The End of the Affair

by Graham Greene

Chosen by our book group. I have to admit that I was one of the people who voted for it – probably because I had already read the other titles put forward. And maybe also because I felt I could do with reading some more by this author. (I had already read Travels with my Aunt and Brighton Rock.)

The edition I got out from the library has an introduction by Monica Ali, written in 2004. I read a page or two of this and then decided that I had better read the book first. For the first chapter or two, I was carried along and felt immersed in the story and the author’s predicament. But by the time I had reached halfway through this (mercifully short) novel, I was not finding it very satisfying. And by the end of the penultimate part, where the narrator says words to the effect of “if this were a novel, I would stop at this point” I really wished he had. But no, there was another part to get through.

The narrator is Maurice Bendrix – a writer. Still waiting to become successful, he lives in digs – the usual residence of single men in the 1930s. His landlady is mentioned but does not appear in the novel. Another background figure, more relevant to the story, is his lover Sarah’s maid Maud. But I am skipping ahead, or rather back – because the novel is about exactly what the title suggests. By writing about the end of the affair, Greeene immediately gives away its ending. And not only the fact that the couple part after an intense relationship that lasts through most of the Second World War, but also that Sarah dies two years after their parting.

The novel deals with guilt, faith, passion. The passionate moments are few and the guilt and soul-searching are relentless. It is a bleak, bleak story – and the setting is no less inspiring. The couple lives on either side of “the Common” which I imagine as Wimbledon Common, but I suppose it could be Clapham Common or possibly somewhere else. London, anyway. They are often pictured, individually, walking on the Common – but it is never a positive image of nature. The winds howl and rain lashes down. Sarah catches her fatal illness after walking around, distraught, on a wet, stormy night.

Greene apparently didn’t rate this book himself. Neither do I. It will be interesting to see what the other members of my book group make of it.