The End of the Affair

This book is extremely special to me It amazed me It flipped me around and turned me upside down I was overtaken, absorbed, and transfixed in a whirlwind of emotion.The End of the Affair was exactly what I needed to help me through some recent difficulties in my personal life No, I didn t have an affair with a married woman, heh But a relationship did recently end for me, and that kind of thing is painful, and tough to deal with, as you probably know This novel helped me through all that By chan [...]

5 Stars I just spent 3 days being read to by Colin Firth and it was fantastic This is the best narrated audiobook I have ever listened to Now let me say a little about the book itself I loved it From the first sentence I was entranced in this complicated love affair The writing is exquisite It grabbed my soul and set me on fire This is a record of hate far than of love Maurice Bendrix The End of the Affair is about a writer named Maurice Bendrix Maurice is a very jealous man This is quite ironi [...]

this is the story of a jealous man and a jealous God fighting for the soul of a woman who desperately wants to believe in one of them.oh, and it s a complicated thing, beliefe relationshippy parts of this book are divine a woman in an unfulfilling marriage takes a lover, maurice, and puts all of herself into the relationship maurice, for his part, should perhaps have been called marcel, because his involvement in the relationship is pure proust overanalyzing, obsessing, becoming jealous of every [...]

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 The words of human love have been used by the saints to describe their vision of God, and so, I suppose, we might use the terms of prayer, meditation, contemplation to explain the inten [...]

Of the less than ten novels in the universe which can conceivably be called PERFECT that is, without a single flaw, with so much mastery over the daunting literary terrain that it leaves the reader panting, gives him goosebumps, makes him believe in the sphere of art all over again two of them undoubtedly are written by Graham Greene I have lionized The Quiet American before Now it s The End of the Affair which left me wondering why isn t Graham Greene widely read The yarn told is truly a cause [...]

I am not only committing to the five stars for this review, I wish I could give it To say it deserves it would be rather an understatement Reading the book was actually one of those physically memorable experiences curling up in a ball with it, crouched over it reading behind piles of work I should have been doing, completely zoning out the world around me until it was forced to my attention, not to mention the actual physical pain I felt at the beauty of some of the language employed Greene s [...]

Spoil alert Can a reader feel like having a split personality I doubted myself while reading Graham Greene s The End of the Affair I loved it and hated it I thought it certainly deserved 5 stars for a few pages, but later found myself suffering so much and started loathing it So, it could not deserve than 2, right It s not fair to suffer for nothing, I had to make someone pay for it I loved Sarah and Bendrix and despised them at the same time Don t try to understand me, I don t understand mysel [...]

Ruh roh.Sorry, Ben And Kelly And karen This book really did not do it for me In fact, that is kind of an understatement my two star rating is generous in that I actually feel sort of bad for disliking it as much as I did I know it hits certain people on an emotional, gut deep level and I am not arrogant enough I am arrogant, just not arrogant enough to universally proclaim its lack of literary value My point is that I ve often had people come onto my reviews and say, Oh, thanks for letting me kn [...]

Note every possible plot spoiler included here but I don t care Let s go.So let me get this right This miserable sourpuss atheistic type author guy Maurice meets this hot slutty their word woman Sarah who is married to England s most boring civil servant Henry They have a full on steamy affair right under Henry s nose for four years and are very happy, except Maurice gives the impression that even when he s happy he s miserable Like Morrissey Similar name Anyway, it s World War 2 and there s a b [...]

Update 11 11 2017 On this, my third experience of Graham Greene s masterpiece, I chose the audiobook, narrated by Colin Firth and I just want to say to all fellow citizens of our beautiful Planet Earth I m sorry.I m truly, truly sorry.I m sorry I was flippant with fossil fuels.I m sorry that I was erroneous with my emissions.I m sorry that I drove my car longer and slower than necessary.I m sorry that I took the long way home.It turns out, in listening to this audiobook of The End of the Affair, [...]

I m trying very badly not to launch into a full fledged rant against this book as I type this out because rants are rarely, if ever, proper reviews And I want to pose a rational argument explaining my dislike for this book As much as the sexist ramblings of the protagonist and the selfish, irrational actions of the main characters served to irritate me to a great extent, I still reigned in my impatience and held out hope for the narrative till the time I was done with the very last page But sadl [...]

I really liked this book until the last few chapters And then I wanted to throw it across the room.I knew the basic plot of The End of the Affair because I had seen the movie version with Ralph Fiennes and Julianne Moore, but this was my first serious consideration of the text It is a novel about the jealousy and anger one man feels after a love affair has ended I measured love by the extent of my jealousy Maurice Bendrix is a writer who is obsessed with Sarah Miles Sarah abruptly ended her affa [...]

A Thinly Disguised Autobiography Fictitious Letters Never Sent or Written Letter 1 dated April 30, 1950 from CW to GG Oh, my most desirable Godfather,I m sorry to learn you re suffering from writer s block I don t recall you mentioning this affliction before I m not the best one to give advice on such matters, but they say you should write about things with which you are familiar, not that there is much for you that doesn t fit within this category Perhaps, my love, you could write something abo [...]

A contemporary novel entitled The End of the Affair would be a very different book But this is not a contemporary novel it dates from 1951 It is set in Clapham, London, partly during the Blitz of World War II, and partly later in 1946, and since it is written by Graham Greene the affair covers a far wider scope than the reader might expect It dates from what are considered to be the author s best years, the age of postwar austerity, keying in to the readers of the time s recent vivid memories, a [...]

When does love end Does it ever really end I cannot answer these questions, nor will I try to You see, for me, the end doesn t really matter Why can t love be as it is and why must it end altogether love had turned into a love affair with a beginning and an end quips Bendrix, the affair may end but love is different matter Sometimes I think that people love endings because they fear the continuity of life They crave the solidity of a construct with a beginning and an end You re either happy or s [...]

