"England Made Me" is a novel by Graham Greene first published in 1935, it was republished as" The Shipwrecked" in 1953. I'm not sure why it was originally titled "England Made Me", and I have absolutely no idea why it was republished with the title "The Shipwrecked". Maybe if it had taken place in England or on a ship or a deserted island I'd get it, but it wasn't at any of these places, it took place in Stockholm, Sweden.Now I have to figure out if I liked the book and the answer is, I don't know, maybe. If I have to like the main character to like the book, then no, I didn't like it, because I certainly didn't like Anthony Farrant. Anthony is an annoying man who never seems to try very hard at anything he does, and therefore has been a failure at one job after another. His family has heard the words "I have resigned" over and over again. They receive cables from all over the world, "I have resigned" from Shanghai, "I have resigned" from Bangkok, "I have resigned" from Aden, but his twin sister Kate knows that these messages really mean, "Sacked. I am sacked. Sacked."Anthony is out of work again and Kate gets him a job with Erik Krogh, a wealthy Swedish businessman. Kate is his personal secretary and mistress. I don't like Kate much either, Anthony and Kate’s relationship borders on the incestuous, and I get tired of her constantly trying to take care of him when he is certainly old enough to be taking care of himself. There is also Minty, a paparazzi type reporter (yes apparently they had paparazzi in the 1930's already). He follows Krogh everywhere he goes trying to get a "story". When Minty meets Anthony and finds out he is working for Krogh (as his bodyguard), he bribes him for information. They become fast friends which was also strange to me considering they know each other about a day before they're best friends.I probably wasn't supposed to, but I liked Erik Krogh. Krogh is ruthless in his pursuit of more wealth and power. Krogh has no allegiance to any country. His only loyalty is to himself and his fortune. Krogh is engaged in all kinds of shady business deals of which I understood little about other than they weren't "quite" legal. Krogh also lies to a labor union leader to avoid a strike and then frames the man for wrongdoing and ruins his reputation before firing him. The reason I liked him was because he reminded me of George Babbitt from the Sinclair Lewis novel, "Babbitt". The mystery is why he reminded me so much of Babbitt, but the entire time I was reading it I was thinking of George Babbitt, and I loved that book. I wish more of the book would have been about Krogh and less about Kate and Anthony, I may have ended up hating Krogh too, but I wish I would have been given the chance. I think a story about the workers in the factory, which is barely mentioned would have made the book much more interesting, but then again I guess it would have been a different book in that case.I like endings that surprise me, and this one surprised me. I did not see it coming at all. So I'll give him a star just for that. Another star for this quote which Dickens fans may recognize, or if you don't they should look it up:"Tell me, how many men-''Only two' she said. 'I'm not promiscuous.''In Coventry?''Once in Coventry,' she said, 'and once in Wotton-under-Edge.''And you are ready for a third?''Barkis is willing,' she said."It's a short book so go ahead and read it, I'll give it three stars altogether.
The most memorable characters in Graham Greene’s 1935 novel England Made Me are, as always, the failures. Anthony Farrant has been fired from jobs everywhere from Aden to Shanghai. He has been black-balled from countless clubs in countless in countless cities. Anthony Farrant, in his one good suit, his Harrow tie (a lie, of course), with his boyish charm and his charming lies. He’s not quite a crook, in fact he believes in most of his money-making schemes. As one employer put it, they had to get rid of him not because he’d actually done anything, they had nothing specific to complain about, but he had managed to corrupt the entire office. Minty is another failure, another familiar denizen of Greeneland. Minty really did go to Harrow, where every shred of self-respect was stripped from him. Minty’s life has been a life of humiliation, a life of survival in spite of those humiliations. Like so many of Greene’s most pathetic characters, Minty is a Catholic (as was Greene). In his squalid room in Stockholm one of his few possessions is a plaster Madonna. Minty always says his prayers, giving thanks for his continued survival, and giving thanks to his frequent petty revenges. Minty’s only companion is a spider that has taken up residence in his room. Minty doesn’t kill the spider – that would be too clean, too merciful. Anthony’s sister is the mistress of Krogh, a fabulously wealthy Swedish capitalist, and she gets him a job as Krogh’s bodyguard. Anthony’s morality is flexible, but not flexible enough to countenance the kind of dishonesty that is normal business practice in the coming new world of capitalism. Anthony discovers, to his own surprise, that there are things even he won’t do. Greene’s world is a corrupt world, a world with very little hope, where life is a series of disappointments and failures. Those with religious faith lead lives that are just as squalid and hopeless as the lives of those without religion. It all sounds very depressing, but Greene writes so beautifully about failure, he writes so ravishingly about corruption. This is a great book by a man who may well have been the greatest English writer of the 20th century.
