Negative Positive
Title: My name is Wormold, James Wormold
Review: Graham Greene's OUR MAN IN HAVANA, written in 1958, may have been intended as a counterpoint to Ian Fleming's James Bond. James Wormold is a single father with a teenage daughter who sells vacuums in Havana and still pines for his ex. Strapped for money he agrees to work for British Intelligence, a position for which he has no experience, eventually setting up a field office complete with real and fictional spies. The law of unintended consequences kicks in when fictional reports and actual events coincide. The book shifts from an amusing satire to thriller, but doesn't lose the comedic overtones.OUR MAN IN HAVANA will make you smile, is a fast read and has Greene's exceptional prose. Looking at the state of today's intelligence operations, in the US and abroad, things may not have changed appreciably; with Greene's depiction far closer to the truth than Fleming's.
Is the review positive or negative? 