About this title: English expatriate Wormold, who sells vacuum cleaners in Havana, becomes entangled in British government affairs at the beginning of the story and is pressed into service as an operative of M.I.5. He agrees reluctantly, so as to earn some extra money for his 17-year-old daughter's education, but does not bother to engage in any actual espionage. ...
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Description: Reader copy. LARGE PRINT. Ex-Public Library. SOME MOISTURE WRINKLED PAGES. COVERS SHOW SOME WEAR. Library stamps and stickers. Save a tree-buy used.. read more
Description: Good. Light shelf wear and minimal interior marks. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Description: Viking, 1958, 2nd prtg. HARDCOVER. Pink cloth, small il on front; . 247 pages. Spine faded, very light soil, tight, almost no wear. NEAR VERY GOOD. No DJ. read more
Edition: First Printing
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Viking Press, New York
Date Published: 1958
Description: Good in Good jacket. 8vo-over 7¾"-9¾" tall. EX-LIBRARY Stamps to the FFEP-Last End Page-Title Page and the Top Page Edges, Too Much Edge Wear to the Dust Jacket to list, Few Scotch Tape Pieces to the Boards, Removed Library Pate on the FFEP, $3.50 Publishers Dust Jacket Price, 247 Pages. read more
Edition: 3rd Pinting
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
Publisher: Bantam, New York
Date Published: 1966
Description: Good Plus. To view other titles by this author enter the keywords; XDCX, XJGX, Greene. The book is in good+ condition with minor wear o/w tight clean and square. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
Date Published: 1969
ISBN-13:9780140017908ISBN:0140017909
Description: Good. Page colour-Slightly discoloured in accordance with book age. The cover is damage. **SHIPPED FROM UK** We believe you will be completely satisfied with our quick and reliable service. All orders are dispatched as swiftly as possible! Buy with confidence! read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
Date Published: 1969
ISBN-13:9780140017908ISBN:0140017909
Description: Good. A slight tan to the book edge very slight nick to bottom of book cover Most items will be dispatched the same or the next working day. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
Date Published: 1969
ISBN-13:9780140017908ISBN:0140017909
Description: Good. This book is in GOOD overall condition. It shows signs of having been read and has general light wear to the cover, spine and pages. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
Date Published: 1969
ISBN-13:9780140017908ISBN:0140017909
Description: Good. Page colour-Slightly discoloured in accordance with book age. **SHIPPED FROM UK** We believe you will be completely satisfied with our quick and reliable service. All orders are dispatched as swiftly as possible! Buy with confidence! read more
Binding: Softcover
Publisher: Penguin Classics
Date Published: 2007-07-31
ISBN-13:9780142438008ISBN:0142438006
Description: NEW. Softcover. From an inventory that is 100% brand-new, 100% direct from the publishers' distribution channel. We carry NO pre-owned, NO remaindered. We pack in CARDBOARD to ensure the pristine quality is maintained. (Bubble-wrap alone is NOT sufficient to protect from USPS equipment. ) Guaranteed brand-NEW, protected with CARDBOARD, your satisfaction is guaranteed. BKLUVID: 9780142438008. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Penguin Classics
Date Published: 2007
ISBN-13:9780142438008ISBN:0142438006
Description: New. Brand New! Buy with confidence-your satisfaction is guaranteed at B-Logistics! Due to the large scale of our operation, we do not have access to the specific contents/condition of our items. Please note that Expedited shipping is not available at this time. read more
"In this comedic espionage story, Mr. Wormold, a vacuum cleaner salesman in Havana, is inexplicably hired by MI6 to keep tabs on events in Cuba. Batista is still in charge of the island, but communist rebels are rumored to be in the mountains. Upon the advice of a friend, Wormold makes up phantom agents, and pockets the money the government sends him to pay the fictional agents. However, when his made up reports get into the wrong hands, people who resemble his phantom agents, along with Wormold himself, find themselves in danger. The story itself is funny, and well spaced out over short chapters to encourage readers to push through for just a few more pages. The writing is also brilliant. The character development is particularly well done. For instance, Greene does not simply tell the reader that Wormold is short on money; instead, we see him at the bank, feeling slighted by the teller when he makes a small deposit, and resenting those who are treated better because they are able to deposit more. It was the perfect book to bring along on my Mexican beach trip, and I thoroughly enjoyed it."
"A fun read from a wonderful novelist. This is easily the funniest of Greene's books that I've read, the plot reading like something out of a middle-aged man's fantastical nightmares: the British government recruits a Havana vacuum salesman to spy for them, even though he knows nothing about espionage. Greene uses this fun idea for a plot not only to mine a few laughs, but to level the boom at Cold War governments pursuing every shred of mysterious information with reckless abandon--no matter the quality of the source. There's a sense here that Greene was largely ahead of his time, going against the grain of the culture of fear bred by the governments Big 5 during the Cold War: USA, UK, France, Germany, and Russia. Most days, I am thinking this book should be essential reading for those same governments today. It might help if we all had a better sense of where that kind of fear leads our world."
""Drawing a cheque is not nearly so simple an operation in an American bank as in an English one. American bankers believe in the personal touch; the teller conveys a sense that he happens to be there accidentally and he is overjoyed at the lucky chance of the encounter. 'Well,' he seems to express in the sunny warmth of his smile, 'who would have believed that I'd meet you here, you of all people, in a bank of all places?'"
"Sometimes I fear going home to Boots and Woolworths"
"The Germans formed a group apart ... they carried the superiority of the deutschmark on their features like duelling scars""
"It took me a month to read Greene's "entertainment" about Havana on the eve of revolution. It took me a month not because I didn't like it, but because I was busy. It was little bit like watching an interesting television program one minute at a time, if that program were made by a known communist sympathizer and a steadfast Castro supporter.
My favorite character is Captain Segura, a wicked member of the establishment's police force, who carries a wallet made of human skin and constantly weighs whether or not a Cuban suspect is of the class that can be tortured. As Greene wishes, we must assume that Segura and his ilk escape away to Miami as a fatigued and bearded Castro takes the capital.
Our Man In Havana, is a dark comedy and would make for an interesting Coen brothers movie.
The Introduction by Christopher Hitchens is also worth a look."
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