The Captain and the Enemy

by Graham Greene, Kenneth Branagh (Narrator)

Brought to you by Penguin.

A young boy, Victor, is collected from school by a stranger in a bowler hat - the stranger says he has won Victor in a game of backgammon with Victor's father. The stranger, known as the Captain, takes Victor to live with the sweet but withdrawn Lisa, where he serves as her conduit to the outside world. From mysterious beginnings, Graham Greene's final novel becomes a twisting thriller of smuggling, jewel theft and international espionage which culminates in a dramatic showdown in Panama.

Genres: Fiction, Classics, Literature, Espionage, British Literature, Novels, Literary Fiction

Audiobook

First published January 1, 1988

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

[Jim Fonseca · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a short novel, one of the last written by Greene (when he was in his 80’s). It has a fairly low rating for Greene although it’s a decent, if a bit implausible, story.

During WW II a mysterious man, the Captain, ‘wins’ a boy in a backgammon game. The boy is an orphan, sent to boarding school by an aunt. The boy hates both the school and his aunt, so he’s happy to go off with the Captain to be raised by the Captain’s woman friend who desperately wants a child, lost one, and can’t have another. So the boy of 10 or 12 years old or so, adapts to his new life.

The mysterious Captain come and goes for weeks, months, and sometimes years at a time. Often he has a new name when he returns. He’s obviously a thief and a con-man.



Fast forward to the 1970’s. The boy is a young man with a job as a journalist. He hasn’t had contact with the Captain for years but his ‘mother’ gets a letter from the Captain and the young man flies to Panama to join the Captain, mainly because he has been hounded all his life by the mystery of this strange man.

Now we enter into a new level of intrigue. The Captain is somehow involved in the rebellion in neighboring Nicaragua between the dictator Somoza and the Sandinista rebels. He solves the mystery of what the Captain is up to but let’s just say that the young man and the Captain both get much more than they bargained for.



A decent story but not one of Greene’s best.

Photo of Sandinista rebels from wiki commons
The author (1904-1991) from theguardian.com.uk

[Nita · Rating 4 out of 5]

I know this book is bad-ass because weeks after reading it, I stopped in the middle of the sidewalk and realized what Greene was doing. He does it very effectively, too, by using the way in which he tells the story to tell a part of the story.

My current theory is that this is book is actually a brilliant exposition on the scaffolding we all create in our attempts to architect meaning. Nothing means anything, Greene seems to argue, but we try and infuse meaning to literal scraps in order to weave some semblance of order and/or sense into our basement apartment existences.

The story itself is, well, just okay, but the craft? Yowza. If I describe in too much detail I'll ruin it for you, so I'll just say: Although the technique of interweaving text from various parts of a narrator's life has been poorly photocopied many times since, Greene did it decades ago and holy crap, let that last short chapter sink in for a while and sneak up on you while you trudge back to your apartment from the subway.

My favorite part about this book is that I found it on the steps of a public library in the free book box, and I had my "AHA!" moment approximately twenty feet away but many weeks later.

[Peiman E iran · Rating 4 out of 5]

