The End of the Affair | Literary Criticism & Book Review

The End of the Affair Critical Overview

Critical response to The End of the Affair has been overwhelmingly positive. Critics praise Greene's complex thematic presentation, astute characterization, and complex narrative style. In a review that was printed the year the novel was published, George Mayberry of New York Times describes the novel as "savage and sad, vulgar and ideal, coarse and refined, and a rather accurate image of an era of cunning and glory, of cowardice and heroism, of belief and unbelief." Bruce Bawer in The New Criterion comments that the novel is

exquisitely shaped and paced, the people and their
relationships seem real, and both the passion and the
bitterness ring true; though plenty of abstractions are
brought into play, one does not constantly have the
feeling that the characters serve merely as symbolic
tokens.

Many critics comment on the novel's strong religious theme. Richard Hauer...
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