Graham Greene’s novel ‘The end of the Affair’
Each of us perceives a story in our own unique manner, and if a book is well written, it gives us an awful lot to think about. We might have read the same book, but we heard a different story, we saw different patterns.
In a nutshell, The end of the Affair tells the story of Maurice Bendrix, a writer who falls for a married woman named Sarah. Sarah’s husband Henry is too obsessed with his work to see anything that is happening right in front of his nose. But one day, Sarah leaves Maurice without warning and they don’t see each other for two years until Bendrix accidentally meets Henry on the street. That’s where the story actually begins.
‘The sense of unhappiness is so much easier to convey than that of happiness. In misery we seem aware of our own existence, even though it may be in the form of a monstrous egotism: this pain of mine is individual, this nerve that winces belongs to me and to no other. But happiness annihilates us: we lose our identity.’
I would say that this is a story of people who are afraid of the consequences they must face in life. They doubt themselves, they doubt the choices they make and the ones they don’t. The characters are obsessed people, all of them: Bendrix with jealousy, Sarah with doubt and fear, Henry with work. This story is an ode to obsession, and it also shows where it leads us eventually.
I liked the read and hated it at the same time. First, it got me frustrated. Second, I remember thinking, “What genius wrote this piece?” It left me puzzled, and I am grateful for that.
Those of you who enjoy reading novels about writers, this novel was made for you. It has so much truth in it. Writing is a craft you can master only with a whole heart, and when it’s broken, when your soul aches, it’s almost impossible to write unless you write about your pain. Everything else will seem fake.
‘And all that time I couldn’t work. So much of a novelist’s writing takes place in the unconscious: in those depths the last word is written before the first word appears on paper. We remember the details of our story , we don’t invent them. War didn’t trouble those deep sea-caves but now there was something of infinitely greater to me than war, than my novel — the end of love.’
Those of you who don’t appreciate reading, you can watch a movie that was based on the book starring gorgeous Julianne Moore and amazing Ralph Fiennes.
Aside from the religious parts, The end of the Affair is a touching story. It makes you care, and it makes your heart beat faster. Usually, when books do such things, it means the author did a great job.
Well done, Mr. Greene, well done.