دوستانِ گرانقدر، این کتاب که عنوانِ اصلیِ آن «کاپیتان و دشمن» میباشد، از 203 صفحه تشکیل شده است... در این کتاب، داستان از سوی راوی، به صورت خاطرات، از کودکی تا بزرگسالی، بازگو میشود
‎داستان در موردِ پسر بچه ای به نامِ «دیوید» است که در کودکی مادرِ خود را از دست داده و پدرش او را به خاله اش سپرده است... ولی پدرِ دیوید او را به مردی به نامِ «راجر» در بازیِ تخته نرد، میبازد... البته درطولِ داستان ما راجر را با نامِ «کاپیتان» میشناسیم... خلاصه، کاپیتان نیز این پسر بچه را البته با رضایتِ خودِ دیوید به منزلِ خویش در شهرِ دیگری برده و با همسرش «لیزا» تصمیم میگیرند تا او را به فرزندخواندگی قبول کرده و نامش را از دیوید به «جیم» تغییر میدهند
‎در یکی از روزها که کاپیتان بیرون از منزل است، پدرِ دیوید که او را «شیطان» خطاب میکنند، به منزلِ کاپیتان رفته و ادعا میکند که کاپیتان، بچه را از او دزدیده و هیچ بُردی در کار نبوده و همچنین از میانِ صحبت هایِ پدرِ دیوید و لیزا مشخص میشود که لیزا از او بچه ای در شکم داشته که مُرده است
‎گویا شیطان یا همان پدرِ دیوید پس از مرگِ زنش، لیزا را میبیند.. لیزا، بچه ای در شکم داشته که در آن زمان کاپیتان با پدرِ دیوید بطور اتفاقی آشنا میشود.. کاپیتان در خانۀ او عاشقِ لیزا شده و لیزا بچه را سقط میکند و سپس همراه با کاپیتان آنجا را ترک میکنند
‎البته پدرِ دیوید یا همان جیم میگوید: من به دنبالِ بچه نیستم، این خالۀ دیوید است که در به در به دنبالِ او میگردد
‎روزها میگذرد و جیم به مدرسه نمیرود و در خانه با او کار میکنند.. کاپیتان به او زبانِ آلمانی و اسپانیایی و جغرافیا را آموزش میدهد.. کاپیتان سالها به عنوانِ اسیرِ جنگی در آلمان بوده و مدتی هم به عنوانِ فراری در اسپانیا زندگی کرده است
‎همه چیز به خوبی پیش میرود تا آنکه سر و کلۀ «موریل» خالۀ جیم پیدا میشود.. ولی جیم راضی نمیشود تا با موریل، آنجا را ترک کند
‎جیم با لیزا زندگی خود را سپری میکند ... روزی از روزها کاپیتان، خانه را ترک میکند و چند سالی از او خبری نمیشود و هرزگاهی نامه هایِ عاشقانه به همراهِ پول و چک برایِ لیزا میفرستد
جیم بزرگ میشود و شغلِ روزنامه نگاری را برای خود برمیگزیند و خاله اش نیز میمیرد و چیزی برایِ او به ارث نمیگذارد... جیم بعدها و در جوانی لیزا را ترک میکند، ولی هرزگاهی به لیزا سر میزند، تا آنکه روزی لیزا برایِ خریدنِ نان از خانه خارج میشود و خودرویی در خیابان به او میزند و در این برخورد به شدت آسیب میبیند... در این مدت کاپیتان از "پاناما" برای لیزا چکی میفرستد تا او نیز به پاناما سفر کند، ولی جیم چک را برداشته و پیشِ پدرش میرود تا با او مشورت کند که آیا پول را برایِ خودش بردارد یا خیر؟؟ چون ممکن است لیزا در بیمارستان جان بسپارد
‎دوستانِ عزیز، در پایانِ فصلِ هفتم، لیزا در بیمارستان تمام کرد و جیم تصمیم گرفت تا شخصاً به پاناما رفته و این خبر را به کاپیتان برساند... در یکی از نامه هایی که کاپیتان برای لیزا فرستاده بود، به صورتِ رمزگونه از قاطرها و بارِ طلا سخن گفته و همین موضوع جیم را بیشتر تحریک به رفتن میکرد
‎در فرودگاه مردی بسیار لاغر اندام به نام "کوییگلی" از طرفِ کاپیتان به دنبال جیم میرود که در ادامۀ داستان مشخص میشود که او نیز روزنامه نگار است...جالب این است که آنجا کسی با نامِ کاپیتان او را نمیشناسد، بلکه با نام «اسمیت» او را صدا میزنند... در این سالها بارها کاپیتان نامش را تغییر داده بود... ویکتور، کلاریج، کارور و حالا اسمیت ... که جیم هنوز دلیلِ این همه پنهان کاری از جانبِ او را نمیدانست
‎در پاناما برای جیم محافظی به نام «پابلو» در نظر میگیرند که پابلو از «سرهنگ مارتینز» دستور میگیرد... ولی جیم نه سرهنگ مارتینز را میشناسد و نه آنکه دلیلِ محافظ گذاشتن برایِ خودش را درک میکند و کلی پرسشهای دیگر که بی پاسخ مانده است
‎سرانجام پس از سالیان سال، جیم و کاپیتان یکدیگر را ملاقات میکنند، ولی جیم هرکاری میکند نمیتواند خبرِ مرگِ لیزا را به کاپیتان که اکنون بسیار پیر شده است، بدهد
‎از طرفی کوییگلی به جیم نزدیک شده و با وی طرح دوستی میچیند و مدام زیرِ زبانِ جیم میرود تا به صورتِ دوستانه از او در موردِ کاپیتان اطلاعات بدست آورد و حتی به جیم وعدۀ کار در دفترِ روزنامه را میدهد
‎دیگر جیم بزرگ شده و کاپیتان میتواند با خیالِ آسوده از رازهایش برایِ جیم سخن بگوید و در صحبتهایشان اعتراف میکند که دزدی میکرده و سرقتِ بزرگ از جواهرفروشی در زمانی که جیم کودک بود، کارِ او و دوستانش بوده است و میگوید در اینجا هواپیمایی دارد که با آن برایِ دوستانش کارهایی انجام میدهد و حتی مخفیگاه و آشیانۀ هواپیما را نیز به جیم نشان میدهد
‎فردایِ آن روز در هتل جیم و کاپیتان گفتگو کردند و به این نتیجه رسیدند که جیم باید برگردد و از لیزا مراقبت کند... ولی جیم خشمگین شد و حقیقت را به زبان آورد که : لیزا مرده است و کسی دیگر در آنجا منتظرِ او نمیباشد... سپس کاپیتان را ترک کرد
‎در فصل بعد، کوییگلی به جیم توضیح میدهد که کاپیتان در نبردِ چریکی و جنگ هایِ داخلی، در کشورِ "نیکاراگوآ" شرکت دارد و سلاح و بمب و نارنجک با هواپیما حمل میکند و بر علیه ژنرال «سوموزا» میجنگد و مسیرِ پروازش به این ترتیب است که از مرز رد میشود و در جایی که «ساندینست ها» قوی تر بوده و گاردِ ملیِ سوموزا ضعیفتر است، سلاح ها را پیاده میکند
‎در این میان شخصی به نامِ سرهنگ مارتینز که آمریکایست در گاردِ ملی او را حمایت میکند
‎خلاصه با این توضیحات، جیم خام شده و جایِ هواپیما را به کوییگلی نشان میدهد... ولی آنها دیر میرسند و کاپیتان با باری پُر از بمب و مهمات آنجا را ترک میکند و نامه ای نیز برای جیم میگذارد که در آن نوشته: دیگر نمیخواهد او را ببیند ... و مقداری پول نیز برایش گذاشته تا به انگلیس برگردد و شغلی پیدا کند
‎دو روز بعد کوییگلی به جیم اطلاع میدهد که کاپیتان با هواپیما و مهماتی که در آن بوده ترکیده و کشته شده است
‎گویا کاپیتان که میدانسته عشقِ زندگی اش یعنی لیزا مُرده است و دیگر پس از مرگِ لیزا، امیدی به زندگی نداشته، با هواپیمایِ پُر از مهمات جهتِ معکوس را انتخاب کرده و به جایِ رساندن مهمات به نیروهایِ خودی، هواپیما را به سمتِ پناهگاه سوموزا برده تا هم پناهگاه را منفجر کند و هم ژنرال سوموزا را به هلاکت برساند، ولی در نزدیکیِ پناهگاه و در هوا منفجر شده و در این عملیات، تنها کاپیتان جان داده و به سوموزا آسیبی نرسیده است
‎عزیزانم، در فصل نهم، راوی از داستان خارج شده و دیگر جیم، این داستان را روایت نمیکند... داستان به سراغِ سرهنگ مارتینز و کوییگلی میرود و پرده از بسیاری از ابهامات برداشته میشود... و جالبت تر از همه، نوعِ به پایان رسیدنِ داستان است که بسیار عجیب و معمایی و رازآلود میباشد... خائنین و جاسوسان چه کسانی بودند؟؟ آیا کاپیتان مرده است؟؟ جیم واقعاً ابله و ساده لوح بود؟؟؟ جیم به کجا سفر کرده؟ و بسیاری از مسائلِ دیگر که تمامِ داستان را به یکباره زیر سؤال میبرد
‎پایانِ ابهام آمیزِ داستان را برایِ شما عزیزان ننوشتم، تا خودتان داستان را خوانده و از سرانجامِ آن آگاه شوید
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‎امیدوارم این چکیده نویسی موردِ پسند شما بوده باشه و از خواندنِ این داستان لذت ببرید
‎«پیروز باشید و ایرانی»

