Unsettling and deeply insightful. ( )

3.5

Romance, greed, and theologically charged satire. Doctor Fischer, his guests, and his parties reminded me a lot of Rian Johnson's Glass Onion. Rich people all putting up with an insufferable host due to the perks he provides them, with a climactic game of potentially murderous proportions. It's a very short novella written late in the great Greene's career. Fischer seems to be representative of a sort of anti-christ, and indeed, explicitly compares himself to God. God who, apparently, tortures us with the small pleasures that alleviate a predominantly miserable existence; Fischer compensates for the abuse he heaps on his guests by awarding them with expensive prizes.

It doesn't really achieve the same level of wit or profundity as some of Greene's older novels, but it's extremely readable (I got through it in a day); nor is it without some interesting observations, even if it can be a bit on the nose. The ending is abrupt and dark, but not without a dry wink. It fell a bit flat for me. ( )

I am becoming more and more a fan of Graham Greene. His writing just flows. This is a bit a simple story, not much depth, not a lot of character development, but what is there is done well. ( )

Graham Grene, que sorprendió últimamente a críticos y lectores de todo el mundo con su novela "el factor humano", -uno de los grandes best-sellers de estos años-, nos da aquí la más reciente muestra de su innegable talento novelístico. Con un sencillo argumento y ese lenguaje, claro y conciso, tan características del autor, Greene ha escritocon ironía y sarcasmo una parábola feroz de nuestra época. Un inglés maduro y solitario, se enamora en Ginebra de la hija de un hombre tan rico como extraño: el doctor Fischer. La hija, que siente una profunda aversión por su padre, encontrará refugio en este amor y al poco tiempo contraerán matrimonio. Sin embargo la dicha será breve. Mientras, el excéntrico millonario, un personaje que recuerda algunas de las interpretaciones cinematográficas de Orson Welles, seguirá gozando de su dinero y de su poder, utilizando ambos en sus aberrantes y disparatadas fiestas.

A darkly comic novel about a misanthropic millionaire who decides to hold the last of his famous parties, first published in 1980.

At first, nothing seems to happen. Our narrator arrives as an invited guest to find other diners already at the table. There is a strange current in the air, eventually traced to the strange gifts Dr. Fischer has distributed to his guests.

Clever, as you might expect of Greene.
4 stars ( )