In Greene’s book, the Prado is home to the Wonder Bar, the watering hole of his protagonist, but the bar no longer exists. The Hotel Sevilla is the northernmost with its Moorish entrance on the Prado and its neoclassical entrance on Trocadero, and it was in this hotel – Room 501 – where Wormold received his instructions from Agent Hawthorne. The Prado (Paseo) is the main street which roughly divides Havana Vieja (Old Havana) from Centro Havana and it’s on this street where most of the city’s elegant hotels are situated. (Plot 4/5, Characterisation 4/5, Literary Merit 4/5, Readability 4/5. Thanks to a restoration project Sloppy Joe’s has returned to its former glory. Our Man in Havana still feels fresh and remains a very entertaining entertainment. In reality, Sloppy Joe’s was frequented by American tourists, a clientele which ceased when Castro came to power resulting in the bar’s closure. While the Plaza didn’t feature in Greene’s novel, Sloppy Joe’s bar at the rear of the hotel did and was where Agent Hawthorne persuaded vacuum cleaner salesman Jim Wormold, the novel’s protagonist, to reluctantly become M16’s man in Havana. Our Man in Havana has been republished several times CENTRAL HAVANAįirst up was the Hotel Plaza, a two-tone yellow 19 th Century building with a colonnaded ground floor, the front door of which opens onto Parque Central.
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