A Gun for Sale (Penguin Classics)

On the surface this seems to be a run of the mill thriller written in 1936 by Graham Greene. Greene’s world involved the abdication of the King of England, the continuing rise to power of Adolph Hitler and Mussolini where the lingering economic depression was still impacting nations. Germany had been bold enough in the first world war to send Zeppelin airships across the channel to bomb England and were rearming themselves while Italy had invaded Ethiopia. Mounting political tensions and a looming war were on everyone’s mind. This is the social setting upon which a geo-political and economic based act of murder happens. The suspect comes to the attention of Scotland Yard, not for this crime but a more common and unrelated crime. In Greene's story the reader experiences the dual desperation and irony at play in this incident. It's a double-cross, a double-chase and with all the societal elements from the average working "Joes" to seedy people including corrupt cops. The hero in this story is the female protagonist pure and simple.While it may seem archaic, this book is full of wisdom about many aspects of human behavior and police work. Having been a police hostage negotiator who was fortunate to meet and learn from the best, namely Dr. Harvey Schlossberg, a NYPD cop who was that agency’s first negotiator. I can tell you based on my training and experience that this book describes the phenomena known as the "Stockholm Syndrome." The Stockholm Syndrome is a condition in which hostages develop a psychological alliance with their captors during captivity. Oh it's not called that in this novel but trust me all the elements are there in the relationship between the female protagonist and the killer.Greene tells us why some men kill. In this story he brilliantly describes the psychological and physical trauma the killer has experienced from childhood. Greene’s insight about why some men kill was elaborated by Dr. Jonathan Pincus, M.D. decades later in his book "Base Instincts." Another nugget of wisdom we glean from this book comes from the idea of "psychotherapy" which is commonly believed in today's world to be an effective treatment for anxiety, depression and anger. Interestingly the killer who has anti-social personality disorder feels some relief after sharing his feelings with the female protagonist. The police procedural portion based on Greene's description of the investigation is pretty accurate not necessarily in all the details; but cop work is "foot work" and you get a feel for it in the course of the story. And as many cops will tell you one type of investigation can become something entirely different during the course of fact finding. He shares with us the real time decisions the police must make, the duty to objectivity, and the inherent risks associated with the capture of criminals. There are many other slices of the "wisdom pie" in this story involving moral courage, war, the media, "sex" and class differences. I have shared with you some of the different levels of “wisdom” but there are more for you to find on your own. As you read this story think about the human condition as it applied then during Greene’s time and in our world today.Finally I close with this recommendation to Amazon Prime. It is time for this story to be remade as an Amazon Prime series with plenty of juicy roles to challenge the best actors and relevancy for today's world. Instead of watching the original film, read the book, it is much better!

On the very first page of what he called "An Entertainment," in sparse, simple language, Graham Greene provides us with all we need to know about "Raven" who is "A Gun for Sale" and not just one particular "gun for sale" as erroneously implied in the American edition's title of "This Gun for Hire." For Raven is any gun for sale and every gun for sale; any man and every man who, as Mephistopheles says of Faust, "...nennt's Vernunft und braucht's allein. Nur tierischer als jedes Tier zu sein." Raven has a highly developed reasoning power, but he has lost the God-given power of feeling. Indeed, Raven's own name is all we really need to know; totally devoid of human feeling, Raven stalks and kills his prey in a cold, calculating manner. He is part man, but without feeling, he is more animal-like than any animal.This is no mere "entertainment," though it is definitely entertaining. This is the story of an animal-like creature that becomes a man, the opposite of what happened to Gregor Samsa in "Die Verwandlung." Yet the story of Samsa and that of Raven are the same. Both Samsa and Raven are, in the end, Christ-like figures who are transformed to another state of being and achieve redemption and the possibility of eternal life in death; in Raven's story, it is the transforming power of the love of another human being that brings the possibility of eternal life. The moral of this "entertainment" (and Greene was definitely a "moral" writer) is that we humans can achieve the same transformation and possibility of eternal life only through the God-like power of the love of our fellow human beings.

"Gun for Sale" was written in 1936 about fictional events just before WW1. It, unfortunately, is driven by the author's then-dominant themes of the Catholic church, socialism, anti-capitalism, and what's even worse: blatant antisemitism. He takes up the old canard that Jews have all the money, run all the banks, control the arms industry; so of course they control the impetus for war! It's so absurd on the surface, at least to us today, (well, alright, not all of us, just the educated among us), that it makes hash of the rest of the book.It's too bad, because there are all the elements of a top-notch story. He even predicts what would later be known as the "Stockholm Syndrome" in a cleverly contrived situation between the killer and the chief-detective's girl. It's after that, that the story turns predictable and lame, due to the author's biases.There are also glaring errors in the story line; he must not have had an efficient editor. The time-line, if one cares about such things, makes no sense. You will see directly as you read all the coincidental circumstances. Further, his knowledge of firearms couldn't be so amateurish as he reveals in the text. The killer starts out carrying the "gun," a major element in the plot, specifically referred to as an "automatic," several times. However, this crucial clue for the police force later becomes a "pistol" for a while, before magically changing into a "revolver" for the rest of the book! For those unfamiliar with handguns, a revolver and an automatic are two entirely different weapons.In any case, this seeming sequel to "Brighton Rock" falls flat, from its presuming beginning to its predictable conclusion. Don't judge this amazing author from this failure.

This was originally published in 1936, the Alan Ladd film called This Gun For Hire came out in 1942.The killing of a European politician edges a dreary run down England closer to inevitable war. Meanwhile a killer tries to track down those who have betrayed him.I first read this book forty years ago, and it was one of my favourites. It inhabits the bleak amoral world Patrick Hamilton’s Hangover Square, and CS Forrester’s Payment Deferred. Combining the compelling narrative of a thriller with the detailed rounded characters and moral depth of a thriller. Although Greene somewhat disparagingly referred to these books as entertainments, the quality of the writing is immaculate. At times it calls to mind TS Eliot’s Wasteland, or Larkin’s Whitsun Weddings.Although clearly of its time, with omniscient police and a vanished England, this is a brisk chilling thriller that equally serves as a serious novel of real issues.

A favourite book written by a favourite writer. It is set partly in Nottwich / Nottingham my home town

Greene combines literary fiction with the fast paced filmic,thriller,in a tale of murder,revenge and retribution.

Wonderful read from the Greene ‘entertainer’ set of books, tinged with the doubt of his more serious works

As described - no problems