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3.83 AVERAGE
3.83 AVERAGE
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Greene expertly captures the emotions involved when one passionately loves someone, and hates and resents anyone or anything that stands in the way of being with the person that matters most in one’s life. I’ll be thinking of Bendrix, Sarah and Henry for a long time to come.
"A story has no beginning or end..."
...But here is a book about endings. A gorgeously sad book, The End of the Affair is, I believe, my first roman à clef—and it feels every inch the truth, bled from the author's veins and covered in a nearly transparent gossamer veil of fiction.
A wound of a book, the reader is constantly a part of the prodding, the cleansing, the bleeding, the binding, and the infection present in this open, festering, and painful cut. Bendrix aches and we ache with him. Bendrix hates and we know the kind of hate that haunts him. He remembers love and we taste the bitter sweetness of a memory. Going on this journey with Maurice Bendrix feels like an intrusion into Greene's own life—an incredibly personal story to scrub the bottom of his soul, so that he may rise from there and begin again. This is a book about endings.
Audiobook, Colin Firth version, [b:The End of the Affair|13641539|The End of the Affair|Graham Greene|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1370537018l/13641539._SX50_.jpg|267229]: I cannot imagine a more perfect choice than Firth. His lovely voice melds into each character perfectly, but no more so than with the narrator, Bendrix. Even down to the purposeful breaths he takes, his audible exhales...his performance couldn't be improved upon. Here, Firth slips into Greene's mind and wears Bendrix's skin and provides us with the perfect production.
...But here is a book about endings. A gorgeously sad book, The End of the Affair is, I believe, my first roman à clef—and it feels every inch the truth, bled from the author's veins and covered in a nearly transparent gossamer veil of fiction.
A wound of a book, the reader is constantly a part of the prodding, the cleansing, the bleeding, the binding, and the infection present in this open, festering, and painful cut. Bendrix aches and we ache with him. Bendrix hates and we know the kind of hate that haunts him. He remembers love and we taste the bitter sweetness of a memory. Going on this journey with Maurice Bendrix feels like an intrusion into Greene's own life—an incredibly personal story to scrub the bottom of his soul, so that he may rise from there and begin again. This is a book about endings.
Audiobook, Colin Firth version, [b:The End of the Affair|13641539|The End of the Affair|Graham Greene|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1370537018l/13641539._SX50_.jpg|267229]: I cannot imagine a more perfect choice than Firth. His lovely voice melds into each character perfectly, but no more so than with the narrator, Bendrix. Even down to the purposeful breaths he takes, his audible exhales...his performance couldn't be improved upon. Here, Firth slips into Greene's mind and wears Bendrix's skin and provides us with the perfect production.
Colin Firth's narration...Graham Greene's writing...just about perfect.
This is for sure one of the craziest books I've ever read. This review will have spoilers. I picked this book up bc it's short and I thought it would be a beautifully written sad romance, which sounded kind of nice for a rainy summer. I really like Graham Greene, he's a great writer and I also think when you read classic literature you're almost always guaranteed a good read, that's why they've become classics, so I felt I was betting on a sure horse.
Anyway, first part of the book met my expectations, sad romance, beautiful writing. Check, check. It was also an interesting plot structure, how the narrator was roped back into Sarah's life after the affair had ended by her husband looking for evidence of a new affair and asking for his help. I also enjoyed that the narrator was a totally unlikeable shitty boyfriend. I mean, who could have sympathy for this guy? Yet, at the same time he seems like someone we've all known or have been in our darker moments.
The second part of the book where you read Sarah's journal was super interesting, hearing what someone would go through who was an atheist but believed they had witnessed a miracle and how it sort of drove her insane. But then the part after that, where she dies and the narrator feels he's in competition with God for who possesses Sarah and it seems like every male character she talks to for ten seconds is in love with her, and the narrator is so self pitying, I was like, ok, this has gone on for too long, it's too depressing and I don't care anymore and I almost gave up reading the book. It had started to feel like a chore and all the God stuff had become boring and pretentious. Like, wrap it up Greene.
However, I kept going and I'm very glad I did. I won't say there's a twist because it's not a twist it's just...totally unexpected. The story is flipped on it's head and you wonder what the hell you've just been reading. Not a sad romance, but something much much darker and weirder and more surprising. I'm not sure what I think about the ending, like what I believe was really going on with Sarah, and I suppose that's the whole point, but I'm sure I'll never forget it.
