Ratings10
Average rating4
In London during the Blitz, an amnesiac must outwit a twisted Nazi plot in this “master thriller” of espionage, murder, and deception (Time). On a peaceful Sunday afternoon, Arthur Rowe comes upon a charity fete in the gardens of a Cambridgeshire vicarage where he wins a game of chance. If only this were an ordinary day. Britain is under threat by Germany, and the air raid sirens that bring the bazaar to a halt expose Rowe as no ordinary man. Recently released from a psychiatric prison for the mercy killing of his wife, he is burdened by guilt, and now, in possession of a seemingly innocuous prize, on the run from a nest of Nazi spies who want him dead. Pursued on a dark odyssey through the bombed-out streets of London, he becomes enmeshed in a tangle of secrets that reach into the dark recesses of his own forgotten past. And there isn’t a soul he can trust, not even himself. Because Arthur Rowe doesn’t even know who he really is. “A storyteller of genius,” Graham Greene composed his serpentine mystery of authentic wartime espionage—and one the author’s personal favorites—while working for MI6 (Evelyn Waugh). But The Ministry of Fear “is more than a mere thriller . . . [it’s a] hypnotic moonstone of a novel” (The New York Times).
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Others have commented on The Ministry of Fear's implausible precept of a cell of Nazi sympathizers hiding a microfilm in a cake. Yeah, nah. But putting that argument aside, what really elevates this book into 5-star territory is the sublime quality of the writing. This is Greene maintaining the incredible momentum he hit with The Power and the Glory and starting to cement himself in the very first rank of English writers, where he remains to this day.
The Ministry of Fear - Graham Greene
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It's the middle of the Blitz and Arthur Rowe is at loose ends. There are hints that he is for some reason beyond the pale of polite society, at least in his own mind. He sees a “fete” and decides to participate. In a scene that has overtones of “Nazi spy ring” written all over it, he is awarded a cake. It's a cake that everybody seems to want.
Before you can say “Bob's your uncle,” Rowe is in the middle of a mystery where he is being shuttled to and fro by apparently unrelated people. He is framed for a murder and is on the lam from the police, when...
And suddenly we cut to an amnesiac in a hospital. There's a woman who seems interested in him, and odd things happening.
As a reader, I could see how this story would work as a movie. In fact, “Ministry of Fear” was produced as a movie in 1943. The book was written in 1942. The movie is now part of the Criterion Collection, which speaks to its value in some dimension.
From my perspective, I enjoyed the story as it moved from set to set, but the conceit of a conspiracy so well-run as to arrange for the things that they run poor Arthur Rowe through seemed far beyond credulity unless you were in an environment where your country was in a death struggle with a totalitarian power who could have agents anywhere.
An interesting espionage thriller set in the WW2 London. A man wins a cake at a fête, and steps into a nightmare world. He becomes hunted by enemies he doesn't quite understand. And that's just the start of it...
Of the Greene that I have read, he really excels at the espionage fiction.
I enjoyed this one. I enjoyed the way it was split up, the flow of the novel and the characters.
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3,566 booksWhen you think back on every book you've ever read, what are some of your favorites? These can be from any time of your life – books that resonated with you as a kid, ones that shaped your personal...