The Third Man – Graham Greene, 1949 ★★★½

Dirty Deeds in Vienna

Trust no one. Believe nothing. Whenever you imagine the worst possible outcome, rest assured the final result will be worse.

Paranoia as art had been around for most of the 20^th century; in The Third Man Graham Greene transformed it into entertainment, a mass-market hit on its own which connected to the unsettled postwar zeitgeist. A seminal work, unquestionably; but how good, really?

As a movie, which is how it is best remembered, The Third Man holds up quite well with a striking visual approach and engaging performances. As a book, what you get is a lean, well-paced mystery story enveloped in postwar atmosphere and European ennui.

Brighton Rock – Graham Greene, 1938 ★★★½

Catholicism Made Deadly

Tip for parents: Don’t have sex in front of your kids. You may think they’re too young to register anything, but they aren’t. Consider the protagonist of Brighton Rock, teen crime lord Pinkie Brown.

The Confidential Agent– Graham Greene, 1939 ★½

Spy vs. Spy

You can take the man out of a war, but can you take the war out of a man? Graham Greene uses the device of a spy novel to ask this question, foregoing such typical spy-fiction elements as plot and suspense in favor of mystery and atmosphere for a novel that takes a long time going (mostly) nowhere.

The title character, a middle-aged man known to us only by a letter, D., arrives in England from his war-torn homeland, also unnamed. His mission, explained after some bumping around and a beating, has to do with getting a British coal-mining concern to do business with his nation’s government. The nation is currently embroiled in civil war, and an agent from the rebel side, identified as L., is hot on D.’s trail.