I’m trying to read more of the ‘golden oldies’ or at the very least more works by the kind of authors who are thought of or talked about as greats. I’m a bit embarrassed to say that Greene is one of those authors whose work I’ve never ventured near, so I thought I’d pick something (pretty much at random) to get started with.
I enjoyed this – it lulled a bit in places and isn’t quite what I’d call a page-turner, but I enjoyed it nonetheless.
Here are my highlights:
“Cynicism is cheap – you can buy it at any Monoprix store – it’s built into all poor-quality goods.”
“We have standards to which we do not always rise.”
“The confused comedy of our lives.”
“This is one of the pains of illicit love: even your mistress’s most extreme embrace is a proof the more that love doesn’t last.”
“Distance lends enchantment to the view. Mr William Wordsworth.”
“We have failed – that’s all. We are bad comedians, we aren’t bad men.”
“In port (she was the only ship there) the Medea seemed oddly dwarfed. It was the empty sea which gave the little boat her pride and magnitude.”
“I flung myself into pleasure like a suicide on to a pavement.” Dark humour at its best.
“I felt the premonition of jealousy like the first shiver which announces a fever.”
“We can’t even talk to you, can we? You won’t listen if what we say is out of character – the character you’ve given us.”
“There is always an alternative to the faith we lose. Or is it the same faith under another mask?”