Loving Graham Greene: A Novel

by Gloria Emerson

Molly Benson longs to be useful, and forges ahead by giving away sums of her own money in a rather messy manner. In Princeton, New Jersey, where she has always lived, Molly is viewed as eccentric by the upper-class world that her mother inhabits. Equally puzzling to people is Molly's passion for Graham Greene and his novels; she believes that their intermittent correspondence has afforded them a special bond. After the death of her brother, Molly loves Greene more than anyone, and it is he who inspires her to answer to conscience.

It is in honor of the great novelist, a year after his death in 1991, that Molly leads a small delegation to Algiers, where a fierce civil war has just begun. Molly's plan is to give money to Algerian journalists and writers so that they will be able to protect themselves from the fundamentalists, who are killing the enemies of Islam. It does not occur to Molly that she is putting herself, her best friend, Bertie Einhorn, and a young, garrulous English historian, Toby Plunkett, in danger. Her courage and an inbred sense of self-entitlement--a characteristic of the small Princeton world she scorns--blind her to the possibilities of harm, and the odd little group marches to disaster.

Comic and touching in turn, Loving Graham Greene is a splendid combination of American high hopes and obstinacy, of foolishness and betrayal, in the first novel of a gifted and witty writer.

Genres: Fiction

192 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2000

About the author

Gloria Emerson was an American author, journalist and New York Times war correspondent. Emerson received the 1978 National Book Award in Contemporary Thought for Winners and Losers, her book about the Vietnam War. She wrote four books, in addition to articles for Esquire, Harper's, Vogue, Playboy, Saturday Review and Rolling Stone.

Reviews

[Pascale]

One of my favorite books of all times. Written by a high-strung journalist who only ever wrote this piece of fiction, it tells an unforgettably quirky story. The protagonist, a rich middle-aged woman with a passion for Graham Greene, whom she once met briefly in Antibes, becomes obsessed with the idea of doing something in memory of the great man after his death leaves her more at a loose end than ever. She alights on a plan to fly to Algeria, at a time when Islamic fundamentalists are spreading terror and in particular targeting intellectuals. With the help of a clueless friend and a cowardly graduate student, she sets off hell-bent on using her inherited money to save lives. Alas, her overtures to the fundamentalists are greeted with predictable suspicion and the amateur diplomats get beaten up. This is an unjustly neglected masterpiece with many valuable lessons about cultural misunderstandings and how difficult it is to do good in this complex world of ours.

[Chelsea Temple]

This book does not have a happy ending. It does not even have a bittersweet ending. It is sad...just plain sad. And every now and again, a sad book is refreshing. It brings you back to reality, reminding you that the world is full of horrible, sad things. Any book that makes me feel such strong emotions, even if those emotions are negative, is a book worth reading.

[Dayla]

Goodreads Pascale's Review (it was so good, I don't think I could have topped it).

One of my favorite books of all times. Written by a high-strung journalist who only ever wrote this piece of fiction, it tells an unforgettably quirky story. The protagonist, a rich middle-aged woman with a passion for Graham Greene, whom she once met briefly in Antibes, becomes obsessed with the idea of doing something in memory of the great man after his death leaves her more at a loose end than ever. She alights on a plan to fly to Algeria, at a time when Islamic fundamentalists are spreading terror and in particular targeting intellectuals. With the help of a clueless friend and a cowardly graduate student, she sets off hell-bent on using her inherited money to save lives. Alas, her overtures to the fundamentalists are greeted with predictable suspicion and the amateur diplomats get beaten up. This is an unjustly neglected masterpiece with many valuable lessons about cultural misunderstandings and how difficult it is to do good in this complex world of ours.

[John]

Picked it up at a used book sale because i love Graham Greene and remember liking Emerson's Winners and Losers. It starts off strong but about halfway through it starts to flounder. Although she tries to emulate Graham Greene's writing, she's just not up to it. The characters are all single dimensional and you end up not liking any of them. More importantly, you don't believe any of them are real. It may work if you just read it as a comedy.

[Stephanie Carne]

Very good - but you have to be a Graham Greene fan to read this book. There are lots of references to Greene's books so I think if you haven't read any, you might not get it. I have read a lot of Greene, although some a long time ago. It does bring back a lot of memories of how bad things were in Central America in the 1970s and she does write in a style similar to Greene, with tension building. The Algerian civil war provides an interesting backdrop.

[lainey]

Graham Greene fans will find this a disappointment. The writer is obviously in love with Graham Greene and so wrote a character who is thus obsessed. However, the writing pales and it plods along and sounds too dreamy. I don't recommend this at all.

[Mike]

3.75

I liked it, maybe not immensely, but the imagined relationship between author and activist is worth it. Fiction with a hook in reality.

[Bob Peru]

homage.

[Laura]

Actually quite a few years back, but I am adding now asca reminder to reread.

[Joseph]

Not worth the time. did not enjoy at all