Three Entertainments: This Gun For Hire/Ministry of Fear/Confidential Agent

by Graham Greene

Book by Greene, Graham

Genres: Fiction, Noir, World War II, Espionage

624 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1952

About the author

Henry Graham Greene was an English writer and journalist regarded by many as one of the leading novelists of the 20th century.
Combining literary acclaim with widespread popularity, Greene acquired a reputation early in his lifetime as a major writer, both of serious Catholic novels, and of thrillers (or "entertainments" as he termed them). He was shortlisted for the Nobel Prize in Literature several times. Through 67 years of writing, which included over 25 novels, he explored the conflicting moral and political issues of the modern world. The Power and the Glory won the 1941 Hawthornden Prize and The Heart of the Matter won the 1948 James Tait Black Memorial Prize and was shortlisted for the Best of the James Tait Black. Greene was awarded the 1968 Shakespeare Prize and the 1981 Jerusalem Prize. Several of his stories have been filmed, some more than once, and he collaborated with filmmaker Carol Reed on The Fallen Idol (1948) and The Third Man (1949).
He converted to Catholicism in 1926 after meeting his future wife, Vivienne Dayrell-Browning. Later in life he took to calling himself a "Catholic agnostic". He died in 1991, aged 86, of leukemia, and was buried in Corseaux cemetery in Switzerland. William Golding called Greene "the ultimate chronicler of twentieth-century man's consciousness and anxiety".

Reviews

[Rinda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well, I really read This Gun For Hire by Graham Greene but I could only find it included in a collection. I have always wanted to read Graham Greene but never did til now. I found three copies of This Gun For Hire and ordered them for my children and myself. I planned to have a lovely little book discussion amongst the family. First no one wanted to read it and then they gradually picked it up after I raved about Raven, the hired gun with the harelip. It really isn't the typical hard-boiled detective story. Raven is portrayed as a sympathetic character. He finds understanding and acceptance for the first time in his short life with a young woman he kidnaps. The detective from Scotland Yard is certainly secondary though we need him for the young lady at the end. Mind you, she needs no saving. In fact, she does quite well with only minimal help on Raven's part.

[Crystal Hunter · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting read that is very apt for today's political situation.

[Chris Reisor · Rating 5 out of 5]

Review is for "This Gun for Hire" only, but there's no entry for that in Goodreads.

[Pat · Rating 3 out of 5]

[I only read two of the novels in the collection.] Greene's fictional worlds are unrelentingly bleak, dark and confused. In"Gun" and "Agent," senseless war looms, and the protagonists are powerless to stop it. "Gun's" Raven is the ultimate psychopath, lacking morality and spiritual solace,and the victim of a nightmarish childhood and family situation. His one chance at intimacy, with the tolerant Anne, is thrown back in his face, and he is betrayed again. The relationship between Anne and Mather is interestingly tried as she become an unwitting accomplish is Raven's crimes. The story is a lot deeper than it seems on the surface, as are all of Greene's.
"In "Agent," D. enters a Kafkaesque world of pursuers and illogical bureaucracy which he is powerless to resist. Mysterious forces thwart his every effort to stop a coal sale to aid his country's oppressors. The Enternatio language concept is a joke in such a paranoid culture. His relationship with Rose is sketchy at best--the ending is uncharacteristically "happy" for Greene.

[Sundarraj Kaushik · Rating 2 out of 5]

Somewhat readable book from Graham Greene. Graham Green does not write to my taste and his books live a bad taste in my mouth.
The book is about an agent who comes to England to secure coal for his civil war ravaged country. The book is about the various tribulations that he goes through in England where he is relentlessly chased by his enemies and by bad luck.
He is dogged by death in every step that he takes and ends up failing to secure the coal that he and his countrymen need to fight the war.
To know how he partly succeeds, read the book. That is the only redeeming part of the book.

[Kirsty Darbyshire]

This is very much the kind of book that I don't want to say too much about, to have an inkling of the story in advance would be to ruin the experience of reading it. It's a wonderful kind of a mystery book where you don't know and can't imagine what's coming next. The setting is the middle of the blitz in London in the second world war and Arthur Rowe's life is going spinning of the rails. Highly recommended but difficult to talk about!

[Zachary Krug · Rating 4 out of 5]

This edition is 3 of his "entertainments" -- a term Greene apparently used to distinguish his "thrillers" from his more purposefully "literary" works. Read them and you'll see why that distinction doesn't really hold water: they are more than merely entertaining, but are beautifully written and, at times, ardently philosophical.

Of the 3, I enjoyed the Ministry of Fear the best and The Confidential Agent the least.

[Peter Burton · Rating 3 out of 5]

Only read the first and half the second.interesting really to see how he developed his skills.Very dated stories with dated ideas with some tense scenes but I thought I could spend my time more wisely.

[Brian · Rating 3 out of 5]

I just read This Gun for Hire. I particularly enjoyed how the villains' characters developed. A fun read, and well written.