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Summary: "Loving" is one of the better books of the century.
Review: "Loving" is one of the better books of the century. In prose that is singularly musical, Green limns the lives of the English servant class. Somehow, also, the book is about war, honor, and human love. Please read it-- Green is to good a writer to be ignored.
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Summary: Green tackles the big subjects
Review: Have you ever sat and thought, man, I wish someone would write a book about living? And possibly loving? Well, Henry Green has gone out and done just that. I had never thought that a book about going to parties might be necessary, but after reading it I think that Mr. Green has indeed performed a valuable service. This wonderful collection of novels is, quite frankly, a comprehensive exploration, and no new books need be written on any of these subjects. In any case, the writing made my jaw drop in spots, it was so good, and Green way of looking at things is funny and humane while being mercilessly clear-eyed. The only reason I think they've stopped teaching his books in colleges is because they don't have the sort of things one can write papers about: complicated networks of imagery and whatnot that can be dug out of the text and have a title slapped on them. Green's book are too alive to have anything particularly systematic going on in them, while retaining the structure and unity of true works of art. Amazing books, go out and read them.
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Summary: LOVING is one of the best novels I have read
Review: I have read both of the three-novel volumes published by Penguin, and while I think even the worst of these is at least good, LOVING shines out as one of the best novels that I have ever read. Set in Ireland during WW II and consisting almost entirely of dialogue (no narrative voice worth noting), it tells a poignant yet hopeful story of love in the upper and servant classes of a country castle and estate. The ending is one of the very best that I have encountered, rivaling my other favorite endings (BROTHERS KARAMOZOV, THE WHITE HOTEL, and POSSESSION). I had serious reservations about the Modern Library list of the 100 Greatest English Novels of the 20th century, but I was delighted to see that they included LOVING. LIVING is not as strong as the other two books, but PARTY GOING, while not the masterpiece that LOVING is, is nonetheless a very, very fine book indeed.
Rating: 
Summary: Cliche-driven doggerel! Yuck!
Review: I only read "Loving," but let me tell you, that book is the worst. Every fundamental rule of writing is broken is this "book." Yuck! I mean, the last line of the book is really "and they lived happily ever after." Puh-leeze!
Rating:
Summary: Cliche-driven doggerel! Yuck!
Review: I only read "Loving," but let me tell you, that book is the worst. Every fundamental rule of writing is broken is this "book." Yuck! I mean, the last line of the book is really "and they lived happily ever after." Puh-leeze!
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Summary: Surprisingly underrated writer, well worth a go
Review: I'm sad that the reader from Maine felt so insulted by Mr Green's work. I can only guess that he or she thought they had bought a contemporary pot-boiler to read on the airplane and were shocked to find they were reading a 20th century classic, because the criticism of the dialogue was entirely unjustified. The dialogue in Loving is wonderful - precisely because it is so clearly of another age. It is through the language of this novel that we understand and become enmeshed by its central themes.
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Summary: A Writer's Writer's Writer
Review: If John Updike is a writer's writer, Henry Green is a writer's writer's writer! This volume is an excellent introduction to this little known, fascinating, 20th century British writer. "Loving" reminds one of "Remains of the Day" but even though it was written decades earlier is richer in theme (notice the peacocks in the book). "Living" is my favorite of Green's novels, a lovely evocation of working class life that contains some of the most beautiful prose of the 20th century (stylisticly, Green eschews the use of articles, and this gives his prose an other-worldly poetic quality). "Party Going" is at once more existential and more funny... upper class silly young things (kindred spirits of Bertie Wooster) are caught in an Ionesco-esqe fog that traps them in a train station (notice the pigeons in the book). If you love Green as much as I did after finishing this volume, you'll quickly seek out his other 6 books.
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Summary: Please read this book
Review: Party Going alone is worth the price of admission. Don't be put off by Green's style. He isn't flouting the rules of grammar for his own amusement; he isn't experimenting for no good reason. Give him a few pages and you'll learn to love the rhythms of his gloriously weird prose. There are passages here more beautiful than anything else I've read in 20th century English fiction. And he isn't just a stylist: all of his books are coupled by characters that are lovingly developed. They're interesting despite being completely ordinary. They think no deep thoughts; they do nothing that's especially sympathetic or noteworthy; they don't seem to be carrying any sort of symbolic weight. They're just normal people interacting with each other. The book doesn't even move according to anything that could be traditionally considered a "plot." But somehow you never want to miss a word. These are books that you can read again and again and again without getting bored. I have no idea how Green does it. He's an absolute magician. Read Party Going and Loving, at the very least.
Rating:
Summary: Please read this book
Review: Party Going alone is worth the price of admission. Don't be put off by Green's style. He isn't flouting the rules of grammar for his own amusement; he isn't experimenting for no good reason. Give him a few pages and you'll learn to love the rhythms of his gloriously weird prose. There are passages here more beautiful than anything else I've read in 20th century English fiction. And he isn't just a stylist: all of his books are coupled by characters that are lovingly developed. They're interesting despite being completely ordinary. They think no deep thoughts; they do nothing that's especially sympathetic or noteworthy; they don't seem to be carrying any sort of symbolic weight. They're just normal people interacting with each other. The book doesn't even move according to anything that could be traditionally considered a "plot." But somehow you never want to miss a word. These are books that you can read again and again and again without getting bored. I have no idea how Green does it. He's an absolute magician. Read Party Going and Loving, at the very least.
Rating: 
Summary: Loving, Living, and Party Going
Review: Three satirical novellas about three different classes of British citizens. 'Loving' is a comical look at British servants. The setting is Ireland during the 2nd World War. The dialogue is typical of the class of people being profiled and is mildly funny. The servants steal, gossip, and con each other as they struggle with their future and fret over the potential Nazi threat to Ireland. 'Living' is set in Birmingham and features charcaters who work in a factory. Younger workers and upcoming managers clash against older workers and management. Even though it was not as funny as the other two 'Living was was my personal favorite beacuse the characters were easier to relate to. 'Party Going' is a tongue in cheek satire of the rich and spoiled as they are stranded at a train station waiting to begin a holiday in Paris. A constant theme in all three novellas is the uneasiness of all the characters over what they perceive as a changing world.
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