend starting here. It's one of the grimmest of his books, also hard to find today. Might as well start with something more entertaining, like OUR MAN, or Travels with My Aunt (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition).

This Gun For Hire, 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".

Given the world-class reputation of the author, I assumed I was in for a treat -- or at least a solidly diverting yarn. Unfortunately I found myself aching to put this book down and pick up something else. The story is about an assassin working for munitions suppliers who kills an influential British anti-war figure in the days leading up to WWII. He is betrayed and races to confront his betrayers before the police catch up with him. Sounds like good stuff, but for some reason it isn't. Part of the problem is that Greene gets sidetracked into painting little portraits of every peripheral character encountered. While well-fleshed out characters are required ingredients for any good story, Greene goes overboard and the story drags and suffers as a result. Next time I'll try one of his more famous books.