The Human Factor in Espionage Aficionados

Jun 30, 2025 Michael Martz rated it really liked it

Shelves: next-at-library

"The Human Factor" is a prime example of how Graham Greene takes his readers into the gray zone in situations that ought to be binary. It's a novel where the protagonist is a spy for Russia, but he's really a good guy, and the usual good guys, the British SIS, are bad enough to murder one of their own to avoid bad publicity. You know what's going to happen in "The Human Factor", but Greene makes it interesting by drawing you into all of the cringe-worthy activity surrounding the main players. It "The Human Factor" is a prime example of how Graham Greene takes his readers into the gray zone in situations that ought to be binary. It's a novel where the protagonist is a spy for Russia, but he's really a good guy, and the usual good guys, the British SIS, are bad enough to murder one of their own to avoid bad publicity. You know what's going to happen in "The Human Factor", but Greene makes it interesting by drawing you into all of the cringe-worthy activity surrounding the main players. It's a spy novel of the "there's a mole in our shop that we have to find" variety, but with a much different spin.

So, it's in the mid-70s in post-Philby England and the two main players on the SIS team that support the moribund Africa desk, Castle and Davis, are under the microscope due to a concern over the possibility that someone is passing information about their area to the Russians. Their backstories are quite different. Davis is a heavy-drinking bachelor with an unrequited love of their department's secretary. Castle is a veteran of Africa operations who'd been kicked out of country for a love affair he had with a black woman (against the law at that time). He later married her and escaped with she and her son to England. The higher-ups in the SIS, who don't seem to have much of a clue about anything, hang the unfortunate Davis out to dry and, well, murder him to avoid press coverage of yet another SIS failure. Meanwhile, Castle, the real culprit, realizes he's not entirely in the clear and tries to activate his exfiltration plan to Moscow.

The tragedy of Castle's situation is that he was giving the Russians mostly innocuous information and was only doing so out of duty to a Russian man who helped him escape from Africa. As it becomes apparent that he's now under suspicion, he 'resigns' as a Russian spy but receives some critical information that he feels he must pass along. He eventually lands in Russia, sans family, but without them and being a non-communist, non-Russian speaker who only did what he did out of gratitude to a friend, he's a fish out of water.

As with most of Greene's work, the writing is beautiful, there's a bit of understated humor, the spy tradecraft is well-done, and most importantly he mines the contradictions and unclear situations that abound in "The Human Factor" to great effect. It's certainly a different type of spy novel. ...more

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Jul 08, 2014 Sam Reaves rated it liked it

One of the cover blurbs called this "probably the best espionage novel ever written". I don't think I buy that; my vote goes to LeCarré's Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. But it's Graham Greene, so you know it will be more than a run-of-the-mill-thriller.
During the Cold War the British intelligence services fell prey to a handful of high-profile traitors who, having been unmasked, went scurrying off to Moscow to live out their lives in dreary exile. The only good thing to come of this was a rich vein ...more

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Jun 22, 2020 Scott Head rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Insightful tale of isolated, lonely people. Intrigue kicks in half way through and a rather dull story of a section at MI6 becomes a double agent story. Late Graham Greene, very developed literature, but not a speedy thriller.

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Dec 13, 2014 Steve Goble rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: mysteries-and-espionage

An excellent novel of love and risk in a world of espionage, with apartheid forming the background against which the key characters make their choices, moral or otherwise.

This novel features a smaller cast and a more streamlined storyline than John Le Carre's "The Honourable Schoolboy," although some of the themes are similar.

This is very good stuff. ...more

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Oct 15, 2012 Gamal Hennessy rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fictional-spies-and-espionage

The novel is quiet, subtle, methodical and tragic. Fans of more kinetic spy novels might find it difficult to stick with, but the realistic emotional impact makes up for the lack of explosions.

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