[Zoeb · Rating 5 out of 5]

Graham Greene, as everyone knows, is my favourite writer. I am yet to find even one book of his own that has let me down or disappointed me in even the slightest way. I have revisited them all in turns, in between reading books by other writers which have been of the same caliber and skill and also those which have seemed inferior to his novels. And so, the question here that would haunt and even surprise some is: why did I choose to revisit this book - his last and perhaps one of his least-known novels - and review it here on Goodreads all over again? Why was this book, a lean, crisply written, melancholy, almost surreal story about father figures, surrogate mothers, boyhood and manhood, espionage and political intrigue and about love and death and even King Kong, lingering in my memory even more than his already established masterpieces and his "entertainments"? Why was I haunted the most by this book alone, even as there were so many of his other stories that had left their indelible imprints on my soul?

The answer to that is perhaps as difficult as finding out what does love or what does King Kong stand for in this book. Many noted reviewers, readers and even authors inspired by Greene have been puzzled by the strange, almost alienating nature of this narrative, the slippery grasp of its realism and even the cryptic message of the book running through its lean, lithe fiber. A certain Mr. Theroux wondered what it was all about, another Mr. Rushdie could not quite fathom the second half of the book. And yet, as I read it now in a nicely old-fashioned Penguin paperback for the second time, after having loved it in my first time despite having read it digitally, I found myself wondering more what was it that missed these people. "The Captain And The Enemy" is not only as lucid and concise as any other Greene novel; it is also him at the final and penultimate peak of his storytelling powers, a finely woven tale of such exquisite sadness, of such mystifying moral dilemma and of such cleanly sculpted suspense and political heft that it will surely haunt every other reader once they have finished it for the first time.

