The Honorary Consul

Cracking Tale, Very Well Read

Tim Pigott-Smith does an excellent job of reading this book, creating a series of readily indentifiable voices for all of the protagonists.

The story itself is classic Greene and it authentically captures the humidity, sleaze and ennui of it's setting in a town on the banks of the river that marks the border between Argentina and Paraguay. It is well plotted, has great characters and explores issues of nationality, idealism and, as always with Graham Greene, the catholic church.

Why only four stars then? Well, there is a section in the book in to which the author uncharacteristically clumsily shoehorns a discussion on religion that goes on rather longer than necessary to drive the plot and is presumably there to allow Graham Greene a platform on which to share his views of the roman church. Please don't let this put you off though - this is a really good story, beautifully read.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

Laboured story, superb narration

A story which doesn’t go anywhere and spends on long musing on ‘love’ with characters that aren’t especially good at it! Superb narration from Tim Pigott-Smith was the only redeeming factor which kept me listening.

Amazing interesting understanding of human nature

I loved this story. Greene is an amazing reader of human nature and he held everything together till the last!!

Good story failed by reading

is an engaging story with interesting characters and a surprising ending. The almost comical reading spoils it. A mixture of speedy González and Cantinflas with poor representation of the accent by using Spanish from Spain when pronouncing "cion" like Nación. Very annoying.

Dragged on a bit

What would have made The Honorary Consul better?

It was slow and to be honest I got bored. I picked it because I loved Our Man in Havana, so I thought I would try more Graham Greene, but this is not the same sort of book at all.

What will your next listen be?

I would listen to more Graham Greene but I will read the reviews more carefully next time.

Did the narration match the pace of the story?

Yes

To do or not to do a foreign accent...

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

I couldn't recommend this reading of The Honorary Consul to anyone, friend or otherwise. I think most people I know who would be interested in hearing a novel set in Argentina in the seventies have some Spanish or know people from Latin America. I think this reading will annoy them for the simple reason that even when the characters are, one imagines, all speaking in Spanish, Tim Piggott-Smith puts on an exaggerated "South American" accent. He has a fine reading voice and his English characters are well defined. However, each Argentinian or Paraguayan character takes on a husky or whining tone, accompanied by what can only be described as a cod Mexican lilt, culled from a combination of bad Westerns, Manuel from Fawlty Towers (I know, he was supposed to be Spanish), and Mel Blanc's voicing of Speedy Gonzalez. This renders the later part of the book unlistenable. As we begin to hear more about the kidnappers motives, it's hard to take what they say seriously and weigh up the validity of their words, as their speech is delivered in a way that makes them sound fatuous. I struggled through to the end of the book, but I wouldn't wish the experience on anyone else.

What other book might you compare The Honorary Consul to, and why?

Not having read much English writing from this period, to me the style is most reminiscent of John Le Carré, though the comparison probably works better the other way, as Greene is the forerunner of the two, though they do share some similarities of social and professional background. Elegant, flowing prose is how I would describe it, with, for the main part, well drawn, three dimensional characters. Again, my sense that some of the characters are only sketched in, notably Clara and most of the Paraguayan kidnappers, possibly comes from my hating the ridiculous accents given them by the reader.

How could the performance have been better?

I think it would be wrong to blame the reading entirely on Tim Piggott-Smith. I imagine that the director had insisted on the foreign accents. Perhaps this choice was made in an attempt to replicate the effect of the movie with Michael Caine, rather than staying faithful to Greene's text. Who knows? If only the characters, when speaking in their native tongues, had been given English accents, this might have been a superb reading of the novel.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

There might have been moving moments in this novel but if so, the mannerisms of the reader ruined them.

Any additional comments?

I'll have to read the text of this book to really get the impact of the work.