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Originally Posted by Synamon
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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I listened to the audiobook like everyone else since it was available at my library. I also thought that it was interesting how it anticipated future political events in the region. Wikipedia has a good summary on the inspiration for Wormold. I had expected a serious espionage thriller rather than a lighter spoof. I still enjoyed it and found it entertaining.
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Greene joined MI6 in August 1941. In London, Greene had been appointed to the subsection dealing with counter-espionage in the Iberian peninsula, where he had learned about German agents in Portugal sending the Germans fictitious reports which garnered them expenses and bonuses to add to their basic salary. One of these agents was "Garbo", a Spanish double agent in Lisbon, who gave his German handlers disinformation, by pretending to control a ring of agents all over England. In fact he invented armed forces movements and operations from maps, guides and standard military references. Garbo was the main inspiration for Wormold, the protagonist of Our Man In Havana.
Remembering the German agents in Portugal, Greene wrote the first version of the story in 1946, as an outline for a film script, with the story set in Estonia in 1938. The film was never made, and Greene soon realised that Havana – which he had visited several times in the early 1950s – would be a much better setting, the absurdities of the Cold War being more appropriate for a comedy.
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Originally Posted by issybird
P.$. Loved it, despite the weak ending. I wish it had ended with Wermold and Millie on the plane.
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Agreed! I like your suggestion of how it should have ended.
