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داستان «مقلدها» درباره دوره خفقان و هولناک در جزیره‌ای در دریای کارائیب، به نام هائیتی است؛ جایی که دیکتاتوری به نام فرانسوا دووالیه – ملقب به پاپادوک (بابا دکتر) – قدرت را به‌ چنگ گرفته و برای استحکام پایه‌های حکومت استبدادی خود، گروهی به نام تون‌تون ماکوت را تأسیس کرده است که نقش پلیس مخفی هائیتی را ایفا می‌کند. تون‌تون ماکوت ها با حضور مخوف خود زندگی را نه‌تنها برای مردم محلی، بلکه برای جهانگردان، سرمایه‌گذاران و دیگران، تلخ و تاریک کرده‌اند. شب‌های هائیتی، که می‌توانست پر از آهنگ‌های جاز باشد، اکنون با همهمه‌های خشونت و ترس پر شده است. در چنین زمان و مکانی، زندگی افرادی که در این برهه تاریخی از هائیتی حضور دارند، به هم گره می‌خورد.

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داستان با شخصیتی به نام براون، که همان راوی است، آغاز می‌شود. او در بازگشت از آمریکا، بر روی عرشه کشتی با افرادی آشنا می‌شود که هر یک به‌نحوی و به دلایلی زندگی‌شان با او و البته با هائیتی تحت فرمان پاپادوک و تون‌تون ماکوت‌ها گره می‌خورد و گرفتار مشکلاتی می‌شوند. براون تلاش می‌کند تا آن‌ها را از سفر به این تاریک‌خانه باز دارد، اما ناآگاهی آن‌ها از وضعیت حاکم به حدی است که حتی نمی‌توانند شرایطی را که براون توصیف می‌کند، در ذهن تصور کنند. مضحک‌تر اینکه یکی از آن‌ها، که اتفاقاً او هم از آمریکا آمده و پیشینه‌ای سیاسی دارد، قصد دارد در این هرج‌ومرج مرکز گیاهخواری احداث کند. دیگری، که با یک معرفی‌نامه وارد شده، تصور می‌کند که می‌تواند به ارتش بپیوندد؛ در حالی که از وخامت اوضاع بی‌خبر است. این افراد، با هر دلیلی که دارند، وارد هائیتی می‌شوند و ماجراهایشان آغاز می‌شود.

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رمان «مقلدها» بر اساس یک موقعیت تاریخی در حوالی سال ۱۹۶۰ میلادی نوشته شده است؛ زمانی که نویسنده، گراهام گرین، فرصت و شانس دیدار و البته زنده ماندن از آن زمان و مکان را داشته است. او اکنون وقایع تلخ آن دوران را در قالب داستان روایت می‌کند. در جایی از مقدمه می‌نویسد: «هائیتی بینوا و حکومت دکتر دووالیه خیالی نیستند» (ص. ۲۲). هدف گرین این بوده که ترس و وحشتی که در آن روزگار هائیتی حاکم بود، که هیچ‌کس باور نمی‌کرد روزی این سایه شوم از سر جزیره برداشته شود، را به نسل‌های بعدی منتقل کند و نشان دهد که در آن مملکت، در خاموشی و سکوت، چه گذشته است.

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با این حال، «مقلدها» خواندنی نیست و جذابیت خاصی برای مخاطب ندارد. شیوه پردازش داستان و شخصیت‌ها چندان قابل قبول نیست. مثلاً در جایی از داستان، وقتی با سن و سال بروان مواجه میشویم، خواننده در تعجب است که واقعاً؟ این تعجب ناشی از زیبایی‌شناسی نیست، بلکه از بی‌مهارتی نویسنده در خلق شخصیت‌ها سرچشمه می‌گیرد. سن و سال براون برای مخاطب غیرقابل باور است، زیرا شخصیت او آن‌قدر که کتاب ترسیم می‌کند، مسن به نظر نمی‌رسد. هیچ‌یک از شخصیت‌ها به اندازه کافی پرداخته نمی‌شوند. گفتگوهای بین شخصیت‌ها حاوی اطلاعات خاصی نیستند که با هدفی مشخص رد و بدل شوند. داستان گره خاصی ندارد و همین باعث می‌شود که سرد و خسته‌کننده بگذرد. شخصیت‌ها و حتی مکالماتشان نیز بی‌روح و خشک هستند. داستان گره‌های کوچکی ایجاد می‌کند، اما به‌سرعت آن‌ها را برطرف می‌کند. از طرف دیگر، تون‌تون ماکوت‌ها که باید خوفناکی‌شان لرزه بر اندام مخاطب بیندازد، در حد انتظار ظاهر نمی‌شوند. فضای ترسناک شهر آن‌قدر برای خواننده قابل قبول نیست؛ اگرچه خواننده ایرانی با این فضا ناآشنا نیست، زیرا آن را تجربه کرده و می‌کند. مشکل بزرگ «مقلدها» این است که نویسنده نمی‌تواند به‌خوبی در قالب داستان و روایت، جذابیت ایجاد کند، گره بیافریند و شخصیت‌ها را برای خواننده ملموس کند. شخصیت‌ها همگی دور از دسترس و غیرملموس‌اند.