Love is in the air or maybe anxiously repressed in February and my romantic literature jag continues with The End of the Affair, the 1951 doomed romance by Graham Greene This was my first exposure to Greene s fiction and while I was struck by the celebrated British author s intricate prose, keeping time like a Swiss clock, this novel is deficient in story, forgoing action for the reflections of its melancholy male narrator These musings proceed from revealing to unceasing and finally, I just wan [...]

Of Love and HateI first read this in 2007, and wrote a brief review on , which I reprint below Reading it again now, ten years later, I very much stand by my original views and rating, but find myself fascinated by different things 2007 review I wish it were possible to read certain books for the first time without knowing how they will turn out But publishers seem to imagine that once a book becomes a classic and this is one of Greene s masterpieces the plot becomes common property I read this [...]

I didn t love this novel as much as I understand I should, based upon views of my most erudite GR friends Further processing no doubt is in order prior to penning a review.

Published in 1951, this is set in London during, and shortly after, the years of the Second World War and draws autobiographically on his own love affair with Lady Catherine Walston, which began in 1947 This book is a record of hate, than of love, our central character, Maurice Bendrix tells us Indeed, Bendrix is full of hate and anger, jealousy and spite The novel begins in 1946, when Bendrix, an author, runs into Henry Miles on Clapham Common Bendrix was having an affair with Henry s wife, Sa [...]

It s a true gem.I m a Buddhist,so it s somewhat hard for me to understand some parts about Christianity I ve never read a book that tells me how deeply love can affect each other and how difficult to love or to be loved is In this book, LOVE and HATE are never,ever mundane and cheap words,to be sure.

Just Let You Leave Without a Trace How can you just walk away from me,When all I can do is watch you leave Cause we ve shared the laughter the pain and even shared the tearsYou re the only one who really knew me at all Phil Collins, Against All Odds Take a Look at Me Now , 1983.As I m trying to write a review worthy of this book, for some reason this damn song keeps replaying in my head I guess it does sort of remind me of the plot of this book In any case, I MUST finish writing this as quickly [...]

I m not at peace any I just want him like I used to in the old days I want to be eating sandwiches with him I want to be drinking with him in a bar I m tired and I don t want any pain I want Maurice I want ordinary corrupt human love Dear God, you know I want to want Your pain, but I don t want it now Take it away for a while and give it me another time I m reeling in astonishment at this incredible work Not only was Colin Firth s audio performance of this astounding do yourself a favour and lis [...]

Man has places in his heart which do not yet exist, and into them enters suffering, in order that they may have existence Leon BloyIn light of their shared experience of a late conversion to Roman Catholicism, it shouldn t be at all surprising that Greene utilised a quote from brother in spirit Leon Bloy, himself formerly a violent reactionary to the Catholic Church, at the beginning of The End of the Affair.As it turns out, this quote also serves as a fitting preamble to the tragic, intimately [...]

This book was not at all what I expected It took a turn that I could not have imagined and then it became about so much than just an ending of a love affair, it became about love itself, about hate, about jealousy and indifference And it became about religion and about God, which is an entirely different thing than religion itself I felt pain and confusion and sorrow and anger I was Bendrix and then I was Sarah, and I understood and misunderstood them equally Greene is a masterful storyteller w [...]

For the past ten years or so I ve been visiting my local libraries I felt that at that stage in my life, I couldn t afford that whole take a chance aspect on buying a book and then thinking it s crap I guess it s all part of that growing up or maybe an extension of being cheap or maybe I just felt that wine was a worthy purchase Who knows Every now and then, I get a book that some patron has felt the need to mark up I m not a fan of doing this myself and if it s done to the hilt, I m usually pr [...]

This book is about love, hate, obsession, belief, writing, trust, fate, coincidence, passion, warfare Actually, it would probably be easier to list the subjects this book doesn t touch upon, so broad is it in scope Greene s writing is masterful and absolutely gorgeous I ve not read any of his work before but I m definitely a convert now I ve read this one His writing has a way of twisting its way around your mind and pulling you in.I didn t want this book to end so much that, when I finished it, [...]

The opening lines of this book always travel up and down my spine upon reading them The narrator declares that the story is one of hate, but you ll likely disagree It s a story of love, lust and faith and the baptism of desire One of the things I appreciate about Greene s novels is that metaphysical and religious themes are explored through broken, flawed characters Readers are frequently repulsed by characters that are too holy there s no possibility of that reaction to Greene s characters A fa [...]

English novelist Graham Greene 1904 1991 published this novel in 1951 when he was 47 years old He dedicated this book to C who was Catherine Walston, his real life mistress.I have never been a cynic when it comes to love The same question I raised when I read De Profundis by Oscar Wilde or Brokeback Mountain by Annie Proloux Forbidden love Be it about gay love or illicit affair of a married person to a single one or between two married people, it is love and who are we to question about it Peopl [...]

Exquisite.This book has been on my currently reading shelf for a long time, and here s why 6 pages in, I realized this read had potential to knock my socks off I did not want to be interrupted by telemarketers calling to inform me my car warranty is almost up, the dog barking at whoever farted down the street, or my kid wanting me to be a parent CAN T YOU SEE MOMMY IS READING So, I made a date with this book I planned for it I started drinking coffee at 4 in the afternoon, so I could stay up lat [...]

Jealousy, or so I have always believed, exists only with desire The Old Testament writers were fond of using the words a jealous God , and perhaps it was their rough and oblique way of expressing belief in the love of God for man So, a novel about a passionate and illicit love affair that is transmuted over the course of the story into a religiou epiphany Maurice Bendrix is a popular writer who falls in love in London during the Blitz 1939 with a married woman Their passion burns itself out in a [...]