The End of the Affair

I finished Graham Greene's The End of the Affair yesterday, and I have to admit that overall I didn't enjoy it. I'm sure I'll go to literary hell for that statement.

Technically I found the novel well-written. Greene is a master craftsman; there is so much colour and dimension in his work. I enjoyed the fact that the protagonist was a writer too - and spoke about his struggle with writing the story. It gave the novel an interesting modern twist.

But it still left me cold. I studied English at university but Greene's work and my reading choices were like ships in the night. I didn't know a lot about him or his interest in Catholicism.

So when the novel shifted from an obsessional love story to a study in metaphysics I lost interest. The protagonist seemed to lose his previous personality and character and become Greene's mouthpiece on the subject, and suddenly the novel adopted the tone of a treatise.

I do believe that great literature should deal with the great unanswered questions like life after death and religion's place in society, but the two parts of the novel did not gel together for me. Subjectively it was not my cup of tea...but I couldn't fault Greene's incredible command of colour and metaphor.