Reading 1001 discussion

My second TBR Takedown book was a goodie. Graham Greene's The Third Man which he wrote for a screen play. I had the kindle version which included photo's, copies of writer's notes for the film and video segments of the film.

It starts off in February, in Vienna. I didn't realize that Vienna was divided into sections for English, American, French and Russian. It is a after war, crime story. Harry Lime is dead and Rollo Martin, Western story writer has come to Vienna to see his friend in time to attend the funeral.

Graham Greene tells us int he beginning of the story that the movie is better, that he wrote the story to help guide him in helping with the film production.

It was a quick read. I will be thinking about the rating. I gave it 4 stars.

This was a fun, fast read, in which an author of crime fiction gets to ask himself 'What would my character do?' when one of the author's friends gets murdered and no one seems to be interested in finding out the truth about what happened. Our author-turned-sleuth quickly gets drawn into a deadly mess once the bad guys realize he is not giving up. As great literature, this would not rank very high for me, and I always have to wonder why books like this get selected for lists like the 1001 Books You Should Read Before You Die, but it is easy, fast, and fun, and by an author who wrote quite a wide range of fiction besides just this dime-store thriller sort of story. And, of course, this book and others like it were what today's crime-fiction and spy-thriller authors grew up on, so this book is certainly one of those that influenced modern authors. I gave this book 4 stars on Goodreads.

4 stars

I enjoyed this novella set in post-WW2 Vienna. But after reading it I listened to a dramatized version starring Kelsey Grammer which was even better. Greene made me believe that I was in Austria shortly after the war. It was a place where there were so many non-Austrians ruling over the Austrians, and the novella really made me see the prejudices that were in place at the time. It felt very real to me. It made me think about what it would be like to have foreigners in power in my country and talking about me in the ways that the Austrians were being talked about. I have read many books set during the war. And books set in America after the war. I have even read some books set in the same era in England. But this is new to me -- exploring the difficulties of life in mainland Europe in the years after the war. It is fascinating and Greene made me want to find more books that dealt with the same.

The mystery of what happened to our narrator's friend was okay, but for me the gem here is definitely time and place rather than either plot or character.

Rollo Martins arrives in Vienna to visit old school friend Harry Lime and is shocked to hear that Harry has been killed. He is even more alarmed when he is told Harry was involved in a criminal racket, and sets out to find the truth about a man he loved and idolised.

This was a quick and enjoyable read, the film version (which I saw many years ago) kept very close to the novella so I knew what to expect. Nevertheless this was a pacy and exciting thriller, and the descriptions of the rundown wartime Vienna were excellent. The romantic side plot was rather unconvincing, but probably included to round the story out for the film.