12 stories from 1923 to 1989

Poignant, sad, and, in a couple of cases, unexpectedly funny (e.g. "Work not in progress" about the writing of an ecclesiastical musical) but always beautifully written. These are stories to be savoured, not rushed through. This selection, written between 1923 and 1989 is classic Graham Green (which I am very glad I picked up for nothing, on my loyalty points, in an Op Shop). ( )

Mr. Greene's 'Collected Short Stories' appeared in 1972 and none of the ones in this volume were included. In retrospect, it's not hard to see why they were not, as the overall quality does disappoint severely, well-written as most them are. Apart from the usual occasional brilliant phrase, there is not much here to please the discerning reader. Some suffer of clumsy plots, as Murder for the wrong reason and The new house will easily prove. Others start out promisingly. The lieutenant died last night has an interesting tension and some fine contrasts, but peters out helplessly at the end, as does The lottery ticket, which also boasts a caricatural South-American backdrop, that is mildly funny. The very short ones are the worst: Greene obviously has no knack for surprise endings or incisive insights that only need a few pages to come across. There is surprisingly little content in almost all of these attempts, their psychology is mostly too simplified for comfort.
Luckily, the writer did not have to rely on efforts like this to establish a reputation also for shorter forms. While completists may enjoy this collection for obvious reasons, the average reader will probably have to store this in the 'scraping the barrel' department. ( )

Incomparable Graham Greene presents 12 short stories that have never appeared as a collection before and some of which have not appeared in print for 60 years.

This short-story collection varies between stories which are really good and those which are barely interesting. The title story, ‘The last Word’ is really good, as is ‘The Moment of Truth’. ‘The New House was the one that appealed to me most, maybe because I thought its main character resembled, in miniature as it were, the main character in ‘A Burnt-Out Case’ which I had just finished reading before starting this collection. My edition is the Penguin 1999, but the stories date from 1923 to 1989. ( )