Our Man in Havana (Roman)
Our Man in Havana is a 1958 novel by Graham Greene (original title: Our Man in Havana ) The first German translation by Lida Winiewicz was published in 1959 by Paul Zsolnay Verlag , Hamburg and Vienna . This transmission was used for all subsequent editions up to 1995, although it contains some errors (e.g. in the chapter Interlude in London in Part 2 “intelligence” was translated as “intelligence” instead of “secret service”). In 1995 the Zsolnay-Verlag published a new translation by Dietlind Kaiser as part of a new edition of Greene's works .
content
The novel is set in Cuba just before the Castro revolution . The British secret service recruits vacuum cleaner representative James Wormold as a spy in Havana , who is supposed to set up a “Caribbean network of agents”. Since Wormold suffers from constant financial worries because of his reckless daughter Milly, he lets himself into it, although he has no idea about intelligence work .
He quickly invents the information that London expects from him. The greatest impression is made by a plan of a huge military complex that he provided, which in reality only shows an enlarged construction sketch of a vacuum cleaner, which is not recognized. In addition, Wormold soon employs a group of fictitious employees - mainly to be able to increase his expense account.
The headquarters of the British secret service cannot make sense of the reports from Havana, so the priority of Wormold's "branch office" is increased and two more employees from London are added to his side. Since these "newcomers" also want to get to know his fictional employees, Wormold would like to get rid of them by means of fictitious deaths, but at this point he notices that a series of real deaths is just beginning to hit those residents of Havana who have the same names as his fictional employees . Obviously his imaginative reports were not only noticed in London, even if it remains unclear who his opponents are. At the latest, however, when his long-time friend, the exiled German doctor Dr. Hasselbacher, having confessed his forced involvement in the activities of the other side, begins to realize that he has lost control.
After a few more, sometimes grotesque, entanglements, Wormold finally got too much of it, and he quit his job and returned to England from Havana. Before that, however, he shoots an agent who tried to poison him and also kills two others - including Dr. Hasselbacher, who warned him about the poison attack - is jointly responsible. All of his inventions are exposed as such in a small circle of British secret service employees, but have no consequences for them or Wormold, since they would be enormously embarrassed if this story were to become known.
The checkers game
Mr. Wormold's hobby is collecting whiskey sample bottles. In one episode of the novel he comes under pressure from Captain Segura, the police chief of a district of Havana, who is a passionate checkers player . Wormold suggests a checkers game, with the whiskey bottles serving as game pieces ("You play with the scotch, I play with the bourbon."). Struck pieces must be drunk immediately - a parody of a feedback system , because an advantage in the course of the game immediately turns into a disadvantage, as the superior player is quickly completely drunk.
filming
Our Man was filmed in Havana as early as 1959 . Directed by Carol Reed ; the main role of Mr. Wormold played Alec Guinness , the corrupt police chief Ernie Kovacs .
radio play
The first about 75-minute radio play adaptation by Paul Hühnerfeld , directed by Gert Westphal, was broadcast by SWF in 1960 , with speakers including Horst Uhse , Konrad Georg , Karin Eickelbaum , Kurt Horwitz and Hubert von Meyerinck . A much longer radio play version was produced by WDR three years later, also under the title Our Man in Havana . Among others, Siegfried Wischnewski , Helmut Peine , Hermann Lenschau , Friedrich W. Bauschulte , Robert Meyn , Wolfgang Rottsieper and Charlotte Witthauer spoke under the direction of Raoul Wolfgang Schnell .
literature
- Christopher Hull: Our Man Down in Havana: The Story Behind Graham Greene's Cold War Spy Novel . Pegasus, 2019