There is quote mentioned in Murphy's Law Book Two, More Reasons Why Things Go Wrong which goes like this - "Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity." That's what the book is all about.
Graham Greene, author of many spy classics and a former British MI-6 spy himself, as a writer is different from most of them others from his clan, because his spy novels are not out an out escapist espionage adventures unlike for e.g. Ian Fleming's are.
They are realistic and humane takes on the personal lives of the spies. They are more a study on their behaviour, reaction to failures, motivation to go on, and their effort to find a balance between personal and professional lives. Of course, there will be a plot and mystery as well along with the ever essential betrayal element within the familiar Cold War surroundings usually.
This time, however, he takes a break from the heavy stuff and pens down a satirical spoof not only upon the ways of on field spy agents but also the way secret "intelligence" is handled as a whole. The outrageous, albeit slightly loose, plot along with some lucid and humourous prose by Greene turns this seemingly pot boiler into a rib tickling affair.
The novel is set in a laid back, refreshing, happy-go-lucky post-war Cuba with prostitutes galore. However, if you scratch below the surface and observe its revolutionary left-leanings and corruption you may wonder that a political coup is waiting to happen.
"Our Man" - Jim Wormold - is a middle aged Englishman, running a vacuum cleaner sales agency in Havana, whose wife has long since deserted him, leaving to him the responsibility of a girl child - Milly - who is seventeen years old now and quite a sensation in the town. The business is not doing great partly because there is not much demand, partly because of the policies of the parent company, and mostly due to techinical inefficiencies of our protagonist vis-a-vis the product.
Jim Wormold would do well to have some money as he wants to head back to England mostly because of growing list of suitors for her daughter in the town which includes the dangerous police chief of the city. Milly - loves this attention and finds out some ingenious methods to spend his hapless father's money.
It was in these circumstances that Jim is induced into spying in the most bizarre manner. What then follows is the most funny roller-coaster ride in the unique world of spying of this amiably bungling field agent. To earn the money he is getting from mother Britannica, he spins yarns of most preposterous proportions which includes hiring sub-agents (which included a motley group war pilot, professor, scientist, a nude dancer whi is also a mistress apart from others)who are not exactly non-existent, but definitely non-compliant.
To put the icing on the cake - he even sends them the design of a nuclear devices supposedly clicked from a hovering aircraft, but actually copied from one of his vacuum cleaner internals. The bosses, suddenly, are highly impressed, and to complicate the matter further, reinforcements in the form of a secretary, and a radio person is sent in, much to the chagrin of our scheming agent.
It is then the things start taking curious turn. First, the set of lies become too complicated to convince and starts getting entangled to the point of contradiction. And then, suddenly some of his lies start turning uncannily to true. Soon more skeletons start tumbling out of the closet involving ferocious Captain Segura and harmless Dr Hasslebacher.
Then, there is an assassination attempt on "our man" which he averts in most hilarious manner(the whole sequence is a laugh riot). The lovely Climax and the flurry of events which lead up to it, including the saving of the so called agents which didn't know anything about it, the revenge, escape from Captain Segura and finally, the confrontation with the flabbergasted bosses in England. Sensational stuff!
Ostensibly, it looks like comparatively a hack job, but if you scratch below the veneer, there might be some truth to what Greene appears to be suggesting at. After all, he is well qualified to talk about that.
How the hapless agents are at constant pressure to seek non-existing intelligence information for their employers, how the same agents turn into highly imaginative story tellers, and how this intelligence mumbo-jumbo is used by the high placed authorities to seek personal, professional and political advantage.
Every espionage story, if not completely, but partially - has a creative element to it. Even the deepest of the moles would agree. Highly Recommended.
(Also suggested is a more recent novel by John Le Carre based on similart theme - The Tailor Of Panama. A Pierce Brosnan movie is based on the novel)