It begins with a boy being smuggled out of the overbearing atmosphere of his school to an alternate life, treated to a lunch of smoked salmon and orangeade by a stranger who claims to have won this boy from his father in a game of....never mind what it is. And that is also all I am going to tell to the uninitiated for this is not merely a thriller to unravel or a portrait to unveil; this is an encapsulated slice of life that needs to be experienced in all its ups and downs, in its strange, rousing sense of adventure and illegitimate parentage and in its inescapable moral conundrums, in its strange allegiances and its selfish betrayals. It is as unpredictable as life, as slippery as joy and love to be found in life and as treacherous and cold-blooded as life when it delivers its biggest disappointments and destroys our expectations. And like life, it is also short, always at a danger of coming to a tragic end, to which it does. It begins with a boy fascinated by the new experience and day-dreaming about going to Valparaiso; it ends with that same boy now never to make it to Valparaiso.

Yes, it is strange, it is sad, it is even, in a flash of absurd comedy, confusing at times, and yet that is how life is. Critics decried it, fans ignored or overlooked it and everybody else did not care for it. It is their loss - "The Captain And The Enemy" is the most exquisitely moving book that Greene had ever written, a book that in its own lean, concise way, without ever digressing into schmaltz, speaks volumes about the meaninglessness of life and the strange, puzzling nature of love. And still at the end, to quote the climax, "the vital question remains - Who or what is King Kong?"

[Daniel Villines · Rating 4 out of 5]

While Greene went on to write other articles and short stories, The Captain and the Enemy was his last novel. The novel was published in 1988 and Greene passed away in April of 1991. With this in mind, the novel feels like a mature conglomeration of Greene’s writing style.

The novel is written in Greene's matter-of-fact stoic tone. He guides his characters and plot to test the fabric of family and society. He explores the nature of parenthood, questions the meaning of love, and turns a cynical eye towards God and religion. I would not characterize the work as the best that Graham Greene produced, but it is a fine book to leave behind as a sample of everything that Greene is known for as a writer.

The story is about a son that lives in wonder of his father; a man who repeatedly appears and vanishes over time, but never fails to provide for his family. The mysterious part of this plot is that nothing is as ideal as I’ve just stated it to be. It’s in this gray area, between the ideal and the real that Greene finds the freedom to write about life and ask questions of it. The end of the book finds, as we all usually do, that the ideal and the real never come together peacefully.

[BrokenTune · Rating 4 out of 5]

" ‘I get the impression that neither of you trusts the other. Why are you friends?’ ‘I told you – not friends. It’s a game. A serious game – like chess or backgammon. We swap pieces – unimportant pieces – though of course everything in a sense can lead to something important. For his friends or mine."

This is the last novel published during Greene's lifetime. I don't know whether it is the last he wrote, but this is one of the more absurd stories he has concocted.

(From here on there be SPOILERS.)

The story begins with the main character, Victor Baxter, being taken from his boarding school by a stranger. The stranger persuades Victor (with little effort) to stay with a women named Liza in London. Later Victor's father discovers his son's whereabouts but does not appear to care too much about the strange abduction.

Anyway, Victor grows up being cared for by the woman in London and the stranger who "abducted" him from boarding school when he was twelve years old. He refers to the stranger as the Captain. The Captain teaches Victor at home as sending Victor to school would expose the strange setup of Victor's home life to the authorities. Over time, the Captain is absent from the "family" but it remains unclear what keeps the Captain away - all that is known is that he is involved in some criminal and some shady business which eventually takes him to South America.

Victor follows him.

And from this point on, The Captain and the Enemy reads almost like a re-writing of Our Man in Havana, except that this story is bleaker and Greene does not use comedy to veil the sad and contemptuous effects of the espionage business. Instead, he uses absurdity in the form of a movie monster this time to show the love and closeness between the main characters:

"We have both been a burden to him. And then King Kong came back into my mind and the words he had used to me then when I watched the King with his burden – a burden which kicked him so hard that I wondered why he didn’t drop her into the street below: ‘He loves her, boy, can’t you understand that?’ Perhaps I have never understood the nature of love. Perhaps … I wish I had seen him once more or that I hadn’t lied to him at the beginning."

And true to Greene's style, he uses this private joke, the trust, the knowledge of the familiar between Victor, Liza, and the Captain as the Achilles' heel that will seal their fate:

"He touched the papers piled on his desk as though the mere feel of them might convey some answer to his question and then he spoke his thoughts aloud: ‘King Kong. It haunts me that name King Kong. King Kong is the only clue we have. Could he be a name in some elementary book code which is all they would have trusted to an amateur like that? A character in Shakespeare perhaps. Some famous line that even the gringos would recognize. Well, the boy’s gone. He can do no harm to us. All the same … how I would like to break that code of his. King Kong.’ "

[Geevee · Rating 4 out of 5]

An enjoyable and absorbing story of Victor, the schoolboy and the mysterious captain told in four parts.

