The End of the Affair is different from other Greene books that I’ve read. It explores the intersection between fundamental themes that not many writers have touched since, or have rarely ever glanced upon — sex, love and religion, and he did it beautifully.
Greene uses an unreliable narrator in Bendrix, whose perception of the affair changes as he unravels the truth about his affair with Sarah, as he met other characters indirectly involved with the affair and finds her diaries. One day, Sarah abruptly ended the affair leaving Bendrix confused, lost and resentful, that when he saw Sarah’s husband, Henry walking down the road on a rainy day.
Bendrix quickly finds out that Sarah might be having an affair behind his back. Cuckolded, Henry wanted to seek the help of a personal investigator to validate his fears. Bendrix volunteered in his spite to uncover the truth about Sarah’s promiscuity and hires an incompetent yet hilarious PI.
For me, Greene has always been a deceptive writer: there is so much depth behind the slow burn prose, and is always worth revisiting. The End of the Affair isn’t really about the bitterness after an affair has abruptly ended — it is a meditation on how religion plays a part in relationships, fidelity and death.
Each relationship between the characters are unique and complex. While the central storyline focuses on the relationship between Bendrix and Sarah, the dynamics between Bendrix and Henry, Sarah and Henry, Sarah and God are just as interesting. God is an unnamed character in this book: God’s presence is prevalent, and though the End of the Affair is not a religious text, it is by far Greene’s most spiritual book. To add to the complexity omelette, minor characters also have different dynamics with the main characters which add to the richness of the story.
But it never feels like it’s too much. As always in a typical Greene book, the prose is wonderful and there are moments in the book which make you stop, blown away by the events in the book, that leave you agitated, angry, sad and heartbroken.
