The Human Factor

This book presents a very believable portrait of espionage during the cold war. No guns, no gadgets, no glamour. Just a drab monotonous life infused with constant paranoia and ending in tragedy. Quite a contrast to Our Man In Havana, although the main characters share much of the same insecurities (as most Greene characters seem to). The hero is a completely sympathetic character who loves his wife and child and hates the cruelty that the world has shown his wife and will surely show his child. And although he has become jaded and old he idealistically decides to punish the West for its racism by spying for the East (ironic considering the level of racism in the East). In the end he looses what he had, he looses what he loved, and he gains nothing. This was the first Graham Greene novel that I read, in high school, 15 years ago. It hooked me and I have read most of his other works since then. Many other authors have created stupid banal characters living the seedy life, but only Greene (in my limited reading) has created human, complex, intelligent characters.....living the seedy life.

Book