Travels with My Aunt (1969)

UK
Novel
Author: Graham Greene

Greene’s slight, light-hearted though fairly entertaining novel, a tale of unlikely adventure and unlikely adventurers, detrimentally lacks the inner conflict and emotional turmoil that afflicts the protagonists of his best work. Where the humour in say Our Man In Havana (1958) is grounded in reality, here it often drifts into whimsy and inconsequentiality. That’s not to say that the novel is necessarily a poor one. Novels about female septuagenarian smugglers who have had a string of lovers of all races, nationalities and creeds, amongst them war criminals and drug dealers, is inherently entertaining. Said old woman is the titular aunt, Augusta, an adventurous old woman with a chequered past. The requisite nephew, Henry Pulling, a retired bank manager, is a much less exciting character. The travels of the title that Henry takes with Augusta lead them to France, Italy, Turkey, Argentina and Paraguay, and a number of adventures ensue along the way.