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Our Man in Havana

Graham Greene

Start date: November 1, 2020

Finish date: November 30, 2020

Discussion: New School Classics- 1915-2005

Why we're reading this: November 2020 New School Classic Group Read
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New School Classics- 1915-2005

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What Members Thought

Aug 04, 2020 Anne rated it really liked it

Shelves: britain, reread, 2012, classics, mystery, thriller, 2020, library-boulder

This is a laugh out loud funny novel about a vacuum cleaner salesman in Cuba who unwittingly becomes a bungling spy in Havana. Hilarity ensues. This book was written just a few years before the Cuban Missile Crisis. Is Greene prescient? I don't know but he certainly is humorous and seems to know Cuba and espionage.

There is a wonderful movie adaptation starring Alec Guinness. Not to be missed. ...more

22 likes · Like · see review

Dec 01, 2018 Franky rated it really liked it

Shelves: humor, 2018-book-challenge, spy-games

‘He said that one of the drawings reminded him of a vacuum cleaner.’
‘It couldn’t be a vacuum cleaner, sir. Not a vacuum cleaner.’

In Our Man in Havana, Graham Green takes many a jab at the spy genre conventions and intelligence service maneuverings and communication through the not-so-likely hero, Mr. Wormold, a vacuum cleaning machine salesman who just wants the best for Milly, his seventeen year old daughter. Havana, Cuba is an effective backdrop and setting Greene’s exercise in spoofing such ...more

16 likes · Like · see review

Jan 17, 2025 Teri-K rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: mystery, classic, adventure-and-or-suspense, z-open-library, 2025-my-book-club, z-hoopla

This is a frighteningly fun book - and I mean both of those words literally. Greene, with his usual cynical view of politics, takes us to post WWII Cuba, where life is gritty and often harsh. Our MC, James Wormold, is a British vacuum cleaner salesman and single father of teenager Milly. Finances are tight and not looking to get better when he is approached to spy for Britain. He accepts because his daughter has expensive taste and he needs the money.

Slight spoilers here -
The problem is, Wormold This is a frighteningly fun book - and I mean both of those words literally. Greene, with his usual cynical view of politics, takes us to post WWII Cuba, where life is gritty and often harsh. Our MC, James Wormold, is a British vacuum cleaner salesman and single father of teenager Milly. Finances are tight and not looking to get better when he is approached to spy for Britain. He accepts because his daughter has expensive taste and he needs the money.

Slight spoilers here -
The problem is, Wormold has no idea how to recruit spies, so he makes them up, collecting the money he's sent to pay his informants for Milly's education. He even fakes drawings of a secret installation in the mountains that the people back home become very worried about. Things become more and more complicated in the way of a farce. However, there's another part to this story. Young Milly loves horses and has secretly been spending time with a policeman who is also know to be a torturer, and uses a lighter covered with human skin. Thus we know that Wormold is mixing in deep waters, and in Greene's hands there's no guarantee he or Milly will make it out unharmed.

This mix of humor and threat kept me very involved in the story and worried about the everyone. Some characters we care about do die, and like Wormold, I had no idea how this would turn out until the very end. Speaking of the end - it left me feeling a bit flat, and that detracted some from my opinion of the story overall. Still it was a fascinating and entertaining that I'm very glad I finally picked it up.

"They haven't left us much to believe, have they? - even disbelief."

NB - The "N word shows up on page 1, and I don't think it was seen again.

- Greene worked for MI6 at one point, and apparently based Wormold on a Spanish double agent who did the same thing to the Germans. You know what they say about truth being stranger than fiction... And what is it about MI6 that created disillusioned agents who went on to write novels? There's even a cute line at the end of the book, "Too many people had written reminiscences lately of the Secret Service." ...more

9 likes · Like · see review

Nov 12, 2020 Katy rated it liked it · review of another edition

Fun read. Short and cute.

4 likes · Like · see review

Nov 12, 2010 Adam rated it liked it

The easier route most always leads to more trouble than you bargained for.

Wormold, A British man expatriated to Cuba falls into an opportunity to make extra money as a spy. He finds it to good to pass up as he needs money to support his daughter's materialistic lifestyle.
Wormold is paid as he supplies false documents and reports to the spy agency in London. The most famous false report being his drawings of vacuum cleaners that the British believe are atomic weapons.

Wormold finds himself in w ...more

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Apr 15, 2016 Melanti rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: e-book, classics, 2017, audiobook

One of the books that he referred to as his "entertainments". And this did have a bit less depth compared to his more serious ones, but it was quite amusing - even more so when you realize there was a few grains of truth to the characters.

It does make me ponder Greene's own experiences. He must have had quite a few tales to tell!

In regards to the audio, this is actually better quality than many of the older Greene audiobooks, but the editor added too much music in between the chapter. A few seco ...more

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