Our Man in Havana

The many characters in this satirical spy novel burst with personality, idiosyncrasies, odd mannerisms, and quirky conversation. A theater director would be lucky to find multiple actors who could do justice to Greene's writing. Jeremy Northam, though, gives each character a distinct voice and presence all by himself. He makes notes of the details Greene uses to cast a character and takes off from there. His London intelligence chief, for example, is raspy and chilling, as if speaking from the grave. The agent Hawthorne sounds clipped and hurried, a touch anxious. The assistant, Beatrice, is observant and unflappable. Northam expresses them all as if accessing the same secret core that Greene imagined at the heart of all his characters. The book has a wonderful musical soundtrack, too. R.L.G. (c) AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine

Starred review from July 27, 2009
Actor Jeremy Northam (Gosford Park
, Tristram Shandy
) has himself a ball with Greene's comic suspense novel, its Cuban setting and panoply of international characters. He downplays the religious and political undertones of the book in favor of Greene's comedy of a vacuum-cleaner salesman turned secret agent. Greene's array of Germans, Brits and native Cubans allows Northam to trot out some of the choicest examples from his stable of voices, all cleverly done. The brief bits of salsa music that punctuate the breaks between chapters underscore Northam's jaunty reading. This is one classic novel meant to be enjoyed for entertainment, not self-improvement.

The BBC's 1989 adaptation of Greene's spy farce is an odd mixture of traditional and experimental radio theater. Scripted entirely in dialogue, the presentation has no narration, no title, and no opening or closing credits, leaving the listener uncertain as to whether the correct disc has been inserted. Performers are never named in the audio. (Jack Watling and Eleanor Bron are listed on the box, but the many other actors go uncredited). The clever story follows a British vacuum cleaner salesman living in 1950s Havana who is enlisted by the British Secret Service but sends home bogus reports. The story is charmingly twisted, and the performances energetic and entertaining, despite the character of Captain Segura, whose accent has touches of Russian, French, and English, but very little Cuban. S.E.S. (c) AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine