THE UNQUIET ENGLISHMAN

A new biography takes an in-depth look at one of English literature’s most peripatetic figures.

Anyone interested in learning about the most violent conflicts of the previous century would get a good start by reading the works of Graham Greene (1904-1991). Born in Berkhamsted, England, he would become one of the literary world’s bravest adventurers, with travels to such hotspots as Sierra Leone, Liberia, Vietnam, Cuba, and Haiti. The clashes he witnessed enliven such novels as The Power and the Glory, Our Man in Havana, Monsignor Quixote, and many more. Richard Greene (no relation), a professor of English and editor of Graham Greene: A Life in Letters, uses recently discovered papers and letters (some were found in a “hollow book”) to offer “an account of his engagement with the political, literary, intellectual, and religious currents of his time.” While many of those papers are revelatory, readers are likely to be frustrated by the author’s habit of seguing from one topic to another without fully developing each one. For example, in 1960, “accidental defector” Guy Burgess asked to meet with Graham in Moscow. But the author gives only cursory details of the meeting before moving on to an account of Graham returning to London with a bout of pneumonia and then moving to France as a tax exile. When the author fleshes out events of his subject’s life, the narrative is more compelling. The book is at its strongest in passages that document Graham’s eventful travels, such as his trip to Indochina for research on The Quiet American, the atrocities he witnessed in Haiti under Papa Doc Duvalier and used as the basis for The Comedians, and the many chapters on his travels to Panama and his friendship with military leader Omar Torrijos during the country’s struggles for sovereignty.

A comprehensive but scattershot biography of one of the most spirited writers of the 20th century.