The Honorary Consul
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| Author | Graham Greene |
|---|---|
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Spy novel |
| Publisher | Bodley Head |
| Released | 1973 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
| Pages | 335 pp (first edition, hardback) |
| ISBN | ISBN 0-370-01486-3 (first edition, hardback) |
| Preceded by | Travels with My Aunt |
| Followed by | The Human Factor |
A novel by Graham Greene, published in 1973. It was one of the author's favorite works.
[edit] Plot summary
The story is set in an unnamed town (clearly Corrientes) in northern Argentina, near the border with Paraguay
Eduardo Plarr is a young doctor of English descent. As a boy he left Paraguay with his mother, escaping to Buenos Aires while his English father remained in Paraguay as a political rebel. They never hear from the father again.
When Plarr moves to the quiet, subtropical backwater, he strikes up acquaintance with the only two English inhabitants, a bitter old English teacher, Humphries, and the Honorary Consul of the title, Charles Fortnum, a divorced, self-pitying alcoholic who misuses his position. A forgotten but self-important Argentine writer of novels full of silent machismo, Julio Saavedra, is Plarr's other main acquaintance.
Visiting the local brothel with Saavedra, Plarr is attracted to one girl but she is taken by another man. A couple of years later, he is called to treat Fortnum's new wife. He sees that it is the same girl, Clara. Although Plarr regards himself as a cool, self-controlled Englishman (although he has never been to England), he finds himself becoming obsessed by Clara. He later seduces her by buying her some sunglasses and they begin an affair, although he tries to remain emotionally distant from her.
"Caring is the only dangerous thing," Plarr says in the novel. "`Love' was a claim which he wouldn't meet, a responsibility he would refuse to accept, a demand ... So many times his mother had used the word when he was a child; it was like the threat of an armed robber. `Put up your hands or else ...' Something was always asked in return: obedience, an apology, a kiss which one had no desire to give."
Clara becomes pregnant. Fortnum believes the child is his and starts drinking less.
Then some schoolfriends of Plarr turn up at his surgery, one a failed priest, Rivas. They have news of his father - he is alive in a jail in Paraguay. They have a plot, for which they need a doctor's assistance, to kidnap the US ambassador on his trip to Corrientes. They will demand the release of political prisoners in Paraguay, including Plarr's father, in return for the ambassador.
But the band kidnap the wrong man - Charley Fortnum, the Honorary Consul, who they take to a squalid hut in a shantytown.
The rest of the novel charts Plarr's efforts to get Fortnum released, either as a result of diplomatic action from the UK, whose ambassador in BA is a comedy figure, or of his schoolfriends' giving up. But no-one listens to him. Saavedra and Humphries fail to help Plarr in his efforts.The police suspect Plarr, as they know about his affair with Clara, and his behaviour has been suspicious. And they tell him his father was shot dead in Paraguay while attempting escape.
Plarr goes to the hut, where Fortnum has been shot in the leg while attempting escape. Fortnum spends much of his time as he faces up to his death in sentimentalizing about Clara and in remembering the fearsome figure of his father. Then he discovers that Plarr is having an affair with Clara, and that the child is Plarr's. Meanwhile, members of the motley band drift away, and the police close in and surround the hut, while the failed priest, Father Rivas, conducts a makeshift mass inside while the rain comes down and police wait. The police deadline is about to expire.
Plarr goes out to talk to the police. But he is killed by the paratroopers, along with the other kidnappers. The authorities blame Plarr's death on the kidnappers. Plarr's mother, once a beauty and now bloated, and some of his previous older mistresses attend his funeral. Saavedra reads a homily. The UK embassy then relieves Fortnum of his consulship. In the last scene, Fortnum and Clara attempt a reconciliation. Fortnum will name the child Eduardo.
[edit] Adaptation
The book was made into a film, directed by John Mackenzie in 1983, with Richard Gere as Plarr and Michael Caine as Fortnum.
