21 Stories, by Graham Greene

Twenty-one Stories by Graham Greene
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Great writers make it look easy. There is so much to say about Graham and his writing, but the best thing for writers to do is just read him. He just pulls you in. No struggle. No bells and whistles. The smoothest language and most personal language I have ever read. A seductive music begins to play in your head from the first phrase, and you enter the story effortlessly. The stories about children appealed to me the most, as they were the simplest in form, and for me, the music played the loudest. I met a woman in a cafe here in Oaxaca where I live now and when I told her I was reading Greene, she immediately recalled what a complete escape he provided her when she needed a break from her studies in graduate school.

I'm sure like all writers I love, D.H. Lawrence, Annie Dillard, Joan Didion, I will stumble upon a few Greene stories and novels that I could do without. But I have never felt that a failed effort diminished the best efforts of a serious writer. In fact the ones that struck me as not being quite up to par, instructed me just as clearly. 


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