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Twenty-One Stories
The stories in this book, all written between 1929 and 1954, all share the themes that feature so strongly in Graham Greene's novels: humour and violence, pity and hatred, betrayal and pursuit. Comic, sad, shocking and tragic, they recount the tales of Mr Maling's loud stomach, destructive gangs of children, indiscretions revealed and secrets uncovered, each one unmistakea...more
Paperback, 208 pages
Published
July 5th 2001
by Vintage Classics
(first published 1954)
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I don't know what it is, or has been, with me and short stories, but for some reason I have far less patience with them than I do novels, even long ones. I think I'm breaking down those barriers or biases, gradually, and I think this collection by Greene is helping me. Reading Alan Sillitoe's great collection last year, The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner was a big step for me; the stories were grim, true, flavorful and deeply affecting. Greene, at first, seems a bit too matter-of-fact an...more
read this some years ago, and it has many fine stories in it. I particularly liked and remember the blue movie one. Oh and I should add 'The Destructors' - a very fine story about a gang of 'feral' kids who destroy a house from within while the owner is away (I read this in the 60s first of all in an anthology we had at school, and felt exhilerated and disturbed by it) and, of course, The Basement Room, which was made into a very good film.
About half of the stories in this book are fantastic. The other half are dull, unoriginal or some horrid combination of the two. Excessively British, but even that works for it every so often. Mainly picked up for the short story "The Destructors" since it was mentioned in "Donnie Darko." That story, btw, was one of the excessively strange ones that I'm not too sure if was good or not. The opening story, "The Basement Room," was incredibly original, though, and took great pains to share the stor...more
Dec 29, 2012
Jim
rated it
5 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
20th-century-lit,
short-stories
Graham Greene is one author whose work I read mostly when I was younger. For some reason, I had read most of his novels, but bypassed his short stories. I see now that was a mistake. Twenty-One Stories is an excellent collection. Greene is no stranger to the feeling of dread which seems to suffuse so many of these tales, most especially his creepy 1936 story "The Basement Room," in which we see a child retreat into fear when dealing with the confidences of adults, which are beyond his ability to...more
There are two heavyweights in 21 Stories, a collection gathered from 25 years of Greene's career. The first of these is The Destructors. I must have read it close to ten times before. Its remaining regard in pop culture was established by it being the philosophical vertebrae for the film Donnie Darko. The other tower is The Basement Room which was the basis for Greene's screenplay for the film The Fallen idol. The riveting story of innocence and misunderstanding was later masterfully realized by...more
I read this collection many years ago and recall enjoying it very much. I picked it up a second time and the stories still held me but I could see that they were not (yet) Greene’s best writing, given that many were written during his formative years.
The situations are bizarre and typical of “Greene-land”: a gigolo encountering role reversal with a prosperous whore, a man who wants to commit suicide with his reluctant girlfriend, a witness having the unenviable task of identifying a killer from...more
The situations are bizarre and typical of “Greene-land”: a gigolo encountering role reversal with a prosperous whore, a man who wants to commit suicide with his reluctant girlfriend, a witness having the unenviable task of identifying a killer from...more
This book was my first exposure to Graham Greene. I very quickly found myself reading (and more or less enjoying) these perfectly crafted stories as items of social history and examples of wonderfully understated prose in which no word is wasted.
I couldn't say that these are the sort of stories that I really enjoy. Perhaps Greene's brilliance lies in his ability to create characters that are so unappealing and remote that they elicited no sympathy from me as a reader. He paints them and their w...more
I couldn't say that these are the sort of stories that I really enjoy. Perhaps Greene's brilliance lies in his ability to create characters that are so unappealing and remote that they elicited no sympathy from me as a reader. He paints them and their w...more
Just like other readers, I decided to read this book after watching Donnie Darko movie and the reference to "The Destructors" story. In fact, I had read that story some time ago and it seemed absurd to me, but after Donnie Darko I enjoyed it too much.
"The Hint of an Explanation" poses a dilemma about faith and temptations. "A Little Place Off The Edgware Road" is a sort of horror story that I love it.
"The Hint of an Explanation" poses a dilemma about faith and temptations. "A Little Place Off The Edgware Road" is a sort of horror story that I love it.
