Travels with my Aunt by Graham Greene

 Travels with my Aunt by Graham Greene

And on a lighter note…

This is one of the most hilarious books I have read in a long time. Greene’s prose pulls us into Henry Pulling’s world almost immediately. If you are reading this on a train, be warned, you may miss your stop. But that is fine, head to Paris or Istanbul like Pulling does with his Aunt. The title explains the literal premise for the book but there is so much more. I want Aunt Augusta for my Aunt. She is a hilarious figure that can be found on the pages of Humphry Clinker and any Oscar Wilde play. There is something sad to Henry’s world, alone with his dahlias and the Major next door. The reader immediately knows that the train Henry is put on can not return to his normal life as a retired bank manager. I doubt Greene would have even thought to have Henry pack his bags and head back on a boat for England from Paraguay. And no one, unless they have a heart of steel or haven’t been reading this book, would want that for Henry. There is not much explanation for Augusta but there does not need to be. Greene does a brilliant job of not only making a hilarious comedy but also capturing a history of England that is rarely seen. The book was originally published in 1969. The Major living next door has dinner on his own, same as Henry. Henry’s mother talks about the price of food at the dinner table, harking back to rationing post World War Two. Throughout you get the feeling that Henry is left over from another age, especially when he meets a young travelling girl on the train that may or may not be pregnant. And whose father may or may not be involved with the CIA. At times you feel that this novel could be set now but then Greene drops words such as ‘negro’ to describe Wordsworth, Augusta’s friend and you realize that this book was written in a time that both seems very similar and very different to our present. Travels with my Aunt deserves to sit between Brighton Rock and The Power and the Glory.