I'm not quite sure what criteria Graham Greene used to draw the dividing line between his "entertainments" and his serious works. In many ways, this novel was quite similar to Brighton Rock, which was his next novel and classified in the "serious" group. This earlier work had a little bit more gunplay and a little less focus on interpersonal relationships, but I often found myself thinking that I was reading a rough draft of Brighton Rock. A Gun For Sale is not an entertainment in the sense that it's light-hearted and humorous, like Our Man in Havana; more the opposite - it was so serious in its tone that I often thought it bordered on camp. But is it fair to call a pulp fiction written in 1936 camp? Probably not. It's not stereotypical gangster fiction, but rather prototypical gangster fiction. I think I've decided that Greene called this one an entertainment simply because it's an inferior work. Most of the Brighton Rock ideas are there - a protagonist conflicted by his Catholic upbringing, an eternally optimistic female foil (or skirt, to use the parlance of the times), and violence as a means of conflict resolution. The parallels are so extensive that both Pinkie from Brighton Rock and Raven from A Gun for Sale killed a man named Kite at some point in their backstory. But whereas Brighton Rock was a complete and coherent novel, some parts of A Gun For Sale just didn't work. Greene was at his best in this book when he was writing about the characters' internal conflicts and motivations - the brief interlude regarding the medical student was brilliant (though it felt out of place in this story). This kind of writing is what makes his serious works so great. But Greene just couldn't quite pull off the hardboiled crime bits. Even the first few sentences I found immensely awkward - "Murder didn't' mean much to Raven. It was just a new job. You had to be careful. You had to use your brains. It was not a question of hatred." Greene is no Raymond Chandler when it comes to crime fiction. It helped Chandler that he didn't make Phillip Marlowe a Catholic. I've read enough Greene to know that Catholicism can really screw with your head.
Graham Greene’s 1936 novel A Gun for Sale is probably better known for the 1942 movie adaptation, the classic film noir This Gun for Hire. In fact th movie, while excellent, bears little resemblance to Greene’s novel.In the novel the professional hitman, Raven, is a profoundly ugly man and it’s suggested that his anti-social habits may have a great deal to do with his ugliness. He has been employed to carry out a political assassination, a deed that may well plunge the world into war. The consequences of his actions do not occur to Raven until much later.The police don’t know that Raven was involved in the assassination. They’re after him for a robbery, which ironically he did not commit. He was paid for the assassination in stolen money, a double-cross intended to get him out of the way. Anne, the girlfriend of the policeman in charge of the pursuit encounters Raven on a train. She is kidnapped by him and he intends to kill her but a strange bond develops between them although it doesn’t follow the pattern you might expect,The novel as written at a time when it was fashionable to see wars as something that were brought about by the machinations of corrupt financiers and industrialists and it’s surprising to see a writer as intelligent as Greene falling for such naïve explanations.This is one of the books that Greene classed as “entertainments” rather than novels and it’s certainly a lesser work. The complex personal interactions between Raven and Anne and the psychological dissection of Raven’s severely warped personality are the book’s strengths and they’re the reasons to read this book. Recommended as a reasonably good example of the dark, corrupt and twisted world that Green was so good at creating.
What do You think about A Gun For Sale (2005)?
Graham Greene is, as far as I can tell, the king of mid-20th-century moral ambiguity. Yes, it's the Catholic thing, anyone who's read Greene knows he's bound to get kind of Catholic at some point, but it's more than that - it's the way in which he understands the complexity of the human psyche. In this book, which is more straight up hard-boiled than anything I've ever read by him, he pulls the reader into the mind of a killer. It's not a comfortable place to be, but he keeps the story moving, enough to push the reader along so you don't get too caught up in the mindfuck, and the mystery itself is more of an extended chase sequence than anything too intricate. A couple things I thought about while reading this: the ways in which Elmore Leonard is a lot like Graham Greene in terms of the tightness of narrative, the no-bullshit dialogue; and also the fact that Greene wrote so much about the exact time period he was in, giving his books an immediacy that's quite striking. How fascinating to read a book published in 1936 where every page is weighed down with the threat of imminent war.
—Sonia
By definition, anything I don't finish gets one star. I cannot believe I couldn't get through a Graham Greene novel, but this little book was a mess. It was at once an espionage thriller and a revenge novel. The premise is neat and original in its twisted nature--hired killer gets pursued by cops for passing marked money. He's wanted for theft, not murder. Or is it fraud? That confusion is actually in the novel. Said killer is also uglier than sin, and he meets a series of grotesqueries in his pursuit of the joker who set him up. Is this a Gothick piece? Whilst there is considerable Gothick in noir, it works better in the cinema than it does in print. The pre-WWII diplomatic ambiance that feels flat and uninspired. Worst of all, the prose is equally lackluster, which is a damming with tremendous indictment given the author's justified reputation. A rare bomb from a real master.
—Kgwhitehurst
A Gun For Sale is a classic crime noir pasted through the darkened streets of London and Nottwich that is both clever, dark and dripping with irony.Graham Greene's writing creates a very imaginable very filmic portrayal of forties England that seems real due to Greene's intimate knowledge of London an its surrounding areas. At large A Gun For Sale deals with the question what is it like to be an outcast in times of individual shrewdness.The vile protagonist Raven while abhorrent carries a lingering sense of tragedy. As far removed as this character is from being warm to society around him, up to the last point of the book a glimmer of hope still remains for his redemption, perhaps even happiness.Anne his possible redemption is also a very interesting character as an active character in the novel. She instead of being a classic damsel in distress goes out of her way to right the perceived wrongs around her once she hears Raven's tale.Despite her limited success she herself becomes a living irony by trying to do good she becomes drawn to the darkness herself, attracted to it. She seems to unconsciously crave it despite what she says she wants out of life herself. The excitement of Raven's life seems to exhilarate her.All in all it was a classic crime formula filled with suspenseful set scenes and vulgar misguided characters but one that is thrilling and hair raising to its finish.
—Drhobomonkey