اگر داستان «از غبار بپرس» نوشته جان فانته را خوانده باشید، گراهام گرین به شخصیتی مانند آرتورو باندینی شباهت پیدا می‌کند؛ کسی که با کوچک‌ترین ایده و تجربه زیسته، می‌خواهد دست به قلم شود و داستانش را بنویسد. اما باید دید که تا چه حد می‌تواند از آن تجربه بهره ببرد و چقدر می‌تواند داستان‌سرای خوبی باشد، جدا از غنی بودن تجربه. داستان «مقلدها»، فارغ از تجربه نویسنده از واقعیت هائیتی آن زمان، خواندنی و جذاب نیست.

پی‌نوشت/

در جایی از داستان، در حین مکالمه‌ای بین براون و دکتر ماژیو، دکتر ماژیو می‌گوید که پاپادوک قبل از این آدم خوبی بوده است. دکتر ماژیو یکی از شخصیت‌های قابل اعتماد داستان است و خواننده می‌تواند به حرف‌های او تکیه کند. این سؤال برای مخاطب پیش می‌آید که چه اتفاقی باعث میشود پاپادوک، که فرد خوبی بوده، به چنین دیکتاتوری تبدیل شود؟ آیا قدرت او را فاسد کرده یا هائیتی چنین حکومت‌هایی را می‌طلبد؟ آیا پاپادوک قبل از به‌دست گرفتن قدرت، همان‌طور که ماژیو اشاره می‌کند، واقعاً آدم خوبی بوده یا از همان ابتدا روحیه خودکامگی و فساد در او وجود داشته است؟ به‌طور کلی، چه چیزی باعث می‌شود قدرت فرد را خودکامه و فاسد کند؟ این خود فرد است که نقش دارد؟ یا جامعه؟ یا روح زمانه؟ یا حتی آدمهای پیرامون؟ چه عواملی در این میان نقش دارند؟ در کتابی با عنوان «فسادناپذیر»، که توسط دکتر آذرخش مکری مورد بحث و بررسی قرار گرفته، تلاش شده تا به این پرسش‌ها بر اساس مطالعات تجربی پاسخ داده شود. پیشنهاد می‌شود اگر به این موضوع علاقه‌مند هستید، میتوانید مباحث را  اینجادنبال کنید.

فضای رمان، وصف شرایط یک دیکتاتوری ست، جایی که انسان تا حد یک "مقلد"، یک دلقک سقوط می کند. با شخصیت های اصلی، روی کشتی هلندی "مدیا" در بندر "پورتو پرنس" در جمهوری دومینیکن آشنا می شویم. آقای براون از سفر ناموفق به ایالات متحده، باز می گردد تا هتلش در پورتو پرنس را بفروشد. آقای اسمیت، کاندیدای ریاست جمهوری انتخابات 1948، همراه خانم اسمیت به تائی تی می روند تا یک مرکز گیاهخواری در آنجا تاسیس کنند. و سرگروهبان جونز، شخصیتی دوست داشتنی با شرح حالی مشکوک، سرشار از داستان های ناباورانه... با رسیدن به هایی تی، هر سه شخصیت درگیر حوادثی ناگوار و غیر قابل پیش بینی می شوند و به شکلی دست از برنامه های پیش بینی شده ی خود بر می دارند و.... روایتی پیچیده از شخصیت های متعدد که هرکدام نارسایی ها و گرفتاری های خود را دارند. مقلدها توسط محمدعلی سپانلو به فارسی برگردانده شده است.
برای شناخت شخصیت و آثار گراهام گرین، "مردی دیگر" اثر "ماری فرانسواز آلن"، توصیفی ست چند بعدی و گویا؛ مصاحبه ای روان شناختی در شناساندن نویسنده ای پیچیده و افسونگر. گویا این کتاب را خانم فرزانه ی طاهری به فارسی برگردانده. این برگردان را ندیده ام اما خواندن توام با دقت کتاب را به علاقمندان توصیه می کنم.

