The End of the Affair by Graham Greene
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I feel that one can either write too little in a review of The End of the Affair or too much. I choose the "not enough" option, pretending that it is not laziness that affects my choice but the desire to avoid spoilers.

Graham Greene's novel offers a deep psychological analysis of an adulterous affair and a study of obsessive jealousy that becomes the driving force of human behavior. This anatomy of jealousy shows its connections and intersections with love, hate, pride, and pity, where all these feelings make up a dark aggregate of human suffering occasionally relieved by flashes of happiness.

The End of the Affair is a very serious book demanding the reader's full attention. Yes, beyond the psychological study, there is a story happening in London in the 1940s, but the story is certainly not the most important aspect of the novel. Bargaining with God enters the picture, and the author seems to offer love of God as a sublimation of that messy, deeply human amalgam of love, hate, and everything in between.

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