A whimsical send-up of the spy genre finds vacuum salesman James, recently abandoned by his wife and financially beleaguered by his discriminating daughter, accepting work with the British secret service, where he hides the truth about a lack of information behind a vast network of agents and allegations about a vacuum cleaner's circuit diagram.
Follows the plight of Wormold, a vacuum cleaner salesman, who becomes a slave to the expensive whims of his thirteen-year-old daughter, Milly, and takes on a job as Secret Agent 5920015 to pay for them.
In pre-Castro Cuba, James Wormold's wife has left him for another man, leaving him alone with his teenage daughter Milly. Wormold's career as a vacuum cleaner salesman doesn't net enough to pay for Milly's champagne tastes, so when an acquaintance offers him work with the British secret service, he readily accepts. Unfortunately, Wormold has no information to relay to the home office, but he's not about to let a small matter like that keep him from the gravy train. Undaunted, he creates a vast network of agents, eventually passing off a sketch of a vacuum cleaner's circuit diagram as a secret military installation. This marvelous coup marks Wormold as a rising star and lands him his very own private secretary. But when people around him start dropping like flies, Wormold realizes that someone is taking his little game very, very seriously. This sparkling spoof is one of Greene's funniest and most accessible novels.
In pre-Castro Cuba, James Wormold’s wife has left him for another man, leaving him alone with his teenage daughter Milly. Wormold’s career as a vacuum cleaner salesman doesn’t net enough to pay for Milly’s champagne tastes, so when an acquaintance offers him work with the British secret service, he readily accepts. Unfortunately, Wormold has no information to relay to the home office, but he’s not about to let a small matter like that keep him from the gravy train. Undaunted, he creates a vast network of agents, eventually passing off a sketch of a vacuum cleaner’s circuit diagram as a secret military installation. This marvelous coup marks Wormold as a rising star and lands him his very own private secretary. But when people around him start dropping like flies, Wormold realizes that someone is taking his little game very, very seriously…This sparkling spoof is one of Greene’s funniest and most accessible novels.