Circumstances bring them into contact with each other one day when Victor is called to the headmaster's office of his boarding school. With Victor's father's permission the Captain has come to take the boy out for the afternoon and so begins the adventure.

Graham Greene's last novel is one of complexity but also a subtle simplicity that brings just a few characters together. The events and scenes we see Victor, the captain and others experience are life in suburban London where not much happens but neighbours, the police and family take an interest in them.

Viewed through the eyes and words of Victor the schoolboy we see hints of crime, love, despair and uncertainty along with hope and opportunity. As the plot develops we learn more about Victor and his new life living in London with Liza. We learn about the captain, but is he who he says he is and are his adventures true, fabricated or just a little exaggerated? After all he travels and comes back and then goes again; but where does he go? What does he do?

The final part and chapters of the book provide the explanation through Victor's eyes as a young man of twenty-two. The stage changes from England to other lands and we see life's complexity through his own circumstances as he is challenged to tell the truth or to change events to make things better by postponing news for a while.

[Sketchbook · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Greeneland" encompasses morality, Catholicism, foreign
intrigue, an inability to love and the raw nerves of
evil -- a constant force in the world. I get vexed when
he seems like a church publicist, but his gifted storytelling
-- always amused, rueful, ironic -- is beguiling. Greene
once said, "I wonder how those who do not write, compose
or paint can escape the madness and panic which is inherent
in the human situation." Greene reveals a masterly selection
of detail and superb economy of language as he ponders
salvation & damnation.

[Julian Worker · Rating 2 out of 5]

I found this book really odd.

"The Captain" isn't a captain, he's a liar, he's a fraud, and he's a thief. He takes the narrator ("Jim") out of school (it's so easy??) and the narrator lives a life he wouldn't have lived otherwise. According to "the captain", he won Jim in a game of backgammon.

When "Jim" is 22, he decides that he's going to find out what the story of "the captain" is and this desire takes him to Panama, where he finds signs of "the captain" all around. "Jim" finds out a version of the truth, but whether it's the whole story is extremely dubious.

Not all the characters make it to the end of the book.

I found this book extremely confusing as I'm not quite sure at any time who any of the characters actually are, what their real story is. It's difficult to read a book where every character is an accomplished liar and never telling the whole truth.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

I hadn't heard of this book until a friend mentioned it recently, comparing it with Travels With My Aunt; I'd say it's more along the lines of Our Man in Havana myself, especially the final part set in Latin America.

Knowing Greene, there was a "moral" in it, but I missed out on that, enjoying the story for its quirkiness. The series of seemingly senseless, random acts in Jim's life since The Captain appears is explained later in stages, including how his father "lost" him in game of backgammon. One point that I did not understand is that I recalled that Jim is one of three brothers at first, but is later asserted to be an only child? Otherwise, one can read along assuming All Will Be Revealed. Somewhat sad ending didn't work well for me, but it's Greene's story fitting the political message (as far as I understood that anyway).

Recommended for Greene fans, but if you haven't read any, don't start here: try Havana instead (a much stronger story).

[Bettie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bettie's Books

[Smiley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Being his last novel first published in 1988, this paperback is about a schoolboy named Victor Baxter whose adventure is interestingly narrated by himself. From a brief Wikipedia synopsis (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cap...), the Goodreads one and the book itself, his age is still a mystery and it's a bit difficult to tell exactly even from the context so I'd leave it at that till some Greene gurus kindly notify me.

However, after one or two hours ago I came back to see this review and found that I made a mistake for a failure of verification and I am sorry. In fact, Victor's age has been told in the very first sentence in Chapter I, Part i as follows:

I am now in my twenty-second year and yet the only birthday which I can clearly distinguish among the rest is my twelfth, for it was on that damp and misty day in September I met the Captain for the first time. (p. 9)

Reading its first half with arguable enjoyability, I have been thrilled with the appearance of Mr Quigly (what a name! seemingly coined from quick+ugly) for some reason, for instance, how he looked and found the narrator:

... I had time as he approached to think that I had never seen a taller and a thinner man. His trousers were like a second skin. He was narrow as well -- narrow shoulders, narrow hips -- even his eyes were too close together. He was like a caricature in a newspaper serial.
When he reached me he asked, 'Are you called Jim?'
'Yes.'
... (p. 111)

When I came across this sentence, "I had grown accustomed to think of any bell which rang as a form of code, ..." (p. 70), I think there might have been a case of proofreading regarding the verb 'think' (after 'accustomed to') which should have been 'thinking'. However, after verifying both 'accustomed' and 'accustom' in the Wiktionary, I've found that each reveals its function and exemplary phrase/clause as follows:

Adjective
accustomed ...
2. Inured to; adapted to existing conditions.
accustomed to walking long distances
(https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/accust...)
Verb
accustom ...
1. (intransitive) To make familiar by use; to cause to accept; to habituate, familiarize, or inure. [+to (object)]
. 1915, Emerson Hough, ...
"... which men have been accustomed to arrogate to themselves."
(https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/accustom)

I wondered if the author intended to treat 'accustomed' in the quoted extract from his novel above as an adjective or a verb; your analysis and verdict are welcome.

