Welcome to our final read-along discussion of The End of the Affair by Graham Greene.
Spoiler warning: We will be discussing the entire book in detail, both in this post and the comments section.
First, I apologize for this post being so late! We spent all day at Silverwood on Thursday, and I simply forgot about it.
Emma at Words and Peace, who is reading along with me, pointed me to this reading guide at Lit Lovers, and so I am borrowing some of their questions for our final discussion.
Talk about the arguments Bendrix has with God toward the end of the novel. How does he move from disbelief to belief? How would you describe the nature of his faith…has he reached a final acceptance of God?
As I read, I found it amusing how much Bendrix continually ranted against a God he professed not to believe in. His obsession over Sarah made him jealous of Henry, but when Sarah’s belief took her from him, he transferred that jealousy to God. After her death, he is very angry and connives to deny her the religious burial she would have preferred. In a way, I think he was trying to get back at God. By the end of the book, it seemed he had come around to a true belief, but he was still antagonistic toward God. Whether or not that belief would ever turn into a reverence or love for God is anyone’s guess.
What feelings did you experience at the end of the novel?
After finishing many of Greene’s novels, I feel a sense of sadness or hopelessness. Again, the beauty of his writing makes his books worth reading, but he doesn’t seem to have much love for people or hope in their ability to do good. I thought that all of his books were like this, but I just started reading Travels With My Aunt, and not only is it completely different, it is actually funny! Who knew?
Has reading this book in any way altered—or affirmed—your own beliefs? Has the book enlightened you…or not particularly?
My religious beliefs are very different than Sarah’s. I don’t see God as a vengeful being who extorts belief out of us. Although I also believe in the sanctity of marriage, and do believe that Sarah made the right decision in ending her relationship with Bendrix. Not sure that I would have advised her to stay with Henry in her loveless marriage, but I don’t think that formalizing her relationship with Bendrix would have made her any happier.
All in all, I enjoyed this read and am glad to be able to add another title to my Graham Greene Reading Challenge list. Thanks to Emma and anyone else who was reading along.
Be sure to leave your thoughts on this week’s reading in the comment section below! Or if you write your own post, please leave me a link so I can read it.
I think this book is really fascinating and there are a lot of different ways to read it. I agree that it’s depressing despite being well written and I personally thought Greene did a good job of observing the unpleasant reality of how Bendrix and even Sarah (she’s quite masochistic) act and behave but still leaving room for the fact that they did have genuine feelings for each other. I don’t know why but that’s a thing with me in narratives–how well they manage to capture that conflict.
Amy @ My Friend Amy´s last post ..The L.A. Complex 2×7: Half Way
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says:
Amy – you’re right, Greene is a master at capturing the complexity of characters – his people seem real and flawed. And masochistic is a perfect way to describe Sarah!
Pingback: The End of The Affair: August Read-along, part 3 « Words And Peace
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says:
Sorry, I am late as well! Here are my answers:
Talk about the arguments Bendrix has with God toward the end of the novel. How does he move from disbelief to belief? How would you describe the nature of his faith…has he reached a final acceptance of God?
Bendrix discovers little by little who his adversary is, He is not the potential lover he thought he was jealous about. Shocked by this discovery, and discovering also there was a dimension in Sarah’s history he had no idea existed, Bendrix becomes more angry than ever and at then end of the novel turns all his anger towards God, though he does not officially believe in Him.
His actions and decisions are now colored by this anger, and his trying to get his own revenge, for instance by preventing Sarah from having a regular Catholic burial, not a cremation; also I think by his flirting with an interviewer’s friend, the day of the funeral itself!
As a believer, the author may have experienced this step in his own discovery and knowledge of God: it is not unusual for some people to start relating to God in this way. Through Sarah’s own faith, he may very well be on his way to a final peaceful acceptance of God, the story ends before the reader could know for sure.
What feelings did you experience at the end of the novel?
I have to say I had to go back and re-read the passage with the bombing of London, and see Bendrix’s reactions and evolutions from there. I still did not much like the characters as a whole: even Sarah, the fact that she did not manage to explain what she was going through complicated the whole affair. It left me with a feeling of unease and sadness, though recognizing the quality of the writing, especially at the beginning.
Has reading this book in any way altered—or affirmed—your own beliefs? Has the book enlightened you…or not particularly?
It certainly emphasized my firm belief that communication is key number one in any type of deep relationship, and so absolutely for marriage. Sarah and Henry may have been able to experience some happiness together with this major ingredient. And she may have been able to live a profound and different relationship with Bendrix as well.
As for God, He is portrayed as a jealous and calculating God, a God made in the image and likeness of Bendrix!, and this is not the loving God I experience and learn to love more deeply every day.
Now I would like to add something related to the movie, which I watched right after I finished the book.
I did find the writing of the book interesting and good, especially at the beginning, with reflexions on tha art of writing.
But I didn’t really like the characters nor the plot.
I enjoyed the movie much better, but it is an adaptation, a different book, actually. I watched the 1999 drama film directed by Neil Jordan and starring Ralph Fiennes, Julianne Moore and Stephen Rea.
The characters are more loveable, even Bendrix at the end takes care of Sarah when she is so sick, whereas he flees in the book.
The characters of the atheistic Richard Smythe is changed into the one of a priest! And the goofy miracle through a hair stolen from Sarah’s corpse, is changed into a healing of the detective’s boy thanks to a kiss given by Sarah.
from my blog post:
http://wordsandpeace.com/2012/09/04/the-end-of-the-affair-august-read-along-part-3/
And thanks for organizing this read-along, which gives me the desire to organize dome myself in 2013!
Emma @ Words And Peace´s last post ..The End of The Affair: August Read-along, part 3
Twitter: booksandmovies
says:
Emma – Sounds like they really changed a lot from book to movie!
I found it almost funny how angry Bendrix got against a God he claimed he didn’t believe in. Reminds of people I know who say they don’t believe in God, but then if something bad happens, they’ll say, “How could God allow that?”
Thanks so much for reading along with me – it was fun knowing I wasn’t the only one reading. I just started his Travels With My Aunt, and I think I’m going to like it much better – so far, it’s very funny and a much more upbeat book.