So my advice is if you're reading it and you're like on the verge of throwing it across the room, keep going until you get to that crazy ass ending. It's worth it.
Anyway, first part of the book met my expectations, sad romance, beautiful writing. Check, check. It was also an interesting plot structure, how the narrator was roped back into Sarah's life after the affair had ended by her husband looking for evidence of a new affair and asking for his help. I also enjoyed that the narrator was a totally unlikeable shitty boyfriend. I mean, who could have sympathy for this guy? Yet, at the same time he seems like someone we've all known or have been in our darker moments.
The second part of the book where you read Sarah's journal was super interesting, hearing what someone would go through who was an atheist but believed they had witnessed a miracle and how it sort of drove her insane. But then the part after that, where she dies and the narrator feels he's in competition with God for who possesses Sarah and it seems like every male character she talks to for ten seconds is in love with her, and the narrator is so self pitying, I was like, ok, this has gone on for too long, it's too depressing and I don't care anymore and I almost gave up reading the book. It had started to feel like a chore and all the God stuff had become boring and pretentious. Like, wrap it up Greene.
However, I kept going and I'm very glad I did. I won't say there's a twist because it's not a twist it's just...totally unexpected. The story is flipped on it's head and you wonder what the hell you've just been reading. Not a sad romance, but something much much darker and weirder and more surprising. I'm not sure what I think about the ending, like what I believe was really going on with Sarah, and I suppose that's the whole point, but I'm sure I'll never forget it.
So my advice is if you're reading it and you're like on the verge of throwing it across the room, keep going until you get to that crazy ass ending. It's worth it.
What boring, irritating, offensive drivel. Sadistic, selfish, misogynist asshole spends every second of the book intentionally making everyone else’s life worse and violating others privacy and boundaries time and time again.
This book ended up being something I didn't expect from it. Although I was a little confused by what was going on at the start of the novel, I soon found my footing. Colin Firth's narration is excellent, and really infused with emotion.
I don't know how I felt about the characters themselves most of the time. I don't know that I found any of them particularly likable, but I did find myself getting interested in their stories and their relationships to one another. I also really liked the unexpected direction the story took in the last quarter or so of the book.
I don't know how I felt about the characters themselves most of the time. I don't know that I found any of them particularly likable, but I did find myself getting interested in their stories and their relationships to one another. I also really liked the unexpected direction the story took in the last quarter or so of the book.
dark
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Listened to the audiobook version. Colin Firth was the ideal narrator for this book. Five stars there.
Writing itself was also excellent, although tedious at times. 4.5 stars.
Main characters really annoying and insufferable to the point that I almost couldn’t finish despite the strength of the writing and narration. 2 stars.
Writing itself was also excellent, although tedious at times. 4.5 stars.
Main characters really annoying and insufferable to the point that I almost couldn’t finish despite the strength of the writing and narration. 2 stars.
sad
Wow. I wanted to give this five stars because of the amazing parts. You know how poetry can convey the most profound ideas with just a few words? This book does that in prose, particularly about the Incarnation. (Why was it necessary for God to become man, live among us, suffer and die? What difference does it make for poor sinners?)
But when I step back from the novel, there are a few things that leave me unsatisfied. What’s up with that ending? I’m not someone that needs everything tied up in a neat little bow, but even for me it felt...abrupt? And I can accept the friendship between Henry and Maurice in the world of the book, but when I leave it, it feels very implausible.
This is a book that I wanted to read again as soon as I was finished. Maybe that says the most.
Added after second reading: moved rating up to five stars. I can see now that the ending is meant to be unsatisfactory. Bendrix is still in process. You know it’s not really going to end there. And I « saw » so much more in the second reading. And again I felt like I wanted to start at the beginning and read it again.
But when I step back from the novel, there are a few things that leave me unsatisfied. What’s up with that ending? I’m not someone that needs everything tied up in a neat little bow, but even for me it felt...abrupt? And I can accept the friendship between Henry and Maurice in the world of the book, but when I leave it, it feels very implausible.
This is a book that I wanted to read again as soon as I was finished. Maybe that says the most.
Added after second reading: moved rating up to five stars. I can see now that the ending is meant to be unsatisfactory. Bendrix is still in process. You know it’s not really going to end there. And I « saw » so much more in the second reading. And again I felt like I wanted to start at the beginning and read it again.