What do You think about England Made Me (1992)?
interesting book by Greene, one of his earliest. stylistically, i did not expect this Joycean attempt at stream of consciousness, or whatever. once i got into the rhythm of the book, it was fine, but the first instance of it was jarring.many of the reviewers have reviewed the plot, so i won't. i do, however, think the book is about unrequited love and its consequences for some people. the ending was not expected, although there were plenty of foreshadowings in the pages preceding the final chapter. none of the characters are all that likable, but then most of Greene's characters are flawed individuals, so nothing out of the ordinary there.i wouldn't recommend this book to someone who is new to reading Greene, but, like others have said, for those completists out there.
—Joseph Rice
The ties to one's homeland and the myriad different perceptions of "home" form the theme of this early Graham Greene novel. Anthony Farrant is a ne'er-do-well who has left a string of abandoned jobs and broken relationships behind him as he has worked his way around the globe. When his mistress leaves him and he's sacked from his job once more, his twin sister Kate shows up to whisk him away to Stockholm where she serves as the secretary/mistress of Krogh, a powerful titan of industry who is engaged in a bit of insider trading that could spur the collapse of the global economy. Once in Stockholm Anthony becomes Krogh's bodyguard and becomes close to Minty, a fellow Brit who left the Isle under dubious circumstances and eeks out a living as a 1930s paparazzo, shadowing Krogh as thoroughly as TMZ stalks Britney. There's also Lucia Davidge, a young woman on holiday with her parents and in search of a fun tryst and Hall, the muscle behind Krogh's double-dealings who is dedicated to Krogh to the point of obsession. All of these ex-pats are harboring their own dark pasts (in one of the few strokes of genius herein, these pasts are never revealed but skirted around frantically- are there incestuous feelings between Kate and Anthony? Why can Minty never return to England?) and trying desperately to break with them and forge new identities in frozen Sweden. This early Greene is good, it shows the skill that Greene would soon hone into the keen insight that informs The Quiet American and The Power & The Glory, but too often it gets bogged down in the mire of its character's debauched parting. Minor Characters, such as the young Andersson, are introduced and developed for whole chapters, only to disappear from the pages after the briefest of interactions with the principals. When you know what Greene is capable of, when you so love the precision with which he crafts the morality plays that are his works, things like this just strike me as sloppy. But for these niggling details it would be a four star book.
—Chloe
Also reviewed on http://bookloversmelbourne.blogspot.c...Other than Brighton Rock, whilst at school, (in Brighton, coincidentally) I had never read any of Greene's work until I came across a handful of his novels for sale in Penguin format a few weeks ago. First published in 1935, England Made Me, also published as "The Shipwrecked", was one of Greene's earlier works. It revolves around the relationship between Anthony Farrant and his twin sister Kate. Anthony is a wastrel. A lost soul of middle-england drifting from job to job on the back of begged favours, none of which have been found to be suitable to him, or, from the perspective of the employers, for which he has had anything more than a superficial talent. Anthony is charming. He is an actor and the world is his stage. Inherently selfish, he sees the world and those in it as his scenery. Girls are his playthings, except, of course his sister, who, by that accident of nature, makes her a strange type of female, one that he is intensely fond of, but who is ultimately, not 'available'. For her part, Kate is is an adoring life partner who cannot bare the idea of a life without her twin. Her love for Anthony leads her to draw him into her work circle, where he is offered a job by her boss, and lover, Krogh, a Swedish financier of global standing. Anthony's innate sense of decency and fair play (beyond his own behaviour which is of course judged by an entirely different internal yardstick) leads him to fall out with his new boss. When combined with his new found friendship for a seedy, down at heel journalist, Minty, things begin to unravel. I love the characters in this work, mainly because there is plenty to dislike about every one of them! Each has his or her personality flaws laid bare, yet one is still able to sympathise with each of them at moments when they deserve it. Anthony has nobility, in spite of his lack of consideration for others. Krogh has a lost youth that one wishes he could recapture, in spite of his being cold and aloof. I thoroughly enjoyed it and am looking forward to getting to know some more of Greene's work.
—Booklovers Melbourne
