Colin Firth Shines in The End of the Affair

The End of the Affair is available as an audio book with Colin Firth narrating. Colin Firth has a voice that's inviting and rich with emotion. It lends itself to the erudite inner ramblings and recollections and roiling emotions of this story.

Mr. Firth shines as the narrator of Graham Greene’s familiar story which has been presented to the public in just about every form from print to stage. He does an amazing job with the various British regional accents. When the viewpoint character, Maurice Bendix, talks about writing, there is an authenticity that writers recognize.

I've always found this story a bit depressing -- painful even -- because, after all, it's the story of a love affair that ended as most illicit love affairs seem to do. The inner emotional landscape of the viewpoint character is discomfiting yet absorbing, and as absorbing as it is self-absorbed as he mentally catalogs his memories and autopsies his emotions, attitudes, and thoughts.

Takeaway Truth

Although set in London during and shortly afterward WWII, the story is as old as time and just as relevant today as it was then, and it is beautifully and skillfully narrated.