Cheap in August by Graham Greene
"Cheap in August" is a novella by Graham Greene centered on the character Mary Cheap, an Englishwoman who has taken a solo, budget-friendly vacation to Jamaica while her husband is engaged in scholarly work in Europe. At thirty-nine, Mary seeks a temporary escape from the monotony of her marriage and the academic environment she inhabits, particularly yearning for a romantic encounter to invigorate her life. The narrative explores her introspection as she grapples with feelings of isolation and dissatisfaction, heightened by the presence of boisterous tourists who emphasize her solitude.
During her stay, Mary encounters Henry Hickslaughter, an elderly man who shares her inclination for companionship amidst the off-season lull. Their interactions reveal deep emotional undercurrents, as both characters confront their vulnerabilities and fears of mortality. The story examines themes of loneliness, the search for connection, and the complexities of desire against the backdrop of a seemingly idyllic holiday. Ultimately, Mary's fleeting relationship with Hickslaughter offers a poignant reflection on the human condition and the longing for understanding and companionship, even in unexpected circumstances.
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Cheap in August by Graham Greene
First published: 1967
Type of plot: Wit and humor
Time of work: The 1960's
Locale: Kingston, Jamaica
Principal Characters:
Mary Watson , the protagonist, in Jamaica on an inexpensive month's holidayHenry Hickslaughter , in his seventies, who picks up Mary Watson
The Story
Mary Watson, an Englishwoman married to an American university professor who is in Europe to complete a study of the eighteenth century poet James Thomson, decides to take an inexpensive month's holiday in Jamaica during the off-season. She has written her husband that an old friend from England has insisted that she accompany her on the holiday, but she has in fact gone off alone. The off-season rates explain the story's title on its simplest level.
In the first days of her holiday, yearning for a brief affair to give her life a fillip before she enters her forties, Mary is put off by the oversized St. Louis matrons who, in hair rollers and Bermuda shorts, attempt to befriend her. As she sits and dines alone on red snapper and tomatoes, she begins to review her marriage and her life as a Connecticut faculty wife. At thirty-nine she feels ready for an affair, in part as a refuge from the staleness of her marriage to a kindly although pedantic husband who is as faithful to his scholarship as he is to her, in part as a refuge from the tedium of a university community. In the off-season, however, there are few eligible men, and Mary, alone, moves into an assessment of her sexual, social, and, although she does not know this, spiritual roles.
She knows that she is by no means unhappy with either her marriage or her position—the marriage has, the reader infers, produced no children—yet she yearns for an experience that will provide her life with a restorative perspective. She hopes, too, that her husband will have such an experience, but she is fairly certain from the tenor of his daily letters to her that no such adventure is possible for him.
One morning, while sunning by the hotel pool, she observes a bald, fat man in his seventies who introduces himself to her as Henry Hickslaughter. She is amused by his "pick-up," then intrigued by his disappointed look; she glimpses a tousled child within his gross form. She is pleased when he tells her that he has been observing her for several days, and she learns that their rooms are only a few doors apart. They share a table at dinner, and Hickslaughter invites Mary to have drinks with him in his room. She begins to understand that he, too, is taking advantage of the off-season rates and is further intrigued by his old-pirate demeanor.
Ostensibly looking for a maid to give her a carafe of ice water, Mary goes into Hickslaughter's room, where she has very recently seen the maid. She reads a vaguely threatening letter that Hickslaughter has written to his brother asking for money. Hickslaughter finds her in his room, asks her to have drinks with him that evening, and she agrees. She returns later to find that he has been crying. Years ago she had seen her husband cry when his volume of essays had been refused by a university press. "I'm afraid of dying, with nobody around, in the dark," Hickslaughter says to her. Moved by his fear, his loneliness, his attempt to stave off the unknown, his failure at life, Mary spends the night with the frightened old man whom she almost loves. Later, when she remembers the affair, she wonders what they had in common, except for the fact that they shared a cheap Jamaican holiday.