The Comedians

The only thing funny about this book is Greene's own preface, where he writes to a past publisher and jokes about suing himself for libel. Even this turns ominously to doom and darkness when Greene talks about Haiti. He says

"Poor Haiti itself and the character of Doctor Duvalier's rule are not invented, the latter not even blackened for dramatic effect. Impossible to deepen that night"

This is a dark dark noir thriller. The merciless totalitarian rule of Papa Doc provides an all embracing claustrophobia that Greene's characters strive to come to terms with and ultimately to free themselves from. Everybody gets trapped in the malignancy. Nobody is who they seem and the paranoia is palpable as all motives are suspected.

The novel is show more written in the first person. Mr Brown is drawn back to Haiti maybe for love maybe to salvage a hotel he owns. He is world weary but has to take action as he is immediately immersed into the corruption of the capital Port au Prince as soon as his ship docks. It is night time and a government minister is seeking refuge in his hotel. He commits suicide rather than be taken alive by the Tonton Macoute and Brown must extricate himself from the repercussions that are bound to follow. Like this first incident much of the action takes place at night. There are curfews and power cuts everybody is running scared. Brown tries to sort out his life and is goaded into further action as more and more people around him are murdered or hiding in fear of their lives.

Greene populates this book with unforgettable characters.The American Mr Smith a one time presidential candidate. Mr Jones a teller of tall stories with a murky past. Martha the ambassadors wife torn between duty and love and the communist Doctor Magiots a fearless supporter of an alternative regime.

There is voodoo, a naive guerrilla movement and despicable diplomacy all part of the melting pot used by the zombie like Papa Doc to maintain his iron grip on the country. Greene's book is a searing indictment of that corrupt regime and can be read with reference to many other regimes that hold power by fear of the gun or worse. Greene makes a concerted plea towards the end of this novel that we should not be indifferent to peoples suffering under these conditions. Greene has a priest delivering a sermon when nothing has changed apart from the need to remember the dead. He says:

"The church condemns violence, but it condemns indifference more harshly. Violence can be the expression of love, indifference never." show less

It gets good press, but I found Graham Greene's "The Heart of the Matter" to be a particularly tedious piece of slow-moving Catholic angst-bait. I was surprised, then, that I liked "The Comedians" as much as I did. I was further surprised to find that it is, in both tone and content, closer to Albert Camus than John Paul II. Graham gives his novel a clever set-up: three strangers named Smith, Jones, and Brown meet aboard a ship to Haiti. From there, he seems to argue that a kind of rootless existential despair is part and parcel of both life under brutal dictatorship – in this case that of Papa Doc Duvalier – and the expatriate experience. From there, we watch as Brown, a former Catholic schoolboy, a failed hotelier, and the novel's show more main character, makes his way, slowly and haltingly, toward decency. Not that he ever becomes particularly likable, mind you; he lacks most of Mersault's charisma and I fear that particularly judgmental readers may not be able to tolerate him at all. Such readers are also unlikely to be charmed by Smith, who is a pitch-perfect, if somewhat cruel, depiction of a hopelessly optimistic American unable to square his own beliefs with Haiti's political realities, and Jones, a feckless, pitiful personification of the fading British empire. Still, Greene shows wonderful insight into his characters' situations and manages to evoke real sadness from their stories. His prose, which I sense owes a debt to the thriller genre, is crisp and efficient, though I also feel that the novel's denouement lasts perhaps a bit too long. It's worth reading to the end, though. In the novel's last few pages, some of Greene's characters manage to find something worth fighting for amidst all the gloom. Recommended. show less

To my surprise, I am always taken with this novel. Every time I read it. I say to my surprise, because the setting, Papa Doc Duvalier's Haiti is so repellent. But Graham Greene has a way with hot, humid tropical climates. He somehow brings the fever of those places directly to the reader, whether it be Havana on the eve of Castro's takeover, Vietnam during the first decade of the War in Indochina in the 1950s, Paraguay, or the tropical sweat of Jalisco, Mexico. These novels and places have more character and seduction to them than do British/European locales. It is as if the heat boils away the mask his protagonists try to hide under and leaves them naked and open for our understanding, if not our sympathy. That is the case with The show more Comedians, too. A novel about escaping Duvalier's hellish tropical murder house for sanity but perhaps not redemption. show less

This suspenseful comedic novel begins on a cargo ship en route from Philadelphia to Port-au-Prince in the early 1960s, during the early years of the murderous reign of the Haitian dictator François "Papa Doc" Duvalier: Brown, who runs a luxury hotel for foreigners that he inherited from his mother; Smith, a minor candidate for the US Presidency in 1948 who ran on an anti-war, pro-vegetarian platform, who is accompanied by his equally naïve and bombastic wife; and Jones, another Briton, who claims that he is a distinguished army major but seems to be full of hot air and completely untrustworthy. All are aware of the terror that Duvalier has inflicted on his opponents and innocent civilians with the help of the Tontons Macoute, his show more sadistic paramilitary force, yet each of them are unconcerned for their own safety as white foreigners. Brown is drawn back to his hotel and, more importantly, to the woman he desires, if not loves; Smith and his wife seek an audience with a government minister to discuss the creation of a vegetarian center in the capital; and Jones plans a secretive deal that promises to provide him with enough money to create a Caribbean golf resort.

