TBR Jar Review: Travels With My Aunt - Graham Greene

This is not normally the kind of book I would pick up, I think. I mostly connect Graham Greene with thrillers or detective books. To be perfectly honest I have nothing to base this assumption on, it’s just always been there at the back of my mind, and I have never wanted to pick up anything by him because of it. 

I picked this one up because it was the latest draw from my TBR Jar. The reason it was in there in the first place is because I got it off one of those “You should read this next” lists. I’ve since abandoned that list, as I haven’t enjoyed too many books on it, but some are still lurking in the jar. And I guess it is nice to pick up something you normally wouldn’t every once in a while. 

Anywho, this book is about a retired bachelor by the name of Henry Pulling. He lives a quiet life in England and always has. When his mother dies, he meets his aunt Augusta for the first time, and she involves him in her quite dramatic life. They travel together to Istanbul on the Orient Express and Augusta tells Henry what seem to be tall tales about her former life. Henry has his doubts about the truthfulness of these tales, and Augusta always seems to have an ulterior motive to things, which she does not share with Henry, leaving him even more doubtful. When they return to England Henry is torn between wanting his old quiet life and wanting new adventures with his aunt. 

I thought this book was okay. It was well-written for the most part, although I sometimes stumbled through the sentences. I don’t know if that is just my English or if it really is clumsily written at times. The plot itself I found mostly frustrating. Like Henry, I had my doubts about aunt Augusta’s stories, and because of her ulterior motives I never trusted a thing she did or said. The story also pretty much depended on these stories, playing out in the present only what was set in motion in the past, and because we only know fragments of this, it is hard to string together a coherent narrative. 

I thought the ending was just meh. Aunt Augusta shows that she doesn’t really care about anyone else but herself, and she expects everyone to follow her lead. When she finally gets together with her man, she is so completely taken by him that I found it quite sad and off-putting. She had shown herself to be strong and resourceful earlier in the book, but then she completely falls under the spell of this man, and turns into a weak, blindly trusting follower. That was quite disappointing for me. Henry in the end also seems to give up all his previous morals and ideals. Yes, he did have a boring life, but could he really not spice it up any other way? I get the feeling that this is supposed to be a “fun” book, describing the hilarious antics of Henry and his aunt, but in the end I found it quite sad. And not in a good way. 

I gave this book 2,5 stars out of 5 on Goodreads. 

The next pick from my TBR jar is “Angus, Thongs and Full-Frontal Snogging” by Louise Rennison. Reading the summary it doesn’t really sound like something I would enjoy at my age, so I have deleted it from my TBR and picked another book; “Forgive me, Leonard Peacock” by Matthew Quick. This sounds much more up my alley, and I’ve heard good things about it on Booktube.