RollnSmoke Reviews: THE END OF THE AFFAIR

The End of the Affair by Graham Greene (Penguin, 2004)

Originally published in London in 1951, Greene’s provocative story about an affair that fails to disintegrate is considered one of his greatest “catholic novels” in its wide consideration of faith. The short and quick-reading novella is primarily written from the frank, first person point of view of Bendricks, a rising writer in London during and after World War II, who carries on an affair with Sarah, a woman married to a conventional and easily duped civil servant. What emerges in the wake of this passionate and illicit relationship – this “ordinary, corrupt human love” -- is a shared struggle with hatred, love, jealousy and ultimately, belief, which Sarah catches “like a disease” (9/10).