Beautifully explained. Thank you for all your hard work.❤

I appreciate your thoughtfulness

I just listened to this a few days ago as an audio book read by Colin Firth. Hearing it gave it a lot of heart that may or may not have been in the paper version, but Bendricks character was certainly made more sympathetic in the reading. Sadly I don’t read books much anymore, eyes too tired from years of reading all night, but audiobooks make it possible to still enjoy one of life’s best pleasures. At first I was very taken aback by the overt hatred Bendricks declares for God. Until you get the context of his anger its a little overwhelming. He wasnt just an atheist, but a militant one. I found Bendricks to be a multilayered character that was in fact hard to like. You wanted to mourn his loss with him, first of a love he was so obsessed by, and then of Sarah, the woman he shared unwillingly. But in truth, he was so awful to her in life that it bordered on abuse. Angry, jealous, stalking her and constantly in need of reaffirmation of her love, it seemed as Sarah said, the only time he could be content in this relationship was in the midst of intimacy. He could have easily been seen purely a tyrannical lover, too obsessed to be at all likable. But his character flaws and humanity is brought to life by the writing, and its a credit to Greene’s writing ability that his character is just sympathetic enough that you do end up caring about him despite yourself. Its curious that his relationship with Henry turned out to be so close in the end. There is a non-sexual parallel in that relationship to that of a man’s wife and his best friend holding onto each other in grief when the man dies. It did seem Bendrick’s life course seemed destined to be pulled into a relationship with God despite his every attempt to rid himself of it.

Great job, Rick!

Great review of The End of the Affair, really enjoyed watching your video.

Wow. I literally just read this! What timing.

Thanks for this wonderfully incisive and analytical review of this Greene novel. It’s one of my favorites and I wish I had read it with as critical an eye as you did. It’s been awhile since I read it. Your review brought so many of the details of the story flooding back into my mind such as Bendrix engaging a private eye as well as interfering with the funeral. After reading “The Heart of the Matter” and “The Power and the Glory” I went on a bit of a Greene binge and read a load of his novels as well as the massive biography by Norman Sherry. I look forward to future reviews you may do concerning more Greene novels.

Amazing discussion, Rick. I especially love the quote “if I begin to love god, I can’t just die. I’ve got to do something about it.” I think comparing that relationship to a physical one is really powerful. I’m definitely going to check out some Graham Greene books- haven’t read anything by him before.

Thank you for this Rick. Glad to see you're one of the few reading older novels. I'd like, if you've time, your view on others like Tin Drum by Grass, The Magus by Fowles or the oft overlooked Alexandrian Quartet by Durrell-- books my generation held in high esteem. Thank you again.

Wow what a great review!

Your discussion made me think of a quote from A Grief Observed, by C.S. Lewis: "Talk to me about the truth of religion and I'll listen gladly. Talk to me about the duty of religion and I'll listen submissively. But don't come talking to me about the consolations of religion or I shall suspect that you don't understand." I feel like many of the characters in this novel would agree. This makes me think of Dante in the Inferno, and how distraught he was at seeing the punishments inflicted on the damned. How could a religion that included in its conception of the universe such cruel punishment be based on the worship of a loving God? Not sure how relevant this really is, but your discussion made me think of it. I think that one great problem with the way we think about religion today--and both religious and irreligious people are guilty of this--is that people view it as being about having certainty, certainty about right and wrong, heaven and hell, God's will, and so on and so forth. We no longer seem to realize that so much of religion is about mystery, and not mystery in the sense of a mystery that needs to be solved, but a mystery with a capital M which we engage with to cope with and learn about the fundamental mystery of what the hell we human beings are even doing here. God itself is a much more slippery and elusive concept than I think most people today realize (and a lot of people would even be puzzled by my referring to God as a "concept" rather than a "being" or "person"). The way you discussed these characters' struggle with God (it's always been interesting to me that Israel translates roughly as "one who struggles with God" 🤔) made me think that this was relevant, though I don't know how. Perhaps they would've benefited from a deeper understanding of the fundamental mystery of God, but that just seems like a patronizing attitude to me. I'll reel in the thought-dumpy essay I could leave here on the subject of God, because I actually plan to make a video talking about some of this. This was a great video!

Now that is how one starts a Sunday! Thanks for such a thoughtful unpicking of that magnificent novel. It is one of the first books I ever taught, almost 20 years ago - and before I had become a Christian, actually. I love what you had to say about people wanting to be happy and God wanting us to be holy. Human beings are really good about mapping their own wishes for themselves onto God’s Intentions for them, but to do so is misguided - that old trap of creating God in our own image. I imagine that God wishes peace for us rather than happiness - and by “peace” I mean a weary, grateful, exhausted submission. All of this is making me think of The Horse Whisperer, for some reason, which I rewatched recently for the first time in donkey’s years. At the beginning of that story, the aptly named Grace is the embodiment of innocence - she is extraordinarily happy in the way that, perhaps, only a child can be. By the end, after suffering unimaginable trauma - and learning how to be vulnerable, how to permit healing in herself - she comes to feel peace, which I tend to think of as informed or scarred innocence. It’s a frightening place to be, at peace, for the degree to which it demands we relent - but I suspect that is what God wants for us.

Graham Greene is one of my favourite authors! And if you're looking for stuff that investigates religion, the rest of his back catalogue has a lot to offer too! Perhaps The Power and the Glory next? :D

Thank you, I really enjoyed watching the video! I had an impression that one of the things that pushed Sarah to believe was the constant need of love. Before that explosion happened, they were unhappy in their affair because they constantly felt that it would come to an end, and they were scared of the desert after. So they felt that human love is conditional and temporary, but Sarah lusted for unconditional and eternal love. As she said to Bendrix: “Don’t be scared, love never ends!” Another interesting point in the book was Sarah’s reflection on the crucifixion: “Suppose God did exist, suppose he was a body like that, what’s wrong in believing that his body existed as much as mine? Could anybody love him or hate him if he hadn’t got a body? I can’t love a vapour that was Maurice.” Reflecting about it, when we love somebody, we always tend to imagine physical looks and experiences. Also I like how both Bendrix and Sarah contemplated on hate. “I thought, sometimes I hated Maurice, but would I have hated him if I hadn’t love him too?” I suddenly remembered C.S. Lewis reflection that evil is only a corrupted good, couldn’t hate be a corrupted love? Very interesting point for philosophical discussion.

Thank you for this review. I really struggled reading this novel because I’ve suffered the same kind of trauma Bendrix had with his love for Sarah. Human love is flawed for a lot of us but some relationships do survive and thrive. Maybe the idea is to worship our partner like people worship a divine 🤔

Excellent review. Let's not be friends, let's be two ships passing in the night.

Good content is good 👍🏻

This is great, but I feel like you just read off of Lydia McGrew’s essay on Human and Divine Love in The End of the Affair.

For me, Sarah Miles is a saint.