Guess the weight of the cake... (The Ministry of Fear - Graham Greene)

Member Name: pje

Product:	The Ministry of Fear - Graham Greene
Date:	11/01/02 (197 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Full of intrigue.

Disadvantages: May be hard to find nowadays.

I know I'm reading a novel from the first half of the Twentieth Century
when the central character lives in a boarding house with a landlady.
There was Gordon Comstock in Keep The Aspidistra Flying, Joe Lampton
in Room At The Top, Sherlock Holmes ...and many, many more, no doubt.

Arthur Rowe's rented room is in a partially bombed out street in London circa 1943 (when this novel was published). One Sunday afternoon Arthur comes across a church fête, which brings back happy childhood memories.
But the brilliance of Greene is the way he surrounds the reader with intrigue so quickly. His descriptions of ordinary people and places are tinged with impending danger. I mean, could there be anything less sinister than a chuch fête, or a 'guess the weight of the cake' stall..?

But y'see this is Greeneland, where things are never quite what they seem, and there's always something sinister going on just beneath the surface. When Arthur visits a fortune teller, she tells him to go to the cake stall and give the weight of the cake as 4lb 8½oz. He does, and wins it despite that being a ridiculously heavy guess. Next thing you know, everyone is trying to get that cake off him, even to the extent of trying to kill him...

Determined to find out what's going on, Rowe hires a private enquiry agent - echoing another classic Greene novel, The End of the Affair. I see these two novels as companion pieces, siblings even. The End of the Affair being the romantic sister, and The Ministry of Fear, a thriller from the same background (wartime London), as the brother. It also has a similar feel to Brighton Rock and A Gun For Sale, so if you enjoyed those, you will enjoy this (and if you didn't enjoy those it's because you haven't read them).
It never ceases to amaze me how good Graham Greene was.

There are also faint shades of 1984, not surprisingly since both books were written during or just a
fter the war years, so it's perhaps inevitable that they are imbued with the paranoia of the time. There are also little touches that bring home the reality of life in London during the Blitz. Like having to travel a circuitous route on the Tube because so many stations are closed; and ringing someone up, not knowing whether the telephone, or indeed the building it's in, will still be there after heavy bombing the night before.

Anyway, erm, what was I going to say next? I think it was something about amnesia. Something happens and then someone forgets who they are, you know the kind of thing... you didn't expect me to tell you the plot did you? I suppose I could try to psychoanalyze Graham Greene through his characters, or search for recurring motifs, but I think that, ultimately, what goes on inside another person's head is unknowable. Maybe I'm just lazy and shallow, or maybe it's a result of too many chess games as a kid, where I strained my brain trying to work out what my opponent was thinking and predict his next move - only for him to do something different!
If you want it, there's some mumbo-jumbo about The Ministry of Fear at: http://www.findarticles.com/cf_dls/m0403/4_45/6129 7796/p1/article.jhtml

Ministry of Fear was one of those novels that Graham Greene subtitled
"An entertainment". It most certainly is - and that's all you need to know.
No, hang on, my memory's coming back to me... there is something else:
"Perhaps I ought to tell you that I am a murderer myself." Who said that?
Was it me, or someone in this book? You'll have to read it to find out...

¶ Paperback: £5.99 ¶ ISBN: 0140185364 ¶ pp 221 ¶
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