Our Man in Havana

Our Man in Havana
1st edition cover
Author(s)	Graham Greene
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Genre(s)	Novel
Publisher	Heinemann
Publication date	December 1958
Media type	Print (hardcover)
Pages	273 pp
ISBN	NA
Followed by	A Burnt-Out Case

Our Man In Havana (1958) is a novel by British author Graham Greene, where he makes fun of intelligence services, especially the British MI6, and their willingness to believe reports from their local informants.

It was adapted into a film of the same name in 1959, directed by Carol Reed and starring Alec Guinness; in 1963 it was adapted into an opera by Malcolm Williamson, to a libretto by Sidney Gilliat, who had worked on the film. In 2007, it was adapted into a play by Clive Francis.

Background

Greene joined MI6 in August 1941.^[1][2][3] In London, Greene had been appointed to the subsection dealing with counter-espionage in the Iberian peninsula, where he had learned about German agents in Portugal sending the Germans fictitious reports which garnered them expenses and bonuses to add to their basic salary.^[4] One of these agents was "Garbo", a Spanish double agent in Lisbon, who gave his German handlers disinformation, by pretending to control a ring of agents all over England. In fact he invented armed forces movements and operations from maps, guides and standard military references. Garbo was the main inspiration for Wormold, the protagonist of Our Man In Havana.^[5]

Remembering the German agents in Portugal, Greene wrote the first version of the story in 1946, as an outline for a film script, with the story set in Estonia in 1938. The film was never made, and Greene soon realised that Havana – which he had visited several times in the early 1950s – would be a much better setting, and the absurdities of the cold war being more appropriate for a comedy.^[4]

Plot

The novel, a black comedy, is set in Havana during the Fulgencio Batista regime. James Wormold, a vacuum cleaner retailer, is approached by Hawthorne, who offers him work for the British secret service. Wormold's wife had divorced him and now he lives with his sixteen year-old beautiful and devoutly Catholic daughter Milly. Since Wormold does not make enough money to pay Milly's extravagances, he accepts the offer. Because he has no information to send to London, Wormold fakes his reports using information found in newspapers and invents a fictitious network of agents. Some of the names in his network are those of real people (most of whom he has never met) and some are made up. At one point, he decides to make his reports "exciting" and sends to London sketches of vacuum cleaner parts, telling them that those are sketches of a secret military installation in the mountains. In London nobody except Hawthorne, who alone knows Wormold sells vacuum cleaners, doubts this report. But Hawthorne does not report his doubts for fear of losing his job. In the light of the new developments, London sends Wormold a secretary, Beatrice Severn, and a radio assistant with much spy paraphernalia.

On arriving, Beatrice tells Wormold she has orders to take over his contacts. Her first request is to contact the pilot Raúl. Under pressure, Wormold develops an elaborate plan that results in Raul's death. Raul has an accident and dies on his way to the airport. From this point, Wormold's manufactured universe becomes a reality. Together, Beatrice and Wormold try to save his fictional, now real, agents from getting killed. Meanwhile, London finds out that an unspecified enemy intends to poison Wormold at a trade association Luncheon where Wormold is the speaker. Wormold identifies the enemy, Carter, and spills the poisoned whisky on the floor. The chef's dog drinks it and dies.

Wormold has to get the list of all the other spies in Havana which is in the possession of Captain Segura. Segura plans to marry Milly. Wormold gets Segura drunk in a game of draughts using miniature bottles of Scotch and Bourbon as the game pieces. Each piece taken has to be drunk at once. Segura falls asleep. Wormold takes his gun and the list. To avenge the murder of his close friend Dr Hasselbacher, Wormold kills Carter with Segura's pistol. Wormold sends the list as a microdot photograph on a postage stamp to London. But it proves a blank when processed.

Hawthorne and the secret service are then told about the deception. Beatrice learns the truth from Wormold and loves the scam and his ingenuity. They are summoned to London. The top people, rather than admit they were taken in, promote Wormold to a teaching post at headquarters and recommend him for an OBE. Beatrice is posted to Jakarta. However the two meet in a temperance hotel and decide to marry. Milly is to go to a Swiss finishing school paid for by Wormold's scam earnings.

Cuba's attitude

The revolutionary government of Cuba allowed the film version of Our Man in Havana to be filmed in the Cuban capital, but Fidel Castro complained that the novel did not accurately portray the brutality of the Batista regime.

Greene commented:

Alas, the book did me little good with the new rulers in Havana. In poking fun at the British Secret Service, I had minimized the terror of Batista's rule. I had not wanted too black a background for a light-hearted comedy, but those who suffered during the years of dictatorship could hardly be expected to appreciate that my real subject was the absurdity of the British agent and not the justice of a revolution.

Greene returned to Havana between 1963 and 1966, but his disagreement with the regime's treatment of Catholics, intellectuals, and homosexuals left him at odds with the government, and his work is not commemorated in Cuba.^[6]

See also

• The Tailor of Panama – a 2001 film based on the novel by John le Carré, itself inspired by Our Man in Havana.

References

1. ^ Christopher Hawtree. "A Muse on the tides of history: Elisabeth Dennys". The Guardian, 10 February 1999. Retrieved 16 April 2011.
2. ^ Robert Royal (November 1999). "The (Mis)Guided Dream of Graham Greene". First Things. http://www.firstthings.com/article.php3?id_article=3226. Retrieved 2 June 2010. 
3. ^ "BBC – BBC Four Documentaries – Arena: Graham Greene". BBC News. 3 October 2004. http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour/documentaries/features/graham-greene.shtml. Retrieved 2 June 2010. 
4. ^ ^{a b} Peter Hulme, University of Essex: Graham Greene And Cuba: Our Man in Havana? An analysis Retrieved 31 August 2011
5. ^ Smyth, Denis, “Our Man in Havana, Their Man in Madrid: Literary Invention in Espionage Fact and Fiction,” Spy Fiction, Spy Films and Real Intelligence (Wesley K. Wark, ed.), London: Frank Cass, 1991, pp. 117–135.
6. ^ Baker, Christopher P (2006). Cuba (4th ed. ed.). Emeryville, CA: Avalon Travel. ISBN 9781566918022. OCLC 71285263. 

External links

• Peter Hulme, University of Essex: Graham Greene And Cuba: Our Man in Havana? An analysis Retrieved 2011-08-31
• Savidge Reads (24 October 2010): Our Man in Havana – Graham Greene – Review by Simon Savidge Retrieved 2011-08-31
• The Stasi (29 July 2009): Book Review: Our Man in Havana by Graham Greene Retrieved 2011-08-31
• A Modest Construct (13 February 2011): Our Man in Havana – a review Retrieved 2011-08-31