The Captain And The Enemy (2005) - Plot & Excerpts
I know that this is Greene’s last published novel, and that many literary critics tend to ignore it, considering it as not really being a good example of the kind of writing Greene was capable of. Having read The Quiet American and The Ministry of Fear: An Entertainment, I can understand that reasoning. The themes and message of The Captain and the Enemy are not as strong and philosophical as those other works that were written during the height of Greene’s career. However, I found this book more personal than the other two works I’ve read, and some of Greene’s descriptions—the imagery and comedy… and those fleeting moments, rituals and subtle statements that evoke such a depth of feeling—made me truly love this book.For the narrator, Jim, the story’s very much a personal written exercise… a sort of spiritual undertaking and quest of discovery and understanding… trying to make sense of these two figures in his life—the Captain and Liza—to uncover the mystery of their relationship… loyalty, responsibility and love and how it somehow manages to connect these two individuals with characters from opposite ends of the spectrum. And with the story’s running theme of King Kong, it almost becomes a retelling of the Beauty and the Beast tale. A few noteworthy quotes:“ ‘Your father is a devil,’ [my mother] was very fond of telling me, and her eyes would lose their habitual boredom and light suddenly up for a moment like a gas cooker. My father […] came to the funeral dressed top to toe in black; he had a beard which went well with the suit, and I looked for the tail under the coat, but I couldn’t perceive one, although this did little to reassure me.” “I was not puzzled at all by the Captain’s arrival, I accepted it. It had happened like a fine day between two weeks of rain.”“… the Captain paused and took a step back. He was gazing at the plane with reverence as though it were some sacred object which might grant his prayers, or as a man might look at a woman who has aged by his side but still holds his admiration by the way she has skillfully dealt with time.”This reminds me of my grandfather: “… I realized that to him, at his years, old age did not start till well after his own”“So now I’m writing what I’ve always been too shy to say… the day you came to see me… You had lost a button off your shirt and your shoes could have done with a good clean.”
From Amazon:"Victor Baxter is a young boy when a secretive stranger known simply as “the Captain” brings him from his boarding school to London. Victor becomes the surrogate son and companion of a woman named Liza, who renames him “Jim” and depends on him for any news about the world outside their door. Raised in these odd yet touching circumstances, Jim is never quite sure of Liza’s relationship to the Captain, who is often away on mysterious errands. It is not until Jim reaches manhood that he confronts the Captain and learns the shocking truth about the man, his allegiances, and the nature of love."The Captain and the Enemy is a quick, but engaging read. The major theme of the book is the nature of responsibility and love with a special emphasis on its confining, yet sacrificial aspects. My favorite quote is "Oh love. They are always saying God loves us. If that's love I'd rather have a bit of kindness." One weakness that I didn't care for was the major shift in location from England to Panama. It didn't seem believable to me; however, it does move the plot along. I recommend the book for someone who reads too much nonfiction (like me) and needs a break.
What do You think about The Captain And The Enemy (2005)?
I was inspired to read this novel by a glowing review of the it in Salman Rushdie's Imaginary Homelands. It lived up to Rushdie's praise. It will be a sad day once I've read all of Greene's novels, luckily there's still a few to be read. I think one of the blurbs on the book jacket sum up the novel best: "The master's hand is clearly at work-rich with echoes of Graham Green's great obsessions-love, sex, authority, God, the paradoxical natures of truth, honesty, strength, goodness and evil."-The New York Times. The story is split between the narrator's upbringing in London and his reunion with the mysterious and charming Captain in Panama after the death of the Captain's great love, Liza. There's plenty of intrigue involving Sandanistas and vague notions about Central/South America instability, as well as explorations of the themes mentioned by the NY Times. It is both thought provoking and entertaining-classic Greene.
—Patrick McCoy
An under appreciated milky gem of a Greene novel for sure, but one that resonated with me. Greene is always a bit of a risk taker and this novel proves no different than many of his others. It is ambiguous, slightly absurd, and feels a tad like Conrad wrote Treasure Island as a Central American spy novel. As Greene's last novel, it incorporates aspects of both his more Catholic novels with his spy novels. To me C&E read as a fragmented meditation (read map) on love, kindness, truth, sacrifice and buried underneath it all - God.
—Darwin8u
I know this book is bad-ass because weeks after reading it, I stopped in the middle of the sidewalk and realized what Greene was doing. He does it very effectively, too, by using the way in which he tells the story to tell a part of the story.My current theory is that this is book is actually a brilliant exposition on the scaffolding we all create in our attempts to architect meaning. Nothing means anything, Greene seems to argue, but we try and infuse meaning to literal scraps in order to weave some semblance of order and/or sense into our basement apartment existences.The story itself is, well, just okay, but the craft? Yowza. If I describe in too much detail I'll ruin it for you, so I'll just say: Although the technique of interweaving text from various parts of a narrator's life has been poorly photocopied many times since, Greene did it decades ago and holy crap, let that last short chapter sink in for a while and sneak up on you while you trudge back to your apartment from the subway.My favorite part about this book is that I found it on the steps of a public library in the free book box, and I had my "AHA!" moment approximately twenty feet away but many weeks later.
—Anittah
