England Made Me

England Made Me (1935) is one of the last novels by Graham Greene on my list to read. I had expected it to take place in England given the title, but was surprised to find it takes place in Stockholm, Sweden. This is where the never-do-well Anthony Farrant has landed after his latest failure in Aden (in Yemen), where his twin sister, Kate, works for millionaire businessman Erik Krough. She also serves as his mistress. Anthony Farrat is a charming failure with the gift of the gab who is prone to over exaggeration. Another equally fascinating creation is the English journalist exile Minty, who owes his meager existence to covering the doings of Krough and is a different sort of failure than Anthony. There is a lot of talk about class and what constitutes being a gentleman, which refer to traditional English standards of living and respectability that Anthony and Minty cling to. They are exiles who lust for the green fields of England and curse the fates for not having been born with money, because both believe that given a chance and trust of an investment they could be successful. Kate is more of a realist and has pinned her future on Krough. Anthony doesn't really have the fortitude to plan long term-he has spent too much of his life scraping to get by and moving from one colonial outpost to another trying to make a name for himself. It seems here he has decided to finally do the right thing and then return to England-the sure sign of a tragedy in waiting. There is a curious subplot involving one of the Swedish journalists who is an Anglophile and dreams of staging a production of Shakespeare's Pericles. I was trying to figure out why Greene chose that play, and it amy be because it has a mixed reputation and doesn't have a long history of being staged like some of his more famous tragedies. Perhaps, Greene is equating the narrator of the play, Gower, with Krough-since so many of the characters fates are tied to this industrialist's success. A lesser known Greene novel, but another compelling story from the master.