To continue ...

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

I always enjoy Greene novels and this one was no exception. I came across it in a second hand bookshop. It was his last novel set in grim 1950s London and then later tropical Panama. Victor aka Jim is basically willingly kidnapped from his boarding school by the mysterious, eccentric and charming Captain. He is a gift to Lisa the Captain’s lover to keep her company while he is off conning and robbing people. Apparently the Captain won Jim in a backgammon or was it Chess from Jim’s father nicknamed the devil.

Jim grows up with Lisa in a basement of a house where she is the caretaker. Immediately after WW2 and the house sounds awfully derelict. The Captain pops in occasionally and Jim grows up to become a journalist. Without spoiling the story Jim meets the Captain in Panama where the mysterious Quigly tries to win him over as a spy. The novel perhaps was Greene’s last attempt to show the arbitrariness of love and its mystery. There are comedic elements in the story as well as tragedy.

[Darwin8u · Rating 4 out of 5]

An under appreciated milky gem of a Greene novel for sure, but one that resonated with me. Greene is always a bit of a risk taker and this novel proves no different than many of his others. It is ambiguous, slightly absurd, and feels a tad like Conrad wrote Treasure Island as a Central American spy novel. As Greene's last novel, it incorporates aspects of both his more Catholic novels with his spy novels. To me C&E read as a fragmented meditation (read map) on love, kindness, truth, sacrifice and buried underneath it all - God.

[Tony · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wonderfully crafted (as you’d expect), but ultimately disappointing.
Wanted more.

[Daren · Rating 4 out of 5]

A short novel, and a quick read from Greene - his last published novel (1988).

Greene does espionage well - most of my favourites of his books seem to be espionage.

He tells the story well, framed by the main character writing the story of his life from memory, and constantly reminding us of his unreliability to remember accurately. It starts as a young boy in boarding school, when he is visited by a stranger knows only as 'the captain', who brings him from school to London to live as a surrogate son with a woman named Liza. They rename him 'Jim' as Victor isn't seen as a beneficial name, whereas The Captain changes the name he uses frequently.

As Jim grows up he weighs his relationship with The Captain, Liza and his father (referred to as 'The Devil') whom The Captain and Liza both have history with. The Captain is characterised by his frequent absences, regular cheques of varying values which he sends to Liza, and his unusual behaviour.
Eventually, as a young man Jim follows The Captain to his current exotic location - Panama, where Jim comes to terms with the things The Captain is wrapped up in.

Always a good read, Graham Green.

4 stars.

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

A classical espionage book written by Graham Greene.

3* The Third Man
4* The End of the Affair
4* Our Man in Havana
3* The Captain and the Enemy
TR The Quiet American
TR The Power and the Glory
TR Brighton Rock
TR Travels With My Aunt
TR The Tenth Man
TR Monsignor Quixote
TR The Honorary Consul
TR The Heart of the Matter
TR Orient Express

[فهد الفهد · Rating 4 out of 5]

إنها ساحة معركة

جراهام جرين من جديد، كنت قد قرأت له (حفلة القنبلة) قبل عام أو عامين، ومنذ ذلك الحين اقتنصت كل ما وجدته أمامي من كتبه – ما ترجم منها وما لم يترجم -، في هذه الرواية المبكرة يتناول جرين الأحداث والشخصيات التي تتمحور حول شنق شيوعي قام بطعن رجل شرطة هاجم زوجته، الظلال السياسية والعاطفية التي يلقيها الحكم واقتراب موعد التنفيذ على الرفاق في الحزب، والسياسيين، وزوجة الرجل وأخيه اللذان يرتبطان بعلاقة عاطفية، رواية سياسية عظيمة ونافذة.

[Dane Cobain · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was nice to get back to Graham Greene after having a little break from him, especially as he’s one of my all-time favourites. I’ve missed his unique writing style, and his storylines always get me excited. In this one, it’s almost a human interest story as we follow a young man as he writes about his adopted father, “The Captain”.

It turns out that The Captain might not have been everything he claimed to be. In many ways, he’s a classic anti-hero, but we can’t help but like him. He’s a loveable rogue, a bit like Del Boy from Only Fools and Horses. I also liked the way that we were slowly introduced to the truth of what was going on. It was subtle, and that’s why it worked.

