I almost always enjoy Graham Greene as an extremely erudite and astute observer of the human condition, but this book was slow going for the first quarter of the book. As Christopher Hitchens pointed out in the forward, this is not the romantic expedition of on-the-train novels like 'Murder on the Orient Express' and 'The Lady Vanishes.' It is instead almost a modern novel of manners with a bit of international politics thrown in. Greene's emphasis is on the characters and the ways in which they come to understand one another, rather than plot. The characters include a Jewish importer--with the anti-semitism of Greene's period--a murderer on the run, a showgirl on her way to a job in Constantinople, but hoping for a meal ticket out, and a middle-aged spinster (read: lesbian) coming to terms with the loss of her companion.

There is something so cinematic about Greene's vision here, which is fascinating for a book written in 1931. But don't look for sustained suspense or moral tension, the hallmarks of Greene's best work--they're not here.