A chance discovery of lost papers in a shop cellar in Ealing, unexpected connections, lost friendships rekindled at the funeral of a Catholic priest: thus, not unlike one of Green's own novels, began Bill West's search to find the truth about one of the 20th century's most important writers. Through intensive and scrupulous detective work, West has uncovered new material (letters, galleys of Greene's novels and FBI documents) which explain the aspects of Greene's life which have eluded biographers and readers. Told as a detective story, this book exposes the reasons of Greene's sudden self-imposed exile, his fascination with the mafia, his loathing of America, the origins of his obsessions with Catholicism, and espionage and his own involvement with MI6.
Out of all the books I have had standing by as reference while reading Greene's novels, this one was decidedly "meh".
West tries to give a lot of background and connect Greene's books and characters to real-life events and people in Greene's life, but somehow this neither makes a captivating read nor a convincing analysis of Greene's work.
The writing seems rather disjointed at times, and at other times the analysis comes across as a best guess.
Maybe this book makes for better reading for someone who has more of an in-depth knowledge of Greene's biography, but as a stand-by reference to accompany my Greene-land adventures The Quest for Graham Greene raised more questions than it answered.