Upon his return to the hotel Brown makes a surprising discovery, which he manages to hide from the Smiths, who accept his offer to be his guests. The four become entrenched in the violence and their lives are clearly in danger, yet they are largely oblivious to the threat in the beginning. Brown and Jones independently and repeatedly encounter the Tontons Macoute and one of its captains, along with a corrupt government minister and a trusted local physician. Jones gets into deep trouble, and somehow manages to enlist Brown's help in a risky plan that seems destined to result in failure and their deaths.

The Comedians was mildly entertaining, but it was ultimately a disappointing read given my high expectations for it. The Haitian people, government and paramilitary officers were largely portrayed as exotic buffoons, with little to distinguish them from people from other countries in Africa or the Caribbean, and the sense of imminent danger that the characters were often faced with did not ring anywhere near as true as it did in [The Feast of the Goat], Mario Vargas Llosa's much better novel set during the last days of Rafael Trujillo's regime in the neighboring Dominican Republic. Those interested in learning more about life in Haiti during the Duvalier regime would be much better off reading the works of writers such as Edwidge Danticat, Lyonel Trouillot and Dany Laferrière instead. show less

The book, which is set in the politically oppressive 1960s Haiti, portrays the terror and corruption that were hallmarks of Duvalier's rule in striking detail. The real-life historical context provides a chilling backdrop, enhancing the sense of decay and moral ambiguity. The setting is described as both "a very real setting, time and situation" and a "shabby land of terror" where the narrative unfolds. Collectively referred to as "the comedians," the characters embody a microcosm of humanity navigating the absurdities of everyday life. Brown, potentially a reflection of Greene himself, is characterized by his rootless and non-committal approach to life, particularly in love. Jones, with his deceptive charm, and Smith, with his naivety show more and good intentions, add layers to the narrative, showcasing different facets of human folly and resilience.

Greene portrays life as a stage on which everyone performs their part, some more skillfully than others, by using dark humor and a morally somber tone. Along with examining issues of identity, purpose, and the human condition, the book offers a critical analysis of the political system, with a focus on American foreign policy. Greene's writing is often praised for its slick, engaging prose, though the narrative can feel a bit sloppy towards the end.

I found in "The Comedians" a layered narrative that combined Greene's signature dark humor with a sharp critique of political oppression and human nature, set in one of the most turbulent periods of Haitian history. While it might not be considered among Greene's greatest works, it remains a thought-provoking and engaging novel for its vivid portrayal of characters and setting. show less

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 show more 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. show less

The Comedians is another of Graham Greene's books that places the dramas of an individual life within the larger drama of a world event. In this case, there is an entire cast of individual lives formed within the larger context of Duvalier's Haiti.

The main character and narrator, Brown, owns a hotel in Haiti in the early years of the Duvalier regime. His hotel, and his dream for his life in Haiti, are pretty clearly doomed from the start of the book. Duvalier and the Tontons Macoute have thoroughly undermined any such dreams.

Brown is rootless -- born in Monaco, with a distant mother and absent father. It's only by chance that he finds himself owning a hotel in Haiti. And it's by chance that he's involved in a relationship with an show more Ambassador's wife. Brown is trying to take root in a pretty unforgiving soil, made up by the Duvalier regime's hostility to private dreams and by a relationship that never seems deep in the first place but, in any case, can only be an episode rather than a life.

At the beginning of the story, Brown has returned home on a ship with three other characters, known throughout the book as Jones, Mr. Smith, and Mrs. Smith. All are painted by Greene as people with a central drama in life. Mr. and Mrs. Smith are political vegetarians (Smith has run for U.S. President as a vegetarian), testing their faith in humanity and the oppressed against the cruelty of Duvalier's Haiti.

Jones' story may be the most interesting of the three. He seems to be an international adventurer. How much of what he says is true? How much is a pose? What makes his story so interesting, I think, is that the part that is a pose becomes more and more real as Jones persists in his pose. He becomes almost heroic.

I think Greene is at his best testing his characters against these big historical backdrops. The historical backdrops don't make the characters who they are, but they provide the testing ground in which they make their choices and become the characters they become. At the same time, their individual lives give perspective to the big historical events. After all, it's the lives of individuals where those events become concrete and real. show less