Good writing, but the last part of the story is a bit of an anticlimax.

6th book read in 2025

I have now read nine novels by this author. Some were better than others, but all were fine for me. The Comedians takes place in Haiti, presumably in the early 1960s. Three fellows meet on a ship bound for Port au Prince: a former Presidential candidate, a confidence man and our hero, an Englishman who owns a crumbling hotel in the city.

Papa Doc Duvalier and his secret police are in power and life for diplomats as well as for locals is filled with fear and violence. Two of the three men have checkered pasts, while the former Presidential candidate is a vegetarian, an innocent in some ways, so plays the part of a foil to the other two.

It is a rich story with many threads. The writing captures the complex and dangerous scenes. I was struck by how much nothing has changed in Haiti, which is currently run by gangs. Typically for Greene, in the end all hope is lost. As it turned out, he was right.

Another masterpiece by Greene. The narrator, a hotelier of dubious origin trying to stay one step ahead of the Papa Duvalier dictatorship in Haiti, is a classic Greene protagonist. He seemingly acts without reason, making some decisions out of caution and others out of pure reaction. When he finally acts with passion, it's ugly -- and also his most authentic moment in the book. Greene invokes his usual themes of fidelity, faith, and the follies of anti-Communism while imbuing the prose with his standard dry wit and ironic tone.

One of the more interesting things about this book is that when I searched for single-volume histories of the Duvalier period of Haitian history, The Comedians frequently topped the list for its reportedly accurate portrayals of life under the Touton Macoute. The only nonfiction I can find specifically focusing on it is some thesis work and a few memoirs from the 70s/80s. I assume there is much more available in French.

Duvalier was reportedly incensed by its publication in 1966 and banned Greene from the country, another testament to its accuracy.

Mister Brown, mister Smith and mister Jones arrive on a ship in Haiti. Mister Brown is a shady hotel owner, mister Smith appears to be on a rather naive mission to promote vegetarianism and mister Jones is…well…just who is mister Jones really?

The Comedians is one of only a few novels set in Haiti. It features some French, a voodoo ritual and the much feared Tonton Macoute, the island’s ever present secret police, while the island’s brutal dictator, lurking in the shade, dominates proceedings without actually appearing in it. The novel also contains more Havana cigars than Our Man in Havana (not too difficult), plenty of rum and Seven-Up, and for Mr and Mrs Smith’s sake…some nut cutlets too.

Graham Greene wrote this novel in sunny France (hiding from the taxman, says Paul Theroux). In old age the well-travelled author was a master of his trade and, of course, most familiar with the (mis)adventures of intrigue and expats in the Caribbean.

It is a dark comedy of horrors, in which everybody’s got something to hide: a corpse, a love affair and/or his or her real identity. The world is a hard place – “Cruelty is like a searchlight. It sweeps from one spot to another. We only escape it for a time.” (p.162) – and believing in its integrity can be considered as a possible flaw in character.

Communism, Catholicism and other, rather more immediate, matters of the heart provide glimpses of hope and consolation, but in the end, everybody is just looking for a body to love. Mister Brown has a busy schedule with an affair with the bored wife of a South-American ambassador and visits to the local whorehouse.

When he arrives back in Haiti after two years’ absence, he is touched that Mère Catherine still knows who his favourite girl was and he feels disappointed that she is busy “even though she would be close on eighteen by now”, only to conclude that “in age one prefers old friends, even in a bordel.” (p.143)

A slip of the tongue? One does wonder how much Graham Greene there is in this novel. It is rumoured that the author too suffered the trials and tribulations of an unusual sexual appetite.

Anyway, as in most Graham Greene novels, there is plenty of streetwise lingo and some hilarious quotes and observations, e.g. Mr Smith’s sudden realisation that his promotion of vegetarianism doesn’t really make much sense until people “have enough cash to be carnivorous first” (p.168).

Though perhaps not his very best, The Comedians is late vintage Greene. In spite of the distance created by the comic genre, I feel it is one of the author’s more personal novels.

“We mustn’t complain too much of being comedians – it’s an honourable profession. If only we could be good ones the world might have at least a sense of style.” (p.133)

Everybody’s got something to hide, even me and my monkey. We are tragic comedians. When you’re knee deep in shit, the only thing to do is sing. Perhaps, that’s why to Petit Pierre “even the time of day [is] humorous” (p.38)

Top-shelf Greene, largely free of impurities (moralizing). And the not-so-quiet Americans turn out to be okay.

