Our Man Down in Havana: The Story Behind Graham Greene’s Cold War Spy Novel, by Christopher Hull

摘要

In their memoirs British diplomats and spies—categories not always easilyseparated—are fond of calling themselves “our man in …,” apparently unawareof the satirical origin of the phrase in Graham Greene’s 1958 comic novel, OurMan In Havana, the center-piece of Christopher Hull’s exhaustive investigationof Greene’s visits to the Cuban capital between 1938 and 1983. As well asGreene’s own published accounts, Hull draws on unpublished diaries, extensiveletters that Greene wrote to friends and lovers, and interviews with Cubanswhom Greene had met, notably Nydia Sarabia. There is little attempt at literaryor filmic analysis, and there are occasional stylistic infelicities, but the researchbehind the book is impressively thorough.