The Last Word and Other Stories by Graham Greene

The Last Word and Other Stories by Graham Greene

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I think I’m in love with Graham Greene now and I’m not sure how to feel about that. In many senses, I’d written him off as somebody who wrote about things that I wasn’t interested in. A sweeping statement I know, but that’s what we do and honesty in such things is important. I only came to realise very recently, driven entirely by this volume, that short stories by Greene are a revelation to me and this is a cornucopia of delights. Witty, smart, provocative and fiercely distinct, this is a lovely, lovely collection.

And here’s the thing: I only picked this up because of a film, which in turn I only watched because I caught somebody tweeting about it. The serendipity of reading intrigues me, the way you can tumble into a text because of another, because of circumstance and the things you catch in the day. In many senses, I rather love that – that dynamic sense of movement and finding things anew (and in the state of literary fiction, finding them and understanding them in a way that is not dictated to you by others). The film was Went the Day Well? and it is a remarkable, brilliant thing. (The reason the tweet about it caught my eye was that I love 1940s / 1950s films and the tweet mentioned the remarkable sight of Thora Hird wielding a machine gun which really did just sell the entire thing to me).

Went the Day Well? was based on The Lieutenant Died Last, a story of twenty four pages (!), and one of the highlights of this volume for me. I also absolutely loved The Last Word (the way it grew! the power of it!) and The Man Who Stole The Eiffel Tower is so, so brilliant. There’s some moments of utter wonder here. As with every short story collection, there’s one or two that really didn’t work for me and I found Murder For The Wrong Reason and Work Not In Progress pretty skippable, but The Last Word, The Lieutenant Died Last, and The Man Who Stole the Eiffel Tower are absolutely, utterly, brilliant.

A final note on Graham Greene, as I’m still trying to figure out how I can cope with absolutely loving his work after It Being Not For Me for so long. A member of staff at my undergrad university had the same name and on a day when we were giving tours to prospective student, a parent asked about staff. One of the other student guides mentioned Graham. The parents: THE GRAHAM GREENE?????????????????????. The guide, blissful, conscious of there being only member of staff with that name: er yes?

The hysteria, endless.



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