The Ministry Of Fear: An Entertainment (Vintage Classics)
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Review
" Opening a new book by Graham Greene is like settling into a grand turismo car. Nothing will go wrong." - "Sunday Times"
Book Description
A detective story where the detective is implicated in the crime and the hero is an enigma to the reader and to himself
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This book took me a lot longer to read than I would normally expect for such a short novel (only 220-odd pages).
It opens in Blitz-punished London with a guilt-ridden, socially disconnected man (Arthur Rowe) stumbling into the midst of a shadowy conspiracy of some kind. The novel then tells the story of the uncovering of the conspiracy and Rowe's attempt at reconnection with the world.
Greene's descriptions of the constant terror all of London's inhabitants had to deal with during the Blitz is reason enough for the price of admission. He gives a great human insight into life in a city under aerial attack, and opens ones eyes as to how terrible it must have been to live in one of the many cities in the UK, Europe or Japan that were punished during WW2. The statistics and historical accounts have suddenly taken on so much more meaning.
The difficulty with this novel is that the main character's disconnection with his world and his self absorption is so severe that it is quite tough to get into the meat of the story.
Once you get over this hurdle, however, you will enjoy a very well written story.
It opens in Blitz-punished London with a guilt-ridden, socially disconnected man (Arthur Rowe) stumbling into the midst of a shadowy conspiracy of some kind. The novel then tells the story of the uncovering of the conspiracy and Rowe's attempt at reconnection with the world.
Greene's descriptions of the constant terror all of London's inhabitants had to deal with during the Blitz is reason enough for the price of admission. He gives a great human insight into life in a city under aerial attack, and opens ones eyes as to how terrible it must have been to live in one of the many cities in the UK, Europe or Japan that were punished during WW2. The statistics and historical accounts have suddenly taken on so much more meaning.
The difficulty with this novel is that the main character's disconnection with his world and his self absorption is so severe that it is quite tough to get into the meat of the story.
Once you get over this hurdle, however, you will enjoy a very well written story.
11 of 12 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
"There was something about a fete which drew Arthur Rowe irresistibly....."
It's now over ten years since I first read this book, but something about it haunts my memory, making me read and re-read it over and over again. Perhaps it is the dream like quality of Greene's prose, or the way he brings blitz torn London to life, or perhaps simply his portrayal of his protagonist, Arthur Rowe, an innocent lost and alone in a guilty world.
One of Greene's more obscure novels, well worth reading and, together with 'Brighton Rock', an ideal introduction to this writer's world.
9 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
What's great about this story is the setting. As a Londoner I feel I know the city, so I was intrigued to discover another London which Greene brilliantly conjors from the smoke and ashes of the blitz. The hero is an enigma, to the reader and himself. Being a civvie and convicted killer, he's about as remote from a war hero as you can get, so Greene twists the typical war-time tale. It is also a detective story, but one where the detective is also implicated in the crime. Well worth buying.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
excellent story
This book is an excellent read. The long suffering character of Arthur Rowe demonstrates the mental effect that the war had over people, this effect is also reflected within the... Read more
Published 3 months ago by Moonbeam
Not one of Greene's best "entertainments"
I found this an odd book. Arthur Rowe's stumbling into a spy network via a charity fete fortune teller and cake stall felt more like the introduction to a comic farce than any... Read more
Published 11 months ago by D. J. Keyworth
Relatively Light and Cheerful Among His Works; Good Place to Start
"The Ministry of Fear," (1943) is a British spy story/crime drama/thriller by much honored twentieth century British author/screen writer Graham Greene (The Third Man. Read more
Published 11 months ago by Stephanie DePue
"Memory and forgetfulness are as life and death
to one another. To live is to remember and to remember is to live. To die is to forget and to forget is to die. Read more
Published 15 months ago by Leonard Fleisig
Fine entertainment
Greene called this, an entertaintment, not a novel, just like The Confidential Agent. Fine as an entertainment, but more than that, a story dealing with the burden of past, the... Read more
Published 21 months ago by Jaime Garcia Gonzalez
A great novel
Similar in many respects to John Buchan's '39 Steps'. More emphasis on the human psyche and Greene's ever present reference to Good and Evil. I found it a really enjoyable novel
Published 21 months ago by David Turner
Brooding...Never will a Village Cake Sale be the Same Again
Another Greene corker, though I felt it lost something at the end: it became a bit mechanical and 'neat. Read more
Published on 11 Sep 2008 by Frootle
A gripping story set during the Blitz
Arthur Rowe, a retired journalist, is the unlikely winner of a cake, the weight of which he correctly guessed during a charity fête patronized by The Free Mothers. Read more
Published on 28 Oct 2007 by HORAK
Outstandingly superbe!
This book (unfortunatly on of Greene's lesser knowen works) I though was probaly his best. The mixture of the insight into the guilt filled mind of Arthur Rowe and the tense... Read more
Published on 29 July 2001
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