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Sto caricando le informazioni... Il nostro agente all'Avana (1958)di Graham Greene
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Iscriviti per consentire a LibraryThing di scoprire se ti piacerà questo libro. Attualmente non vi sono conversazioni su questo libro. Der im Havanna Batistas ansässige Staubsaugervertreter Wormold wird vom britischen Geheimdienst angeworben. Da er vom Handwerk eines Spions keine Ahnung hat, erfindet er kurzerhand Geheimberichte und -operationen, um dafür Spesen abrechnen zu können. Doch allmählich entwickeln Wormolds Erfindungen eine Eigendynamik und die Grenze zwischen Fiktion und Realität verschwimmt. Graham Greenes Roman ist eine köstliche Groteske, die immer wieder zum Schmunzeln, aber auch zum Nachdenken, anregt. Zusätzlicher Pluspunkt des Romans ist die Darstellung Kubas in den 1950ern. Greene gelingt es, die Atmosphäre des Landes in den letzten Jahren der Batista-Diktatur greifbar zu machen. At last! A Graham Greene novel that I enjoyed. Not that I thought Brighton Rock and The Heart Of The Matter are not good (they may well be "better" than this one) just that I found it difficult to engage with them. This was a lot of fun, with great characters, and a larger than life setting - with the benefit of history making it a particularly intriguing setting. Entertaining, morally complex, and funny. A blackly comedic romp.
10 of the Greatest Cold War Spy Novels “Possibly the greatest writer of prose to devote so much of his time to the theme of espionage, Greene was himself briefly an intelligence agent. His WW 2 experiences in London, dealing with a disinformation-dealing agent in Portugal, provided the impetus for this satirical and prescient look at the spy game. Wormhold, a British vacuum salesman in Havana during the Batista regime, becomes a spy for the MI6 to better provide for his daughter (he’s a single parent). The reports Wormhold concocts involve imaginary agents, whose salaries he collects. But his lively reports begin to greatly interest London, who send in reinforcements, initiating a deadly black comedy of errors, making the hapless agent a Soviet target. In an instance of perfect casting, Alec Guinness portrayed Wormhold in the 1959 film version.” Toward the end, as we go into a business luncheon at which Wormold is due to die, things begin to warm, and it seems we will get what we came for. But when, for a climax, a dog wanders into the dining room, laps the whisky Wormold spilled, dies, and thus gives warning of poison, things simply fall apart. I never saw a dog drink hard liquor, and don't believe this one did. However, I do believe he could read, and had had a look at the script, to know what he should do. All in all, little as a Greene fan likes to say it, this book misses, and in a thoroughly heartbreaking way, for it misses needlessly where it might have rung the bell. For once, Greene's Roman Catholic hang-ups, which make novels such as The End of the Affair so desolate, are kept in check - even joked about. "Hail Mary, quite contrary", prays convent-educated Milly, aged four. Nine years later she sets fire to a small American boy called Thomas Earl Parkman Junior because he's a Protestant - "and if there was going to be a persecution, Catholics could always beat Protestants at that game." Appartiene alle Collane EditorialiÈ contenuto inOur Man in Havana / The End of the Affair / It's a Battlefield / England Made Me / The Ministry of Fear / Brighton Rock di Graham Greene Ha l'adattamentoHa ispiratoHa come guida per lo studente
Classic Literature.
Fiction.
Our Man in Havana, set in Cuba under the Batista regime, was published in 1958 - one year before Castro's revolution in 1959. This comedy thriller focuses on Havana-based vacuum cleaner salesman James Wormold, an Englishman. The story revolves around Wormold's reluctant role in the British Secret Service as 'Our Man in Havana', a post he accepts to fund the spendthrift habits of his beloved daughter. According to some conspiracy theorists, the novel presaged the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962, which many people feared could have led to World Ware Three. Non sono state trovate descrizioni di biblioteche |
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Google Books — Sto caricando le informazioni... GeneriSistema Decimale Melvil (DDC)823.912Literature English & Old English literatures English fiction Modern Period 1901-1999 1901-1945Classificazione LCVotoMedia:
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And in the middle of it we find Wormold, British citizen, representative of the vacuum cleaner producer trying to live off his work and make sure his daughter gets the best education possible (you gotta love his despair when he tries to figure out how to sell vacuum cleaners with unpopular name for local populace). So when he gets recruited by representative of British Secret Service (because Cuba slowly becomes a rather interesting (in negative way of course) place on the map) he decides to do what is best for him and his daughter. And so adventure begins.
Similar to the "The Quiet American" Graham Greene portrays a world on the brink of capital change where by the looks of it everything will go down rather quickly. As far as I can see author was very well informed about the political situations in the parts of the world he wrote about.
Wormold is shown as a rather capable man (way he manages to create the reports for his shadowy masters and the way he ultimately played the entire spy organizations is equally amazing and ridiculous - general bureaucracy notwithstanding) but working a dull job. So when he starts to get involved in the activities that start to threaten his own life (excellent discussion with his boss who just off-handedly mentions plot to kill Wormold or stoically soaking up threats from the local police chief) it is obvious he enjoys the kick. He blunders through the plots and plans of his own and opposing team and manages to keep appearances of a man who knows what he is doing (which is hilarious) - for all means and purposes Wormold shows how amateurish and bureaucratic can intelligence agencies sometimes be. Similar to today's modern media they seek news that are bombastic in order to justify their existence during what you might call lean-years with no crises. So when they come across the person that starts giving them such news they are ready to make it look right no matter what. If opposition is showing interest in shutting down these news then it proves all is true (I love this logic). So when people start dying all around our hero, Wormold, we witness him being patted and congratulated for work well done - these comical situations and blunders and misunderstandings between the so-called professionals and Wormold permeate the entire novel.
Excellent book and written in much lighter way than Le Carre's "The Tailor from Panama". It is more than obvious Greene's book was inspiration for Le Carre but (according to the times and political climate) Le Carre's book is somewhat darker story.
Recommended to fans of thriller and espionage intrigue. ( )