Status
Available
Call number
Series
Genres
Collection
Publication
Penguin Books Ltd (1993), Edition: New Ed, Paperback, 160 pages
Description
Graham Greene's 'long journey through time' began in 1904, when he was born into a tribe of Greenes based in Berkhamstead at the public school where his father was headmaster. In "A Sort of Life" Greene recalls schooldays and Oxford, adolescent encounters with psychoanalysis and Russian roulette, his marriage and conversion to Catholicism, and how he rashly resigned from "The Times" when his first novel, "The Man Within "was published in 1929. "A Sort of Life" reveals, brilliantly and compellingly, a life lived and an art obsessed by 'the dangerous edge of things'.
Media reviews
Though the hero of almost every Graham Greene novel is haunted by the past, one of the oddities of his fiction is how little personal history his characters have outside the bare minimum burden that drives them- the crime, the sin, the act of betrayal they can't forget. Yet in coming to terms with
Show More
his own early life, despite the professed limitations of his memory and his reticence on some subjects, Graham Greene writes with a generosity and flexibility that are new in his work. At a point in his long career when it seemed unlikely he could surprise us, he has done it with this moving self-portrait of a man at ease with his past.
Show Less
User reviews
LibraryThing member jcbrunner
Graham Greene justly titled this account of his early years (up to the publication of Stamboul Train) "A sort of life" which refers both to the spotiness of his account and to his bumbling activities during that period of his life. Reading Michael Shelden's biography "Graham Greene : the man
Overall, a quick, enjoyable romp through Greeneland that reveals and conceals in a Cheshire Cat way.
Show More
within" in parallel helps to fill in some of the gaps and helps develop some ideas why Greene left out those aspects of his life. Already, we see the typical Greene ennui about his sheltered upper-middle class life, seeking to spice it up without having to break a sweat or, horror oh horror, actually work. It is astounding how even his youthfuil most dreadful poems and plays found publishers and inncer-circle reception. The early 20th century elite was truly open to precocious talent and those who aspired to talent. Greene was fortunate to rely on his family clan connections which provided financial safety and access. The most glaring omission is the near complete absence of his mother, the prototype for many an ice queen in Greene's novels.Overall, a quick, enjoyable romp through Greeneland that reveals and conceals in a Cheshire Cat way.
Show Less
LibraryThing member Nialle
Greene may not be terribly open about a lot of his life, and that does give one cause to doubt whether the themes he identifies were (biographically speaking) the prevailing ones in his life – but if an autobiography is a narrative and he wanted the narrator to be a tight character, he succeeded
Why writing? Was it because books were part of the sacred, first full solitude, and the small solitudes before that in the hedge at school? Was it because psychoanalysis prompted him to work out thoughts on paper? Nobody seems to have encouraged him specifically in writing. Why self-reflect at all when what he wanted was to avoid the repetitious, the mechanical, the mundane? Writing as a profession hardly offers release from these things. Why not just live rambunctiously, as he did anyway? He says that writing is for him like being a spy, a chance to observe and record secretly the thoughts and actions of others. Is that sufficient as a cause to put pen to paper? And what’s his obsession with editing? Is that merely a desire for control? Why is style so important to him, and criticism? It can’t be just because learning French inspired precision in his own writing.
Anyway, what strikes me ultimately is the way he treats his life as though it were a dream to be analyzed. He looks for recurrent images, particularly of fears, and seeks out their first causes; he seeks themes; he captures small moments and free-associates them with other moments from his memory. The way he speaks of subsuming experiences and allowing them to resurface as fiction indicates that he also perceives writing fiction as a dreaming-like act. He attributes source material for his books to dreams he had and wrote down. There is even a dreamlike quality to the way he describes things he’s seen when he retools them into fiction – a focus on strange details that seem to have more relevance than makes sense in the context of the character who is supposed to be observing these details. His description of opium use reminds me strongly of the active premises of so-called “lucid dreamers,” too. Is it because of the surreal experience of depression as a fog descending that he feels so strongly that dreams and life are connected, even intertwined?
In the end, more questions than answers for the reader looking to understand this prolific writer, but the story Greene tells about himself is compelling and fascinating.
Show More
in that. Most of what he relates can be grouped under headings including Self-Reflection; Masculinity; Cinema; Anger/Mania; Fear vs. Terror; Religion; Travel; Social Class; Reading; and Writing.Why writing? Was it because books were part of the sacred, first full solitude, and the small solitudes before that in the hedge at school? Was it because psychoanalysis prompted him to work out thoughts on paper? Nobody seems to have encouraged him specifically in writing. Why self-reflect at all when what he wanted was to avoid the repetitious, the mechanical, the mundane? Writing as a profession hardly offers release from these things. Why not just live rambunctiously, as he did anyway? He says that writing is for him like being a spy, a chance to observe and record secretly the thoughts and actions of others. Is that sufficient as a cause to put pen to paper? And what’s his obsession with editing? Is that merely a desire for control? Why is style so important to him, and criticism? It can’t be just because learning French inspired precision in his own writing.
Anyway, what strikes me ultimately is the way he treats his life as though it were a dream to be analyzed. He looks for recurrent images, particularly of fears, and seeks out their first causes; he seeks themes; he captures small moments and free-associates them with other moments from his memory. The way he speaks of subsuming experiences and allowing them to resurface as fiction indicates that he also perceives writing fiction as a dreaming-like act. He attributes source material for his books to dreams he had and wrote down. There is even a dreamlike quality to the way he describes things he’s seen when he retools them into fiction – a focus on strange details that seem to have more relevance than makes sense in the context of the character who is supposed to be observing these details. His description of opium use reminds me strongly of the active premises of so-called “lucid dreamers,” too. Is it because of the surreal experience of depression as a fog descending that he feels so strongly that dreams and life are connected, even intertwined?
In the end, more questions than answers for the reader looking to understand this prolific writer, but the story Greene tells about himself is compelling and fascinating.
Show Less
LibraryThing member Schmerguls
5488. A Sort of Life, by Graham Greene (read 20 Jul 2017) This is a book published in 1971 in which Greene tells of his life up to about 1932. He was born 2 October 1904. His father was with a school and the family lived at the school. But Greene did not attend school till he was almost 8. He
Show More
claims as a child he all at once learned he could read, but did not tell anyone. Unfortunately he does ot tell us how he learned to read--such would be of interest to me. He was a weird child and tried to commit suicide as a youth. He claims he by himself played Russian roulette five times. (I at college knew a guy who died playing Russian roulette--not somebody who seemed to be so stupid as to do such.) Greene underwent psychoanalysis as a teenager, and felt it was good for him. He tells of his conversion to Catholicism prior to his marriage, but not very revealingly, to my regret. This is a book of interest but could have been much more revealing and interesting. It is the 12th book of Greene's I have read Show Less
Subjects
Awards
Language
Original publication date
1971
Physical description
160 p.; 7.64 inches
ISBN
0140185755 / 9780140185751