Our man in Havana door Graham Greene

Our Man in Havanna by Graham Greene [British Literature]

William Heinemann  Nederland NV  256 pages

Summary

In the midst of the Cold War, Cuba becomes the scene of a heated battle between intelligence services while the Cuban government was busy fending off communist rebels operating from the mountains.

Great Britain thought it best to have a finger in the pie by establishing a Havana station to keep abreast of things. Vacuum cleaner salesman James Wormold is the designated English spy. Intelligence services need information to stay operational, scheming and plotting, using every bit of information to try to predict an ideological course or simply falsify data to save their best interest.

Wormold has a goal and he seizes the opportunity to serve both his goal and that of England’s Secret Service. Little does he know that his fabrications would put the intelligence world on edge and scare people and organizations to such an extent that they would start stacking up dead bodies. Still Wormold comes out on top. He manages to avoid assassination attempts, secure the so needed funds for his teenage daughter, is offered a job by a blushing organization and finds love.

After all the entire intelligence world very much resembles a game of draught: he who has the better bluff wins.

Explanation of the title

Our Man in Havana is a reference to James (Jim) Wormold, recruited by the British Secret Service to act as their point man in Havana.

Characterization

James, Jim, Wormold, a salesman for Phastkleaners vacuum cleaners, is stationed in Havana, Cuba at the end of the 50s. Business is bad and with a teenage daughter with growing needs, Wormold certainly does not live the life of a king. His only friend is Dr. Hasselbacher, a German, with whom he drinks his occasional daiquiri. When he is approached by the British Secret Service to join their ranks, Wormold’s life undergoes a change: he enters a world of lies and counter lies, where nothing is certain, especially since he added a great deal to the uncertainty with his fabricated stories.

Wormold is round.

Other characters worth mentioning are:

Milly, Seraphina Wormold, the 17-year-old teenage daughter, a devout Roman Catholic.  Milly is flat.

Beatrice Severn, secretary with the Secret Service assigned to Wormold. She half suspects him of feeding the service lies but she says nothing. In the end, her indecisiveness would result into a pending assignment in Jakarta. It was Wormold who rescued her from being deported into oblivion. Beatrice is an excellent and skilled employee of the Secret Service who helped Wormold take charge of the Havana office. Beatrice is flat.

Dr. Hasselbacher, whose real name is Müller, survived two wars and ended up in Havana where he was a middle man for presumably Eastern European intelligence services. Because he failed to keep friendship and business separated, he was eventually killed by his own superiors.  Dr. Hasselbacher is flat. 

Captain Segura, Cuban police officer, known for his rude tactics and nicknamed the Red Vulture. Segura was pretty well informed about what went on among the various secret services. He was in love with Milly and had hoped to marry her. When she crushes his dreams he takes it out on Wormold and exposes him for the fraud he is. Segura is flat.

Henry R. Hawthorne, middleman and recruiter for the British Secret Service, working out of Kingston Jamaica.

Carter, representative of Nucleaner, is a dangerous assassin on Wormold’s tail and out to rid the intelligence world of him.

Themes

Secrecy, danger and love

The world Henry Hawthorne of the British Secret Service introduces Wormold to is one rife with secrets and resultant hazards to life.

To Wormold it was a chance of a lifetime to earn a little extra to satisfy the needs of his teenage daughter. He had no idea what he was getting himself into: spies do not have friends and they certainly do not make them. He took the advice of his friend Dr. Hasselbacher and started to fabricate lies just to keep the Secret Service satisfied. But the fabrications were taken seriously and communicated to third parties who felt threatened. As a result, the third parties started to take action, killing people and eventually attempting to rid the stirred intelligence world of Wormold.

Wormold loved his daughter Milly, for she was everything he had since his wife had left him. He would do anything to please her. But her teenage whims became expensive and since his job as a vacuum cleaner salesman did not yield much, he was glad he was recruited into a job that did.

Setting

The story is set in Havana, Cuba at the end of the 1950s.