Apr 19, 2013
Angel Serrano
rated it
3 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
821-111-1-3-literatura-británica
Veintiuna historias cortas que reflejan situaciones atípicas, violentas, irónicas, sorprendentes y que retratan el segundo cuarto del siglo XX. Especialmente divertido el de los dos destructores, que siendo niños acaban con una casa.
I started reading Graham Greene books this year... last year 2011 on the recommendation of John Pilger. He constantly refers to books like the Quiet American as accurate representations of war etc.
This collection of short stories is a really eclectic selection of stories, some set in post war London amongst the post blitz ruins, some set in remote destinations - apparently he liked to travel a lot and wrote as he did. The final few are reminiscent of Edgar Allen Poe, supernatural forces and oddi...more
This collection of short stories is a really eclectic selection of stories, some set in post war London amongst the post blitz ruins, some set in remote destinations - apparently he liked to travel a lot and wrote as he did. The final few are reminiscent of Edgar Allen Poe, supernatural forces and oddi...more
Unique short stories - some bizarre and some enjoyable and then there were others that i didn't like so much. There were definitely some stories which I would remember for some time to come.
the short story is a format i have not dabbled in much, but every time i do, i truly enjoy it. these stories by greene are no exception. dark, somewhat supernatural, often focusing on children as characters and narrators (which always makes things more creepy) really delivered an entertaining and pleasurable read.
It takes me such a long time to read books of short stories I can never quite get into them because they are always like little fragments. Some of these ones I really loved - The Destructors, I spy, The Basement Room, When Greek meets Greek are all five star stories. Lots of the others are very good too – I liked Brother and The Blue Room. The only stories I thought failed were the few where he tried to do something a bit gothic and a couple of others that seemed very dated. But I like Greene's...more
Feb 11, 2010
J.C.
rated it
2 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
fiction,
couldnt-finish
I think I am a huge Graham Greene fan, but maybe I'm not. Maybe I've just read the good ones and haven't gotten around to his "crap" yet. Maybe I need to read more than just three of his books before passing judgment. I don't know, the stories were decent but not super. I read most but not all, enjoyed some but not most. After a while the stories seem to repeat the same themes.
I'm either sick of short story collections or these stories weren't very good. I'll be sticking with his novels for the...more
I'm either sick of short story collections or these stories weren't very good. I'll be sticking with his novels for the...more
Loved it, especially since I understand some of the stories are auto-biographical in nature.
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I can't say that I fell in love with Greene's writing the way I have with certain others of his status, but I did enjoy his stories. I certainly enjoyed his short stories more than his longer works that I read, but a good short story is much more captivating than a decent novel.
Although, to be fair, I probably have not read his most accomplished/well-written novels.
Although, to be fair, I probably have not read his most accomplished/well-written novels.
This is Graham Greene at his best, brilliantly illuminating his understanding of the human character in twenty-one short stories. A truly substantial work of literature, it is as entertaining as it is thought provoking.
A collection of stories from relatively early in Greene's career. Most of these aren't as strong as his novels. Kinda gloomy and depressing too. My favourites were "A Drive in the Country" and "The Second Death".
i've only read the first few stories, but i am hooked. i love a good short story :)
Master of short-stories. Excellent read!
Jun 19, 2009
Peter
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
fiction,
short-stories
One of the true masters of the short story.
Nov 10, 2008
Brian
marked it as to-read
Twenty-one Stories by Graham Greene (2006)
Beautifully grim.
Excellent, excellent--I read "The Power and the Glory" a year or two ago, and was afraid that it represented a peak not reflected in his early works. Not so. Some of the stories are more nearly sketches, and lack the grandeur of a full novel, but excellent lit. and excellently bizarre. Ray Bradbury and John O'Hara are but derivatives cut from this original and superior cloth.
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Graham Greene was an English novelist, short story writer, playwright, screenplay writer, travel writer and critic whose works explore the ambivalent moral and political issues of the modern world. Greene combined serious literary acclaim with wide popularity.
Although Greene objected strongly to being described as a “Catholic novelist” rather than as a “novelist who happened to be Catholic,” Catho...more
More about Graham Greene...
Although Greene objected strongly to being described as a “Catholic novelist” rather than as a “novelist who happened to be Catholic,” Catho...more
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