Our Man in Havana by Graham Greene, author of no fewer than Eight books that are included on the 1,000 Novels Everyone Must Read list, all of them, with the exception of the Havana Man, are reviewed on my blog http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/02/unique-in-world.html?q=unique+in+the+world together with a few thousand other works, films - 9 out of 10

 

Our Man in Havana by Graham Greene, author of no fewer than Eight books that are included on the 1,000 Novels Everyone Must Read list, all of them, with the exception of the Havana Man, are reviewed on my blog http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/02/unique-in-world.html?q=unique+in+the+world together with a few thousand other works, films

 

9 out of 10

 

 Our Man in Havana is a hilarious, wonderful book, that I remember reviewing and reading twice, once adapted for The BBC (I think), but somehow, the note was lost, despite the fact that one reads in Nexus (my take is to be posted in about a week or so, not that anybody is anxious to get that) how artificial intelligence sees everything, there is a gruesome example from Iran, so this is about what is left in my memory

 

It is in Heretic https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2024/12/the-holy-bible-new-and-old-testaments.html which is one of the most thought provoking films I have seen recently, better than Conclave, Emilia Perez, the fact that we remember the last time we remember, and then the last time and so forth, so this is hazy

The Economist has published an article in which they look at the new Greatest Books of All Time site, which uses a powerful algorithm, considering the relevant lists, and other data, and they have an interesting result as far as it goes, albeit in the case of Our Man in Havana, they are wrong, they put it at…1282!

 

Jesus Christ Almighty – just realized that they use this with God, Jesus being the son does not have all the powers, although, seeing as they are all part of the Holy Trinity, he could do a few things, couldn’t he?) – how can this good work fall that far, it could, and it is all subjective, clearly, in my own compilation, it is with the best 200

It could not be as powerful, deep, challenging, emotional as The Power and The Glory https://realini.blogspot.com/2021/12/the-power-and-glory-by-graham-greene-is.html - Graham Greene was a Catholic and very interested in religion, sin which are explored in the latter, while Our Man in Havana is a comedy

 

Indeed, in the 1,000 list, it is in that section, notwithstanding this, we have serious aspects within, Graham Greene has used his own experience working with MI6 to expose shortcomings within secret services, he had in fact anticipated some of what would happen during the Cuban Missile Crisis, of 1962, when Armageddon could have taken place

In 1962, the world came close to the Nuclear World War III, as the Soviets placed missiles in Cuba, the Americans found out, and then a standoff ensued, a submarine could have engaged with a US ship, and then we were a few minutes from total apocalypse, not that this is all so far away these days, as we can read about it

 

The Economist had an article in which they analyzed how the Russians (no longer called soviets, but this is the wolf changing fur, not habits) had a fifty- fifty chance of using nuclear weapons in Ukraine, if some conditions were met, such as 50 k of their troops surrounded, and some other criteria which give you goose bumps and nausea

Back to Havana, wherein James Wormwold is a vacuum cleaner salesman and he is approached by agent Hawthorne to be a spy, and pressed by his financial situation, he has a daughter with expensive habits, the Man in Havana accepts, although he has no activity in the field, for quite some time- eventually, he will get into some action

 

I was thinking that Graham Greene was not just a fabulous writer, but along comedies – he also has Travels With My Aunt (only at 5786 on the GOAT list) https://realini.blogspot.com/2014/07/travels-with-my-aunt-by-graham-greene.html on the 1,000 Novels list – he has some dark material, thrillers, love stories

Wormwold does not have agents, anything really to give his employers, so he…manufactures some names, then he gives them photographs of alleged missiles (proved to a foresight, as already mentioned) which are in pact parts of his vacuum cleaners, made to look like some basis, which get the attention

 

There is such fuss at headquarters that they have somebody sent to help him, a woman named Beatrice Severn, and then humor is mixed with tragedy, one a ledged contact dies in a car crash and the supposed leader of the spy ring is the target of an assassination attempt – a spoiler alert would have been needed, before now…

Nevertheless, it is often a preposterous affair in my mind, I do not think that others come this far, ever, maybe a few would engage with the first couple of lines, only even the likes are based on Reciprocity, not really going through what the other reader has had to say, unless we have some of those outliers, with thousands of followers

 

Reciprocity is the first Principle in Influence https://realini.blogspot.com/2013/10/influence-science-and-practice-graphic.html a classic of psychology by Robert Cialdini, used in sales, and business in general, there are examples in the book, and we can see this on Goodreads and elsewhere, you scratch my back, and I will scratch yours

Applying the Reader King rule to this book, it is a pleasure to be with the characters that we find in Havana, Umberto Eco said that “The person who doesn’t read lives only one life. The reader lives 5,000. Reading is immortality backwards.” Which is so gratifying for us, readers, until we realize that it would be awful to spend that eternity with

Personages we dislike, hence the realization that the Reader is King - based on what find in According to Mark https://realini.blogspot.com/2023/02/according-to-mark-by-penelope-lively.html -and he can deport the characters he does want in his realm, the ones Graham Greene created are almost all those you want to know better

 

Now for my standard closing of the note with a question, and invitation – maybe you have a good idea on how we could make more than a million dollars with this http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/02/unique-in-world.html?q=unique+in+the+world – as it is, this is a unique technique, which we could promote, sell, open the Oscars show with or something and then make lots of money together, if you have the how, I have the product, I just do not know how to get the befits from it, other than the exercise per se

 

 There is also the small matter of working for AT&T – this huge company asked me to be its Representative for Romania and Bulgaria, on the Calling Card side, which meant sailing into the Black Sea wo meet the US Navy ships, travelling to Sofia, a lot of activity, using my mother’s two bedrooms flat as office and warehouse, all for the grand total of $250, raised after a lot of persuasion to the staggering $400…with retirement ahead, there are no benefits, nothing…it is a longer story, but if you can help get the mastodont to pay some dues, or have an idea how it can happen, let me know

 

As for my role in the Revolution that killed Ceausescu, a smaller Mao, there it is http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/realini-in-newsweek-participant-in.html

 

Some favorite quotes from To The Hermitage and other works

 

‘Fiction is infinitely preferable to real life...As long as you avoid the books of Kafka or Beckett, the everlasting plot of fiction has fewer futile experiences than the careless plot of reality...Fiction's people are fuller, deeper, cleverer, more moving than those in real life…Its actions are more intricate, illuminating, noble, profound…There are many more dramas, climaxes, romantic fulfillment, twists, turns, gratified resolutions…Unlike reality, all of this you can experience without leaving the house or even getting out of bed…What's more, books are a form of intelligent human greatness, as stories are a higher order of sense…As random life is to destiny, so stories are to great authors, who provided us with some of the highest pleasures and the most wonderful mystifications we can find…Few stories are greater than Anna Karenina, that wise epic by an often foolish author…’