If he’d played it a little differently, it would have felt as though he was insulting the reader’s intelligence, and Greene never does that. Ultimately, he tells a good story, and that’s exactly what you’re getting here.

[Stephen Hoogerhyde · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is one of Greene's shortest novels, published late in his life. The three main characters are the narrator, a young boy who is "won" from his ne'er do well father by a strange man; the young lady who becomes his surrogate mother; and the strange man who binds them together, known to them simply as The Captain. We find out as the story goes that the Captain goes by a number of aliases, and is involved in a number of secretive and probably illegal activities.

The boy and girl stay in London while their benefactor pops into and out of their lives at random. When the boy reaches his early twenties, he goes to South America in search of the Captain, and there learns more about him. The novel is touching in parts, a spy thriller in parts, mostly toward the end of the story.

Not one of my favorite Graham Greene books, but as always he is enjoyable to read.

[Louise · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've enjoyed everything I've read by Greene do far...this has quite a humorous theme running through the most of it, but how could it not, when it begins with a boy essentially being kidnapped from school by someone who claims to have won him in a game of backgammon.
The characters of the captain and the devil were so well written and such big characters I felt they left Liza and Jim a bit behind....though Liza' s relationship with the captain was what held the whole book together right up to that final letter.
When Jim heads out to Panama, it becomes a whole lot more serious, and I think I might have liked the air of mystery around the captain to be left a mystery, but the story had to go some where....
First two thirds of book get for stars, last third only three.

[Rex Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

Though there were portions of excitement and mystery as the story began, I was pleased when the location changed from the bleak, desperate basement of the London flat at the begin story gave way to the tropic climes of Panama. Graham Greene finds a way to deftly weave in a strand of hidden America history.

[Matt · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really like Graham Greene, but this is not a very good book, and definitely not representative of his writing ability. It was disorganized, random, and not very interesting.

[راحله پورآذر · Rating 3 out of 5]

برای بچه‌ها زمان با شتاب دیگری می‌گذرد.

[Nowrin · Rating 2 out of 5]

It may not be the best book of graham greene. but definitely it got some beautifully written lines which will stick to your mind for long.

[FP · Rating 2 out of 5]

Un joven es tomado por un adulto y puesto a cargo de una mujer. Creciendo rodeado de mentiras elaboradas y sin darle mucho contexto, el joven tarde o temprano termina teniendo (queriendo) entender todo el asunto.
El principio del libro tiene un aire muy de Dickens, con un hombre tomando posesión de un niño y llevándoselo consigo, para ponerlo a vivir en la misma casa que una mujer. El niño no pone muchos peros porque en el colegio lo atormentan siempre, la tía que lo cría es demasiado estricta y su padre un cero a la izquierda con el cual no tiene realmente una relación padre-hijo. Sin embargo, esa semblanza con Dickens es sólo el comienzo.
La pregunta principal a la que se dedica el libro en un comienzo es al concepto del amor. Entre el Capitán (el hombre que tomó posesión del protagonista) y la mujer hay alguna clase de amor, pero el protagonista nunca está muy seguro de qué tipo de amor se trata. El otro asunto consiste en el ambiente en que viven los personajes: el Capitán miente y engaña por todos lados y todo el tiempo, la mujer acepta eso sin cuestionar y al joven nunca le contextualizan nada. No es de extrañar que la dinámica entre ellos no sólo no sea muy saludable, sino que nunca brote ninguna clase de amo real entre los tres. Si es que, al contrario, lo que surge es alguna clase de obligación entre ellos, de tapar y aceptar sus mentiras, de velar por el bienestar y el interés de los otros sin tener realmente libertad de acción. El Capitán tiene que hacer sus negocios truculentos para enviarle dinero a ambos, ella tiene que aceptar el trato por el bien de su corazón y estar atento al joven incluso cuando abandona la casa para no romper la ilusión de hogar que el Capitán ha creado, y el joven tiene que cuidar de la mujer para recibir dinero y hacerle creer al Capitán que todo va bien. Cuando los hechos se precipitan y no hay forma de mantener la imagen más tiempo, todo se viene abajo.
El último tercio de la novela ocurre en Panamá, en vísperas de la firma del acuerdo Torrijos-Carter (con el cuál Estados Unidos se comprometió a darle el control del Canal a Panamá en un tiempo establecido). Por lo tantto, en Panamá andan todos un poco tensos y paranoicos ante cualquier problema que pueda darle una excusa a EEUU para dar pie atrás con la firma, y eso incluye problemas causados por don nadies como el Capitán y el joven que fue a hablar con él. En esta parte, el protagonista se entera que, aunque el Capitán moviera cielo, mar y tierra para llevarles dinero a ellos, al final es sólo un peón menor dentro de un juego político de mayor envergadura. Mientras que el joven fue manipulado desde niño para dar la impresión de una familia feliz, ahora él ve cómo no sólo él mismo, sino el Capitán también, son manipulados por fuerzas políticas para fines un poco ajenos a ellos.
Si bien la historia en sí es interesante, no puedo decir que me conformara mucho con la forma en que se presentaron; el libro es corto, por lo que se sintió como si faltaron páginas para desarrollarlo más. El epílogo, en particular, no me gustó mucho, sobre todo por su declaración abierta de que los protagonistas mismos eran irrelevantes para todo. Es como algo deprimente.

