My Rating: 5 Stars!!
Book & Author: The end of the affair/ Graham Greene
Audiobook narration: Colin Firth on Audible
Genre: Fiction/Philosophical
Oh, I loved this audiobook so much. It was like a balm to my senses, every day on my walks to work or on my train journey to work. Especially when it is narrated by none other than one of my favorite actors, Colin Firth.
But even more than the narration, I just loved the subject and the content of the book. I know the title might suggest this to be a frilly book, maybe even a romance novel, but trust me, it is anything but that. Yes, it is about love and hate and companionship and beliefs, but so much more profound. I mean, I have tried to post some select passages from the book that I loved and that made me nod in agreement or even think to myself, but just by reading these snippets, you can get a glimpse of the depth of the novel really.
“It’s a strange thing to discover and to believe that you are loved when you know that there is nothing in you for anybody but a parent or a God to love.”
“Insecurity is the worst sense that lovers feel; sometimes the most humdrum desireless marriage seems better. Insecurity twists meanings and poisons trust.”
“I want men to admire me, but that’s a trick you learn at school–a movement of the eyes, a tone of voice, a touch of the hand on the shoulder or the head. If they think you admire them, they will admire you because of your good taste, and when they admire you, you have an illusion for a moment that there’s something to admire.”
“What happens if you drop all the things that make you I?”
“Eternity is said not to be an extension of time but an absence of time.”
So you see, I could just go on and on and probably paste the entire book here. I loved the parts that were written/narrated by Sarah the most, because in her words, I could feel as if they were my thoughts, my words- maybe not about a person I was having an affair with, but about myself, my desires, my confusion about my beliefs, as she was confused in the beginning. I haven’t reached that stage in my life where I would believe, to the contrary, I have changed from a believer to a non believer , but I do agree with all the human fallacies and I also know, that when everything else fails, only faith, hope or a prayer to something or someone remains.
The book is also about love- what love means to different people. There is one very interesting passage narrated by one of the supporting characters- Richard Smythe, about his thoughts on what love can mean to different people in different context- but all of them could be true for someone even today.
A lovely book, and one that I might want to own and revisit just to read some of the passages again, as if I were reading a diary 🙂 Have you read this book? What were your thoughts on the book?
Starry Eyed Enigma 