Greene's books are interesting because they are Machiavellian: a mixture of amoral observation of what is, satirical recommendations and, vice versa, inexplicit

Greene's books are interesting because they are Machiavellian: a mixture of amoral observation of what is, satirical recommendations and, vice versa, inexplicit instruction on what to watch out for other people doing to you. And in A and C they are extremely valuable, and all worth owning and reading. And the advice does sometimes make sense -- it's written in the extreme to provoke, but sometimes life is so contradictory that doing "bad" things tempered with a good intention works out to positive in the final balance.