[John Defrog: global citizen, local gadfly · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is Grahame Greene’s final novel, and it’s a bit of a headscratcher, though not necessarily in a bad way. The story is narrated by Victor Baxter, who starts the story by recalling how, when he was 12, a man calling himself The Captain arrived at his school and claimed he was now Victor’s guardian, having won him from his father in a game of backgammon. Victor – who is bullied at school, and whose only living relations are an overbearing aunt and a father he calls “The Devil” – accepts this new arrangement without question, especially as The Captain removes him from the school to stay with him and his lover Liza in a basement flat in Camden. Right away, Victor – renamed Jim by his new guardian – realizes that The Captain is a shady character and a con artist at the very least.

The first part of the book is Jim’s recollection of his childhood, which is spent mostly in the flat with Liza, as The Captain is away most of the time, possibly engaging in criminal activity to raise money to take care of Liza. In the second part, it’s ten years later and Jim is a reporter who has drifted away from Liza, though he stays in touch. The Captain, now in Panama, sends her a large cheque and invites her and Jim to come to Panama to stay with him. Liza doesn’t go for reasons I won’t give away, but Jim does and discovers what The Captain is up to, which has attracted the attention of both the Panamanian authorities and the CIA, and Jim finds himself caught in the middle.

It sounds more adventurous than it actually is. The criminal and espionage angles are really just backdrops to explore the relationship between Jim, The Captain and Liza. Jim struggles to understand whether The Captain and Liza are in love or not, in part because he’s an emotionally detached person who doesn’t really understand what love is himself. Much of the enigmas surrounding The Captain are left vaguely explained, if only because it’s told from Jim’s POV. Which might be frustrating when it comes to the adventure bits, but you can’t say it’s unrealistic – we often go through life never finding out the answers to certain mysteries, etc. And it does lend itself to a darkly humorous epilogue that reminded me of the end of the Coen Bros’ Burn After Reading. Anyway, it’s not Greene’s best work, but it’s strangely compelling.

[Rick Rapp · Rating 4 out of 5]

Greene's novel features an "unreliable" narrator who begins his tale as a pre-teen. He is the child of a dead mother, an absent father (who is referred to as The Devil), and a humorless aunt who cares for him before he is put in a boys school and "won" from the father in a game of backgammon by The Captain, or whoever he actually is. Or is only a part of this true? Or is any of it true? The narrator's perceptions are recorded only later and colored by his feeling (or lack thereof) toward "The Captain" and Liza, (The Captain's love?) The narrator who begins the book as Victor and is given the name Jim by the Captain has no real attachment to anyone and the Captain's long unexplained absences (which are perceived to be due to criminal activity) don't help matters. Finally, the Captain is heard from in Panama and after Liza's sudden death, Jim travels to see the Captain and maybe get some answers. However, he doesn't inform The Captain of Liza's death, and for all his accusations about the Captain not being very forthcoming, Jim is cut from the same cloth. My sympathies initially lay with Jim, but as I learned more about both of them and a shady "journalist" Mr. Quigly, my sympathies shifted to The Captain who was a decent man attempting to do good work for freedom fighters. Was it mercenary on his part? Did he believe in their cause? Greene purposely doesn't tell us and we are left to our own devices to judge the characters and sift through the information in an attempt to glean what is real and what is merely perception. Although this is a short book, it is surprisingly thought-provoking and worthwhile in that is not an "easy" read, but requires effort on the part of the reader. I have read other works by Greene and he is a skilled author. I recommend his work and particularly this book.

[Phil Cotnoir · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this novel, much as I enjoyed Greene's The Burnt Out Case, although in both cases I'm not sure I really understood the book.

There are reflections on the nature of love, and the lack of it. Family is explored in its shattered absence rather than its presence.

The protagonist, a journalist and aspiring writer, is troubled, confused, and ill-equipped for adult life. Despite writing the story that makes up the book, he concludes he is not a writer. Those of us who like to play with words can relate to the doubtings and insecurities that such labor brings.

A good vacation read.

[Sonia MM · Rating 3 out of 5]

Diferentes cuentos, algunos un tanto surrealistas. El mejor, El ídolo caído, el más largo. Es la historia de un niño de 7 años y su relación con una pareja de sirvientes que lo involucran en sus problemas de adultos con un final inesperado. Como el título indica trata sobre la decepción de un niño y la pérdida de la inocencia infantil.