What a marvelous little story this is. Graham Greene does a marvelous job of building the sense of foreboding right to the end, and then leaves you with a deeper meaning and a lingering question. The symbiotic relationship of twins is always an interesting phenomenon to explore as well. How versatile Greene is!
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Perfect. ( )

Thanks to Fairy Princess SockieP for reviewing this short story. In her review she included a link and off to read it I went.
This is a chilling short story that delivers a sharp, memorable punch. I loved it!

You can find it here:
http://www.classicshorts.com/stories/EndParty.html ( )

A free read here: http://www.classicshorts.com/stories/EndParty.html

Well written, I suppose, but I never really connected with the characters & expected the ending far too early for it to hold any shock value, unfortunately. I had a problem with the one way, twin communication that enabled the ending & the constant fear that Francis lived in. Neither felt all that 'real' to me. ( )

This story is making the rounds today, it seems. I read this story after a friend mentioned seeing Stephen's review, and he read it based on Wendy Darling's review. I love seeing books (or in this case, stories) spread like this, each person's enjoyment leading to another and another. This is what makes this site so much fun to use.

But anyway, to get to the point and review this... WOW. This story was very short, very poignant, and very intense. I've only read one other Graham Greene book, 'Travels with My Aunt' and I very much disliked it. If that book had been written like this story, I'd have loved it. I think this story may have redeemed Greene for me, actually. It's amazing what 4 pages can do.

I have a bit of a fascination with stories about twin connections, especially when one sibling is troubled and the other is not--or at least not in the same way. Wally Lamb's 'I Know This Much Is True' is one of these, and one I highly recommend. It's not an easy read, but it is fascinating to me.

This one was different, but the connection between the brothers, their relationship with each other and in comparison with the other is a huge part of the story. One particular passage stood out to me:

"To address Peter was to speak to his own image in a mirror, an image a little altered by a flaw in the glass, so as to throw back less a likeness of what he was than of what he wished to be, what he would be without his unreasoning fear of darkness, footsteps of strangers, the flight of bats in dusk-filled gardens."

I really felt this... the way that little Francis would want to be like the stronger, elder brother - self-reliant and sure and brave.

'The End of the Party' reminded me a bit of my all time favorite short story, 'All Summer In A Day' by Ray Bradbury. Both pertain to groups of children, both have one "outcast" of the group, both have a whopper of an ending, and both are very emotionally raw stories that hurt my heart and linger there for a long, long time. I won't soon forget this story, just as I've never forgotten 'All Summer In A Day', even after all this time.

For being so short, this book packs a punch. Highly recommended. ( )