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Graham Greene writes the complexity of the human heart in clear, shorn prose. The End of the Affair is at once inpressively plotted and aggressively written. It's a charming novel. I don't want to say it's a perfect little novel, but it does everything that a little novel is supposed to do. Here is the deal, Greene only has a handfull of characters in a few pages, but all of his characters are thoughtful people who are not shy to act, and feel the depth and the excess of dignity and indignity of their deeds. I thought it would be an interesting character study, but the plot of the book was at least as intriguing.
Every chapter shed light on what was disclosed before. Either I learned something about me, or I learned something about the situation. It's not often that I'm surprised by the decisions that good people make, why these characters make them, and what's the result. It's a good story with wonderful layers.
The best part of the story was that everyone was concerned about the right thing. It's hard to explain, but there was a manner in which I could take all of the characters seriously. Six modern characters and nobody felt like a caricature.
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