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I listened to this on a long car trip (8.5 hours) and was transported to pre-revolution Cuba through the eyes of Wormold, the naive vacuum cleaner salesman. What fun!
Greene brought to life some colourful characters, grounded by the ordinariness of Wormold who only wanted a few daiquiris and to make his daughter Milly happy. I loved the scenes with Captain Sagura, Wormold might not have really been a spy, but he was certainly a diplomat the way he tap danced around the Red Vulture.
Knowing the history of Cuba adds a layer of urgency to the story and raises the stakes of this spy spoof. Wormold's absurd made-up crisis wasn't so farcical after all. I wonder what Greene made of the events that unfolded a few years after he wrote this.
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