A human story

This has been a week of many pre-Christmas celebrations, both big and small. It started with a very nice dinner with some friends from jobs gone by. Then went on to a lovely Christmas lunch with the new job lot. Followed the day after by a nice lunch with one of my old mates and rounded off nicely yesterday by a staff Christmas celebration at work. All this has made me stop and realise how grateful I am for the life I have. I have good friends, people to share celebrations with and I really don't have a lot to complain about.
It also makes a nice change to be working for a company that tells you to make sure you take the time off over Christmas to reflect, recharge and relax... to ensure that you get to rest and not just spend time running around after others and thinking about getting back to work.
I have a very special guest coming over for Christmas and am going to make sure I am going to enjoy the time we have together. Christmas dinner is going to be a bit of a lucky dip dinner I am afraid... best laid plans are there to be changed I guess. Still planning to do some of the traditional stuff but am letting Fate decide on the rest of it... who knows what we'll end up with...


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The Human Factor - Graham Greene
Every time I read one of Graham Greene's books I am reminded of why I love this man's work so much. He never lets me down and always delivers on story, characters and humanity in his books. This one is no different. Once again with Greene there are some familiar themes in this story: loss, hiding, deception, pretending to be something you are not, faith, trust.
In this tale we find ourselves in the shadowy world of the secret agents once again only this time we are getting a look into the lives of the office bound administrators of the world's secrets. We meet our main man Maurice Castle (solid, reliable, dependable), Arthur Davis (the lone wolf, careless, lazy, chasing after rainbows and skirts) and their boss Mr Watson (uncomfortable with people and life in general, distant even from those he loves). Very soon we find out that there is a suspected leak somewhere in the department that Castle works and the brass is on a mission to find out who it is. For this they call upon the services of the good doctor Percival who has the ear of the big boy upstairs (Hargreaves - pompous, rich and probably a bit bored with his life). After some intensive vetting and snooping some conclusions are jumped to and the matter is dealt with with as little legal fuss as possible. However... things are never that clear cut in the Secret Service and we soon find out that they actually got the wrong man. I have to say it did not come as a surprise to me that they did.
From the start there seems to be something off about Castle. Why does he go to that book store and why does he always gets two copies of every book. Allegedly one for him and one for "his friend" yet Castle seems the most friendless man I have ever known. Why does he seem so interested and even anxious in getting hold of the shop owner's son? All Castle ever seems to do is go to work and go home... and go to the bookshop. Castle is clever and very observant, he seems to be on the lookout for what other people know and can tell him. He also seems to be a man with a hidden agenda... there are little hints that all is not what it seems with Castle. At home he has a wife (whom he met in Africa and saved from harm) and a son (who turns out not to be his). Castle also is a man who is not where he wants to be. He seems to be remembering times gone by when he was in a better place, when things were better for him and he believed in what he was doing.
Little by little you find out that Castle was working as a spy in South Africa and when things got hairy he had to get out and he got help from an unexpected source. You learn that his now wife, Sarah was working for him as an agent and had to get out too as she had been feeding him information. Sarah was also more that just his agent. The two were lovers and then married. Things get even more interesting when you learn that Castle was not just talking to the English about what he found out but that he got turned and worked for the Russians as well. As the story develops you get to know more and more little bits about Castle and his life as a double agent. You also see the toll it takes on him and his family.
In the end Castle's downfall is inevitable. He has put himself in an impossible position and he loses his job (no great loss to him), he loses his Russian contact (a loss to him) and he loses his family... that is perhaps the greatest loss of all. I am not sure that Castle was really prepared to make that sacrifice when he started his double life but it is the sacrifice he ends up having to make to stay alive and have any chance of getting his family back. 
What I liked about the story is that you really get to know who Castle is and what makes him tick. You get to know his world, his beliefs, what he treasures more than anything in the world and how he copes with the loss of it all. At first Castle seems to be the man who has it all but in the end that is only on the surface. What is more.... he is the one who loses everything for an ideal he doesn't even really believe in. He never calls himself a communist and seems to be in it for some (possibly) misguided loyalty to an old friend.
The award for Nasty Character in the book is a close run case between the callous Doctor Percival and the South African Muller. Castle likes neither and I don't either. Percival has no conscience, thinks he knows best and can do whatever he wants. He is ruthless when it comes to getting what he wants and will use whatever means to get his way. Muller is whatever you want him to be and therefore a man with no morals and no honesty or dignity.
Saddest scene in the book? Well, there are a few. One sad moment is when Castle goes to see Davis' body. he knows they have the wrong man and knows that Davis died and it should have been him. Then there is the scene when Castle makes his escape and has to get rid of the dog... sad.
Great book, great story, wonderful characters.


Title: The Human Factor
Author: Graham Greene
265 pages
Penguin Books
ISBN# 0-14-00-4956-8


Books to be read: 142