Customer Reviews
Wouldn't we all love to have an Aunt Augusta?! - By: Linda Linda, 01 Jun 2010 
A favourite read of mine which is guaranteed to lift my spirits. Chapters 1-6 are especially entertaining & evocative of a 'lost' era that I have glimpsed but am not quite old enough to have belonged to. It's the perfect antidote when life seems humdrum. Characters & storytelling are just superb, especially the back catalogue of Aunt Augusta's acquaintances!
Short, Funny, and Touching, With the Greene Touch - By: Stephanie DePue, 30 May 2010 
"Travels with My Aunt" was penned by its greatly praised British author Graham Greene rather latein his long life, & his long, prolific, greatly-honored literary career. In fact, Greene wrote it past the point at which he divided his work into 'novels--' serious, like The Power & the Glory; & 'entertainments,' lighter, like Our Manin Havana. He probably would, however, have called this one an 'entertainment.' Mind you, this novel never has been a critical favorite; nor has the movie of the same name, Graham Greene Collection [DVD], starring Maggie Smith, who was Oscar-nominated for the role of Aunt Augusta, made from it. (Most of his books were filmed).
The novel is toldin first person by its narrator Henry Pulling, a never-married, presumably virgin, stuffy, retired bank manager, looking forward to a lifetime of cultivating his suburban dahlias. At his mother's funeral, he meets his Aunt Augusta, absent from his life since his christening. She shakes him up, drags him on exotic travels, & gives him some better reasons to live. (It's noticeable that there's a certain family resemblance to Patrick Dennis's Auntie Mame: An Irreverent Escapade, penned roughly a decade earlier. But these two books involve protagonists at different ends of life: a boy, & a retiree, and, let's face it, anything written by Graham Greene, no matter how latein his career, has his touch, & his thoughts.)
The plot's episodic, & not as tight as some of the writer's great spy stories. But the book's well written. Furthermore, you can see the Greene touchin some of the book's flavorful characters. In addition to Aunt Augusta, there's the Turkish cop, Colonel Hakim, one of several powerful third world law 'enforcers' created by Greene. There's 'Tooley,' the airhead hippie girl met on the Orient Express (played by Cindy Williams, of "Laverne & Shirley,"in the movie.) And 'Wordsworth,' as Augusta calls him, an emigrant from Sierra Leone, a part of the world with which Greene was very familiar, as he'd spent World War II there as a spy. Wordsworth (played by Lou Gossettin the film) is fiercelyin love with Augusta, a woman at least twice his age, & devotes his life to her.
One of the more challenging results of the first-person narration is that the reader, like Henry, doesn't know what Aunt Augusta is up to, until we're told. There's a longish period,in terms of this short book, when Augusta is out of touch, & Henry thinks of really solidifying his suburban retirement -- as if it could be much more solid, he's already pretty well setin concrete -- by marrying a sad local spinster. In another interesting use of the first person, Greene does not always tell us what Henry's thinking: when the narrator at last realizes some of the central facts of his Aunt's life -- some of us might ask what took him so long -- he doesn't share his thought processes with us.
"Travels" is short, & funny. And the subject matter is touching: a man no longer young, discovering family he didn't know he had, rescued from a dread life cultivating his dahlias by that family. What could be bad?
Travelling in style - By: Adrenalin Streams, 15 Sep 2009 What a genuinely nice book this is to read. No wasted words or excess padding & a lovely prose style. The story,in a nutshell, concerns a batchelorin his late 50's who meets his long lost aunt at his mother's funeral & sets off on adventures with her. The batchelor is old for his years & his aunt, althoughin her late 70's, is full of joie de vivre. The aunt's is a remarkable history & through her our batchelor learns what it is like to really live & be alive. Well recommended.
one of the best books ive read in years. - By: L. R. Doane, 23 May 2009 I saw the film on TCM many years ago, late at night when I couldnt sleepin the early hours, I saw the titles come up & Maggie Smith wasin it, so pressed record, & had a VHS copy for years. Been searching the net for the DVD, but no luck, or silly Prices.
Its more of Maggies more unknown films, but hysterical from start to end, her performance as the 'eccentric aunt' is one of her bestin my opinion. Buy this book, & the film is true to the book.
a Great read, its the only 1 book I always carry with me.
Buy it & enjoy it, & get a copy of the film if you can & have never seen it. It takes prized place on my bookshelf.
It's never too late... - By: Gregory S. Buzwell, 15 Mar 2009 Humour is always presentin Greene's novels, it's just that usually the comedy is buried beneath a bleak pile of despair, guilt & angst. With Greene there is laughter but it's very much laughterin the dark: the gallows humour of the man who trips on his way to the scaffold. In Travels with My Aunt however the humour steps out of the shadows & takes centre stage with the result that this is, perhaps, the most likeable & purely enjoyable all the novels Greene wrote.
Henry Pulling, a retired bank manager who lives - if that's the word - an eye-wateringly dull life, meets his Aunt Augusta for the first timein fifty years at his mother's funeral. Henry is initially wary of his charismatic aunt but gradually he falls into step beside her & the pair travel to Brighton, Paris, Istanbul and, finally, South America. From his dry little life of dahlias & retired army majors Henry finds himself propelled into a world of CIA agents, hippies, dubious businessmen, elderly Casanovas, suspect priests & quaint old dears who read uncannily accurate forecasts about future events from tealeaves. After a dull suburban existence Henry finds himself finally engaging with the very stuff of life rather than merely watching from the sidelines as it passes him by. Henry is a brilliant comic character - wide-eyed & naive, continually surprised by his aunt's questionable friends & rather racy behaviour, but it is his aunt who steals the show: fabulously entertainingin a no-nonsense hands-on fashion, ready to engage with whatever life cares to pushin her path Aunt Augusta is a fesity force of nature. As a lesson on the need to make the most of one's opportunities the book can hardly be bettered. The world is out there - go & find it....
In truth there is littlein the way of plot, but that doesn't matter. Travels is a character-lead novel & the interest derives from the way Henry & his aunt extricate themselves from ever more curious & unlikely situations. Greene was excellent at making his characters interesting. Little telling details are sprinkled here & there with the result that, with seemingly effortless ease, his characters live & breath. Henry, for example, has a stilted correspondence with a lady whom he used to infrequently see for tea. Gradually it becomes apparent that marriage was - & perhaps still is - a possibility. But does he want to take that step? Does he dare, or would he merely be doing so out of pity or desperation? Having travelled with his aunt could he ever go back to a conventional existence? It's all beautifully portrayed.
Travels with My Aunt is beautifully written & great fun. If you've ever found youself slumpedin an armchair & not knowing what to do with your spare time get yourself a copy. It will give you some ideas & it may just change your life. It's never too late....
