Reading Order
Our Man in HavanaGraham Greene Our Man in Havana Reading Order
Graham Greene's Our Man in Havana (1958) is his 'entertainment' — a comic spy novel set in pre-revolutionary Cuba, in which the vacuum cleaner salesman Wormold is recruited by MI6 and begins sending intelligence reports based entirely on the designs of his Atomic Pile Cleaner. The novel is both a satire of the intelligence services and a meditation on what happens when fiction becomes indistinguishable from fact. Published a year before the Cuban Revolution, Greene had access to Havana's casino culture and underworld that gives the novel an extraordinary sense of place.
Where to start
The Quiet American
Complete Our Man in Havana Book List
- 1Buy
The Quiet American
Graham Greene·1955·The essential companion — Greene's most politically serious novel; the story of Pyle and Fowler in Saigon in 1952 is the serious side of what Our Man in Havana satirizes; read this first to understand Greene's political intelligence before the comedy of Havana. - 2Buy
Our Man in Havana
Graham Greene·1958·The novel itself — Wormold, Hawthorne, the Atomic Pile Cleaner, Beatrice, and the dark comedy that follows when fiction becomes intelligence. - 3Buy
The Third Man
Graham Greene·1950·Greene's novella written as a screenplay treatment — Holly Martins arrives in post-war Vienna to find his friend Harry Lime has apparently died; the companion to Our Man in Havana in Greene's entertainments and his most celebrated thriller. - 4Buy
Brighton Rock
Graham Greene·1938·The companion in Greene's moral seriousness — Pinkie, Ida, and Rose in Brighton; the Catholic thriller that established Greene's territory and the essential companion for understanding what lies under the comedy of Our Man in Havana. - 5Buy
The Spy Who Came in from the Cold
John le Carré·1963·Le Carré's breakthrough novel — the most important spy novel published in the years after Our Man in Havana and the one that most directly inherits Greene's interest in intelligence operations as moral corruption; where Greene satirizes the intelligence services, le Carré dissects them. - 6Buy
Casino Royale
Ian Fleming·1953·Fleming's debut Bond novel — the opposite of Our Man in Havana in its attitude toward the intelligence services; the contrast between Fleming's celebration of MI6 and Greene's satire of it shows the two possibilities for the Cold War spy novel. - 7Buy
A Burnt-Out Case
Graham Greene·1960·Greene's immediately following novel — Querry's flight to a remote Congo leper colony; the companion to Our Man in Havana in Greene's work of the late 1950s, showing the serious existential concern that underlies even his entertainments.
Our Man in Havana — Frequently Asked Questions
What is Our Man in Havana about?
Our Man in Havana (1958) follows Wormold, a vacuum cleaner salesman in pre-revolutionary Havana who is recruited by the British intelligence service. Unable to obtain real intelligence, he invents agents and sends MI6 detailed reports based on the designs of the Atomic Pile Cleaner. The joke turns serious when MI6 begins to act on his invented intelligence and real people are threatened.
Is Our Man in Havana based on real events?
Our Man in Havana is a satirical novel, but Greene had extensive experience with the real intelligence services — he worked for MI6 under Kim Philby during the Second World War. The novel's satire of intelligence services sending reports full of invented information was disturbingly realistic; Greene said he drew on his knowledge of how intelligence actually worked.
Is Our Man in Havana a comedy?
Our Man in Havana is Graham Greene's most openly comedic novel — he called it an 'entertainment' to distinguish it from his serious work, though the category became blurred over time. It is darker than it first appears: the comedy of Wormold's invented intelligence tips into genuine danger, and the novel's political point (that intelligence services cannot distinguish fiction from fact) is serious even when the tone is light.
Monthly Newsletter
Never miss a big release
Get the most anticipated upcoming books delivered to your inbox once a month — no spam, no filler.
Monthly only. Unsubscribe anytime.
Book links are Amazon affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, BookReleaseRadar earns from qualifying purchases at no extra cost to you.