"The Ordeal of Gilbert Pinfold" Reviewed

On reading that Graham Greene thought Waugh's The Ordeal of Gilbert Pinfold was his best book from a technical standpoint I had to find out why.

As it turns out, I have tried to read the book long ago and failed. While the first chapter two chapters are clean and taut, the rest require more patience. 

The book concerns a writer of Waugh's professional stature (Pinfold) who succumbs to wild, fanciful dreams induced by self-prescribed medicine and heavy drink.

Greene recalls asking Waugh why he did not release his Sword of Honour trilogy as one book outright. Waugh responded that he felt he would lose his mind like Pinfold one more time before he could finish the trilogy.  

The book's action begins as Pinfold boards a ship to escape his native climate to recover from a procession of ailments. In his cabin, Pinfold thinks he overhears a number of conspiracies unfold through the ship's broken PA system. Sadly, most of the book centers on Pinfold overhearing gossip about events that never occur. As as result it's grows dull, like listening to someone recount their dreams or idle aspirations.

The best bits occur when Pinfold tries to communicate with the retiring folks on board whom he believes to be embroiled in sinister crimes.  

Concluding that the Captain is a murderer he brings the subject up at dinner. The Captain recounts that he had known a man who killed before. This is what follows:

"I expect he smiled a good deal, didn't he?" asked Mr. Pinfold.

"Yes, as a matter of fact he did. Always a most cheerful chap. He went off to be hanged laughing away with his bothers as though it was no end of a joke."

"Exactly."

Mr. Pinfold stared full into the eyes of the smiling Captain. Was there a sign of alarm in that broad, plain face?

If only Pinfold had more moments like that! It is far funnier to observe the reactions of confused passengers than to spend time with a confused protagonist.

And of course Greene is right. Technically it is a marvel with sharp, lean writing.  Here, I've selected two passages which I found amusing and representative.

When passengers turn their attention on Pinfold, Waugh writes: "Now, however, it was as though he [Pinfold] were a noteworthy, unaccompanied female, newly appearing in the evening promenade of some stagnate South American town."

I will leave you with this gem concerning Pinfold's past:

When Mr. Pinfold first joined Bellamy's there was an old earl who had sat alone all day and every day in the corner of the stairs wearing an odd, hard hat and talking to himself. He had one theme, the passing procession of his fellow members. Sometimes he dozed, but in his long waking hours he maintained a running commentary - 'That fellow's chin is too big... 'Pick your feet up, you. Wearing the carpets out.'"

5 More Graham Greene Facts

Graham Greene's second autobiography, Ways of Escape, begins when he is 27. Greene recounts his many reporting trips around the world and only hints at the personal turmoil in his life. We don't see his failing marriage up close nor meet any of his mistresses. Greene simply takes the reader from one adventure to the next.

 The following facts jumped out at me:

1. Greene did cocaine. Perhaps he chummed around with Capote too much? Greene makes it clear that he would do anything to escape boredom. He recounts a story about buying fake cocaine that doesn't lead anywhere. He is anxious to impress on the reader that he is restless and would go to any length to amuse himself.

2. Greene's writing pace: "I could usually write a novel in nine months." Although, he finished The Confidential Agent in six weeks thanks to a brief reliance on Benzedrine.

3. Greene was considering suicide when he wrote my favorite of his books, The Heart of the Matter. He is uncomfortable with the book and wonders why so many found it moving. He counts The Honorary Counsel to be his finest. 

3. His advice on writing is common, but bears repeating. "The beastly adverb--far more damaging to a writer than an adjective." Greene recommends Waugh's The Ordeal of Gilbert Pinfold as an example of a writer's book free from extraneous words.

4. Greene reviewed movies and was "horrified" at the arrival of talking pictures and, later, technicolor. He grew to enjoy both over time. One of his tepid reviews made Shirley Temple file a libel suit against him.

5. Greene had a doppelganger. An Australian man with Greene's name traveled around the world, wooing woman, pretending to be Greene the author. A reporter believing the impostor to be the real thing caught up with him in Geneva and asked if he was writing a new book. The fake Greene replied that, no, he wasn't. He was going to take a "true holiday."

7 Odd Facts About Graham Greene

Just finished Graham Green's autobiography A Sort of Life in which he describes the first 27 years of his life.

I most enjoyed learning:

1. Greene enjoyed playing Russian Roulette with himself. he would hold a gun with only one cartridge to his head and shoot. Greene enjoyed the sensational feeling of escaping death. Who doesn't?

2. Greene is a famous Catholic and I had always assumed he found God in the heart of some jungle, but no. He took an interest in the church because of a girl (who later became his wife). His priest was a jovial, ex-actor named Father Trollope. Greene writes, "What had these monks, with an obligation to dwell in all their sermons and retreats on the reality of hell, in common with this stout cheerful man who loved the smell of grease paint and the applause at a curtain fall? Perhaps nothing except the desire to drown. A few years later he was dead of cancer."

3. Greene smoked opium. I figured he did after reading The Quiet American, but one can never be too sure.

4. Greene went to therapy at the turn of the century after a few weak suicide attempts and a clumsy escape from home.

5. He wrote 500 words a day. Less than I would have expected for his output was impressive. He had 3 published, lengthy books under his belt by 27 though he felt they were all poor imitations of Conrad. He wrote in the morning and worked at The Times from 4 to 11pm.

6. Greene was drunk for about a year in university. He even showed up to an academic ceremony drunk. "But I have cause to be thankful for that spell of alcoholism. It left me with a strong head and a tough liver. 'Mithridates he died old.'" 

7. On writing exciting scenes: "Excitement is a situation, a single event. It mustn't be wrapped up in thoughts, similes, metaphors. Action can only be expressed by a subject, verb and an object, perhaps a rhythm--little else."