The Story Archive

Our Man in Havana

Graham Greene · 1958 CE · Novel · English · Contemporary

Wormold sells vacuum cleaners in Havana, cannot keep up with his teenage daughter's tastes, and is recruited to British intelligence by an agent who corners him in a lavatory. Needing the expenses, he invents a network of sub-agents and enlarges the parts of an Atomic Pile cleaner into sketches of a secret installation in the Oriente mountains, which London finds entirely convincing. Greene had run agents in wartime Africa and thought the service had earned this.

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Attributes

Genre
SatireComedyThriller
Theme
Appearance vs RealityBetrayalWealth & GreedLoyalty
Archetype (Jung / Campbell)
EverymanTricksterVillain / Tyrant
Plot structure
Ironic ReversalMistaken Identity
Symbol / motif
The MachineThe MaskThe Game / Cards
Conflict
vs Societyvs Person
Mode / tone
SatiricalComicIronic
Culture / tradition
English

Closest analogues