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The Comedians by graham greene
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The Comedians (original 1966; edition 1966)

by graham greene

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2,685445,379 (3.92)137
Three men meet on a ship bound for Haiti, a world in the grip of the corrupt Papa Doc and the Tontons Macoute, his sinister secret police. Brown the hotelier, Smith the innocent American, and Jones the confidence manthese are the comedians of Greenes title. Hiding behind their actors masks, they hesitate on the edge of life. They are men afraid of love, afraid of pain, afraid of fear itself...… (more)
Member:thosgpetri
Title:The Comedians
Authors:graham greene
Info:Viking Press (1966), Edition: Book Club (BCE/BOMC), Hardcover
Collections:Your library, fiction
Rating:
Tags:fiction, novel

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The Comedians by Graham Greene (1966)

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» See also 137 mentions

English (42)  Hebrew (1)  Dutch (1)  All languages (44)
Showing 1-5 of 42 (next | show all)
Really liked it, sad but well written. ( )
  dtscheme | Sep 24, 2023 |
First of all, The Comedians is not a comedy, and the humor is dark. It is about the regime of “Papa Doc” Duvalier in Haiti. It graphically portrays the terrorism of the Tontons Macoute, Duvalier’s secret police. The exact year is not given but it appears to be early 1960s. It opens on a ship with the three men, Smith, Jones, and Brown, traveling to Port-au-Prince. We hear parts of their back stories during the voyage and more details upon arriving in Haiti.

Mr. Brown operates a hotel in Port-au-Prince, but his hotel is now almost out of business due to the policies of the current dictatorship. Mr. Smith is an American politician, traveling with his wife. The couple is idealistic, and they want to bring vegetarianism to Haiti. They stay at Brown’s hotel. Major Smith is the mystery man of the novel. He tells many tales of his past exploits but has not convinced everyone. His mission to Haiti is initially unclear but we find out more as the story progresses. The title refers to people that do not take a stand in life. They are “the comedians,” and protagonist Mr. Brown admits to being among them. He admits to going through life without realizing what is important, and at the end, we see the ramifications of his indecisiveness.

Greene’s writing is wonderfully expressive. His characters are flawed and well-formed. He takes on the US and other countries’ policies of the period in support of dictators, providing they were anti-communist. Published in 1966, it is a novel of its time but still absorbing these many years later.
( )
  Castlelass | Oct 30, 2022 |
I really liked reading this book that takes place under Papa Doc's reign of terror in Haiti. A ship, under Dutch registration, the Medea, sails from New York with few passengers aboard. The protagonist is returning to his hotel, The Trianon, in the hills above Port 'o Prince, after unsuccessfully trying to sell it in New York for the last few months. Mr and Mrs Smith, vegetarians from Wisconsin, are sailing there to attempt to open a vegetarian center there, with school, kitchen, library, lecture hall...two Innocents. Jones is a constant liar, who seems unable to tell the truth about the smallest thing, but the reader in this case gets a big whiff of the con man. A few other passengers don't play such a big part in the story.
It's a story full of violence, but the white people are, as always, protected by the color of their skin, while the poor inhabitants of the island nation's lives are meaningless and thrown away in torture and beatings in the dictator's bloody reign. ( )
  burritapal | Oct 23, 2022 |
Another great story by Mr. Greene. ( )
  btbell_lt | Aug 1, 2022 |
A tale of 3 varied sorts coming from the Medea (ship) to Haiti in about 1965. The innocent Mr. and Mrs. Smith (vegetarian promoters - to eliminate the passions), Major Jones (adventurer, liar, charmingly drifting and brave) and Mr. Brown- our narrator. Owner of the Trianon hotel, lover of Martha, the german wife of the south american ambassador, son of the wild mom who left the hotel to him. He comes back to Haiti to see the poor, good minister who kills himself in the pool on the 1st night back. We see the machinations of Brown / Martha, Jones/Tonton and Smith / Vegetarian center - all through the light of the brutal and corrupt Duvalier regime. Powerful. And as always with Greene- the detached tone that allows to go down comfortably. Ultimately a pretty heroic story about Jones and about the self destructiveness of random possessive jealousy. (with Martha). ( )
  apende | Jul 12, 2022 |
Showing 1-5 of 42 (next | show all)
First published nearly 40 years ago, Greene's novel about a world-weary hotelier in the darkest days of the Duvalier dictatorship was inevitably banned in the country. It would be comforting to read it now as a historical record of a different era but sadly the night in Haiti has deepened further and if Greene were to return he would find no shortage of the corruption and violence that acted as a backdrop to The Comedians.

 
Most of all, God is a failure. God is like the British army: He loses almost every battle, and only at the end, if repentance comes in time, may He win the war. For most of the time, Evil wins, turning good intentions to bad ends and bringing all to ruin. I think we should remember that the God who created Greeneland has been more than seven days in doing it, and has not yet rested. He is Mr. Greene himself. And if the land itself might be a miserable enough place in which to live, the God who creates it does so with so much liveliness and skill, and with such a will and ability to please and carry us along, that for those of us who are merely tourists and not the doomed inhabitants it is an exciting land to visit.
added by John_Vaughan | editNY Times, John Bowden (Jul 12, 1966)
 

» Add other authors (16 possible)

Author nameRoleType of authorWork?Status
Graham Greeneprimary authorall editionscalculated
Theroux, PaulIntroductionsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
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Epigraph
"...aspects are within us, and who seems
Most kingly is the King."
—Thomas Hardy
Dedication
First words
When I think of all the grey memorials erected in London to equestrian generals, the heroes of old colonial wars, and to frock-coated politicians who are even more deeply forgotten, I can find no reason to mock the modest stone that commemorates Jones on the far side of the international road which he failed to cross in a country far from home, though I am not to this day absolutely sure of where, geographically speaking, Jones's home lay.
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'Only the nightmares are real in this place.'
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(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)
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This is the book; do not combine with the movie.
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Information from the German Common Knowledge. Edit to localize it to your language.
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Three men meet on a ship bound for Haiti, a world in the grip of the corrupt Papa Doc and the Tontons Macoute, his sinister secret police. Brown the hotelier, Smith the innocent American, and Jones the confidence manthese are the comedians of Greenes title. Hiding behind their actors masks, they hesitate on the edge of life. They are men afraid of love, afraid of pain, afraid of fear itself...

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