The End of the Affair in Around the World in 80 Books

Jan 20, 2025 Deb (Readerbuzz) Nance rated it it was amazing

Shelves: relationships

I almost never read about man-woman relationships from a man's point of view. Most of the books about relationships I've read in my lifetime have been written from a woman's point of view. The End of the Affair is about a man-woman relationship, and it is written from the man's point of view.

Maurice Bendrix has a relationship with the wife of a civil servant, Sarah Miles. The relationship comes to an end. Bendrix explores the whys and hows.

It's a story about a relationship that is full of misun I almost never read about man-woman relationships from a man's point of view. Most of the books about relationships I've read in my lifetime have been written from a woman's point of view. The End of the Affair is about a man-woman relationship, and it is written from the man's point of view.

Maurice Bendrix has a relationship with the wife of a civil servant, Sarah Miles. The relationship comes to an end. Bendrix explores the whys and hows.

It's a story about a relationship that is full of misunderstandings, the unsaid, and confusion---just like relationships in real life.

One of the things I liked most about this book is how the author told the story; the reader changes in the way he sees characters based on observations of what the character does and says and from what others say about what the character does and says. Greene accomplished this in a masterful way.

The sense of unhappiness is so much easier to convey than that of happiness. In misery we seem aware of our own existence, even though it may be in the form of a monstrous egotism: this pain of mine is individual, this nerve that winces belongs to me and to no other. But happiness annihilates us: we lose our identity.

Greene, Graham. The End of the Affair (p. 47). Kindle Edition.

I want men to admire me, but that’s a trick you learn at school—a movement of the eyes, a tone of voice, a touch of the hand on the shoulder or the head. If they think you admire them, they will admire you because of your good taste, and when they admire you, you have an illusion for a moment that there’s something to admire. All my life I’ve tried to live in that illusion—a soothing drug that allows me to forget that I’m a bitch and a fake.

Greene, Graham. The End of the Affair (p. 101). Kindle Edition.

I went back home and again I tried to settle to my book. Always I find when I begin to write there is one character who obstinately will not come alive. There is nothing psychologically false about him, but he sticks, he has to be pushed around, words have to be found for him, all the technical skill I have acquired through the laborious years has to be employed in making him appear alive to my readers.

And yet one cannot do without him. I can imagine a God feeling in just that way about some of us. The saints, one would suppose, in a sense create themselves. They come alive. They are capable of the surprising act or word. They stand outside the plot, unconditioned by it. But we have to be pushed around. We have the obstinacy of nonexistence. We are inextricably bound to the plot, and wearily God forces us, here and there, according to his intention, characters without poetry, without free will, whose only importance is that somewhere, at some time, we help to furnish the scene in which a living character moves and speaks, providing perhaps the saints with the opportunities for their free will.

Greene, Graham. The End of the Affair (pp. 185-186). Kindle Edition. ...more

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Aug 29, 2010 Laura rated it liked it

Shelves: xx-2011-xx, classics

3.5 stars. My first Greene. I enjoy his writing style, and certain turns of phrase beg for a re-read, or a note down in a journal. I think it was the main character who kept me feeling not altogether connected to this book. I just really didn't like him. There were lots of minor characters I liked much better. It was very hard to put down any time I picked it up, but I think it's the views of the main character that just want to push me away from this one. ...more

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Jul 21, 2009 Nanosynergy rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: british, fiction-1950s, fiction, reviewed, 1001-boxall, saw-the-movie-tvshow, 2013read

Well written. Like the first half of the book better than the latter. Memorable cast of characters. The relationship between Henry and Maurice was unexpected. However, I'm not sure Greene pulls off the 'miracles' associated with Sarah. Book would have been stronger if this would have been approached differently.

Finally saw two of the movies based on this book - one from 1955 and the recent 1999 version. As always, movies generally don't do most books justice and these were no exception. The 195 ...more

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Mar 06, 2014 Kathleen Valentine rated it it was amazing

Listened to the Audible performance by Colin Firth who was nearly flawless. This is a timeless and penetrating story of obsession and of passion as only Graham Greene can tell it. The end had me in tears.

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