I think I'm getting the hang of Graham Greene. Judging at least from the few novels I've read so far, and what I've read about the ones I haven't read, he seems to favour settings in foreign parts, preferably ones suffering from wars or other difficult political situations, in among which various ill-assorted people have painful and unsuccessful relationships. Sounds pretty dreary if you put it like that, but actually of course they can also be thrillingly unputdownable.
In fact if I'd read a description like that before embarking on Greene I probably never would have done so. For one thing I tend to avoid novels set in foreign places. I'm not sure why this is, as I am a great traveler and actually live in a foreign place myself, but when it comes to reading I prefer my books to take place in good old England, or America, or France -- places I know, in fact. Strange. As for wars and political upheavals, they are not at all my cup of tea. Perhaps this is why I have taken so long to cotton on to Greene.
Anyway. I really enjoyed Stamboul Train, which takes place in several foreign places, because as you can tell from the title (and the nice Pan Books cover) it is about a train journey. And not just any old train -- this is the Orient Express, traveling from Ostend to Istanbul. It was published in 1932, two years before Agatha Christie's Murder on the Orient Express, so you can't help wondering if AC was inspired by reading this one. On board, among others, are Myatt, a Jewish businessman, Coral Musker, a chorus girl on her way to an engagement in Istanbul, Dr Czinner, a socialist activist traveling to Belgrade to face trial, Mabel Warren, a lesbian journalist who is chasing Czimmer for a scoop, Mabel's partner Janet, who longs to escape from Mabel's clutches, and Josef Grünlich, an Austrian criminal who boards the train at Vienna having committed his first murder.
At first glance it would seem that none of these people have anything in common, but as the journey progresses they fall into various kinds of relationship. Myatt takes pity on Coral, who is unwell and unhappy, and she ends up staying the night with him. Mabel tracks down Czimmer and tries to persuade him to give her an interview. Towards the end, by a series of unfortunate coincidences, Czinner, Josef and Coral are arrested and held prisoner, and though Myatt comes back for Coral, things do not go well.
So much for the plot, and it really is interesting and exciting and ultimately sad. But I think what really interested me was the characters. Thinking about Greene it has struck me that nothing of his that I have read so far has characters that one can warm to, unless it is the sad young women like Coral and her ilk, who are put upon by men and probably will end badly. Otherwise, everyone here seems selfish and thoughtless of others. Myatt is interesting, deeply conscious of his Jewishness and the way others react to it, wanting to do right by Coral but able to forget her quickly. Czinner also fascinating -- he has been working as a schoolmaster in England for five years, on the run from those who want to murder him for his beliefs, but now, returning to face trial and probable death, he seems such an ordinary sort of old man, though clearly his beliefs and passions run deep under the surface. And how about attractive, flashy Janet, who has lived for years as the plaything of Mabel and is now more than ready for a relationship with a man, especially if wealth and position are involved. And as for Mabel, the terrifying alcoholic lesbian, what a tragic character she is.
I've just started a terrific book called The Love Charm of Bombs (thank you, Bloomsbury), which tells of the lives of a number a writers who were living in London in WW2 -- Elizabeth Bowen, Rose Macaulay, Henry Green and Graham Greene among them. I'm already coming to understand more about GG, who sounds like a strange and troubled man. So you will be hearing more about this in due course.
