The Honorary Consul (Roman)
The Honorary Consul (original title: The Honorary Consul ) is a novel by Graham Greene , which was published in 1973. The German edition was published by Paul Zsolnay in the same year .
content
Argentina in the seventies. Somewhere in a border town in a northern province, on the banks of the Río Paraná , the border river to Paraguay , the British doctor Dr. Eduardo Plarr and looks back on his life: Born on the other side of the river to a Paraguayan mother and a British father, he emigrated to Argentina with his mother as a teenager and left his father behind in Paraguay. To be more precise, he sent them into exile because, as a political opponent of the dictator Alfredo Stroessner, he was concerned about the safety of his family. He has since disappeared.
Dr. Plarr is nervous because he knows that there are Paraguayan rebels in his province these days who have a daring plan: They want to kidnap the US ambassador who is visiting the province to kill him about ten political Exchanging prisoners in Paraguay - including his father. His former school friend, ex-priest Leon Rivas, who is one of the rebels, let him in on this plan and asked for his support. The rebels contact him late at night and ask for his medical assistance for the hostage they are holding in a poor area of his city. When Dr. When Plarr sees the man, he knows that the kidnappers have made a terrible mistake: In front of him is not the American ambassador, but the British honorary consul from his province, Charley Fortnum.
In flashbacks, the figure of the honorary consul is illuminated further: Charley Fortnum is a man in his sixties, a heavy drinker who is actually just embarrassing to both the British embassy in Buenos Aires and the few British citizens in his province. His wife, Clara, who is much younger than him, was previously a whore in the local brothel whom he ransomed. She has been pregnant for a few months - but not from him, but from Dr. Plarr, with whom she has had a relationship for a long time. However, it is not clear what brought these two together because Dr. Plarr seems to love her less than to be obsessively obsessed with her, and she never reveals her own motives. Dr. Plarr calls her a "mirror" that reflects the wishes of the men she meets.
Partly for these personal reasons, partly because no one in the US or the UK will lift a finger to save Charley Fortnum, Dr. Plarr convince his old school friend to break off the venture and release the honorary consul. However, he refuses, and a corresponding ultimatum is sent.
In the following days, Dr. Do anything to convince anyone to stand up for Charley Fortnum. His efforts are sparse, but instead draw the attention of Police Officer Perez to him. The latter knows about the affair between the honorary consul's wife and the doctor, and he warns the doctor not to interfere too deeply with the story, as he will not show him any consideration. At the same time, however, he also informs him about the death of his father: he was shot a year ago in a failed escape attempt because the other refugee (one of the current kidnappers, as Dr. Plarr knows) left him in the lurch. There is therefore no hope of his release.
Only a short time later, the kidnappers contact him again: The honorary consul was shot while trying to escape. And this time the kidnappers won't let go of him after giving the victim medical attention.
A psychodrama is now relaxing in the hut in the slum: Some of the kidnappers themselves doubt the sense of their mission, Leon Rivas has to go to Dr. Plarr confess that his father is indeed dead, and Charley Fortnum learns the truth about the doctor and his wife. Before the ultimatum expires, paratroopers of the Argentine military surround the hut. The ex-priest reads one last mass; then Dr. Plarr - regardless of the warnings - out into the open and, like Leon, who follows him, is shot down.
In the last chapter, Charley Fortnum attends the doctor's funeral and tells the embassy secretary the truth: It was not the kidnappers but the paratroopers who killed Dr. Plarr killed. But nobody cares either; the embassy secretary seems rather relieved because Fortnum has finally been released from his service as honorary consul. Fortnum returns to his farm, and in the end, for the first time, regardless of any cheating, something like real human feeling appears between him and his wife.
Influences
Influences that go back to the Latin American liberation theologian Camilo Torres are said to have been processed in the figure of ex-priest Leon Rivas .
Graham Greene himself has repeatedly called the Honorary Consul his best novel.