"I tried to read in a paperback volume of his short stories Henry James's Great Good Place which someone long ago had left behind; I wanted to forget that tomorrow was Monday, but I failed. 'The wild waters of our horrible times,' James had written and I wondered what temporary break in the long enviable Victorian peace had so disturbed him. Had his butler given notice?"

Comedianții face parte din compania selectă a cărților care au reușit să enerveze la maximum diverși dictatori sau lideri religioși cu apucături dictatoriale. Spre deosebire însă de alte cărți din această categorie - de exemplu, Nimic nou pe frontul de Vest de Erich Maria Remarque, Versetele Satanice de Salman Rushdie, 1984 de George Orwell, Arhipelagul Gulag de Aleksandr Soljenitin etc. - cea scrisă de Graham Greene a demascat regimul criminal al dictatorului haitian François "Papa Doc" Duvalier.
Întreg romanul este dominat de o atmosferă sumbră, ce accentuează lipsa de speranță a oamenilor, victime sigure în fața celor din Tonton Macoute, un fel de poliție secretă extrem de brutală. Altfel spus, Comedianții este romanul prăbușirii unei țări în bezna impusă de un scelerat aflat la conducere, pe care o exercită prin intermediul unei terori ce combină eliminarea oponenților politici în cadrul unor execuții publice la care sunt obligați să asiste copiii din școlile din Port-au-Prince, capitala statului Haiti, dar și un amalgam de credințe și superstiții Voodoo, ce îi atribuie președintelui dement o sumedenie de puteri supranaturale.
Pe de altă parte, Comedianții este narat la persoana întâi de Domnul Brown, proprietarul Hotelului Trianon, pe care a încercat în zadar să-l vândă, însă niciun străin nu dorește să cumpere ceva în această țară aflată pe marginea prăpastiei, o țară "a spaimelor și a dezamăgirilor". El este amantul soției ambasadorului din Uruguay, senzuala doamnă Martha Pineda, însă relația dintre cei doi are multe fisuri. Domnul Brown se întoarce în Haiti și, pe vasul cu care călătorește, face cunoștință cu domnul și doamna Smith, precum și cu "maiorul" Jones. William Abel Smith este un fost candidat la președinția SUA, ce dorește să revoluționeze dieta oamenilor din Haiti, mai exact să îi convertească pe aceștia să devină vegetarieni. Un demers total inutil, remarcă cinicul Domn Brown, din moment ce bieții de ei nu-și permit niciun fel de dietă, cu atât mai puțin cea alcătuită din carne și ouă. Însă, în ciuda naivității sale, totuși Domnul Abel Smith se va dovedi a fi demn de toată admirația. Dar nici "Maiorul" Jones nu va fi asemeni unei cărți largi deschise, ci biografia sa ascunde destule mistere.
Comediantul este un impostor, cineva care pretinde că este ceva ce știe foarte bine că nu va fi niciodată. Dar el ascunde adesea o poveste de viață fascinantă, chiar dacă uneori lipsită de măreție. Lectură plăcută!

So glad to have finally read this Graham Greene classic - I think I eschewed the idea of it in my youth because of my hatred of third world environs and/or people of color being used as a back drop or leaned upon to complete a story. Of course Mr Greene did not let me down.Haiti is not just a back drop in the novel.
I have to say the characterization of the Americans as entitled deluded faux innocents was quite satisfying and I seem to remember reading that the real Papa Doc had a conniption over this novel.
When the aforementioned Americans make a seemingly selfless gesture - the scene reminded me of how one Anthony Bourdain committed the same mistake when he was in Port Au Prince during his show…

The term reign of terror has rarely been more apt than when it was applied to the regime of Haiti’s François “Papa Doc” Duvalier (1907-71). The former country doctor was elected President of Haiti in 1957 on a black nationalist platform but turned tyrannical the following year after thwarting a military coup. He ruled until his death in 1971, stifling and all too often murdering his opposition through an undercover government death squad called the Tonton Macoute. (The name means “bogeyman” in the local language.) And midway through Duvalier’s time in office, Graham Greene (1904-91) explored Haiti’s reign of terror through the eyes of expatriates in The Comedians.

Three “comedians” observe Haiti’s reign of terror

The “comedians” of the title are a handful of Europeans and Americans whose lives intersect en route to Duvalier’s Haiti. The story revolves around three men who meet onboard ship on their way to Port-au-Prince. Their names—get this—are Smith, Jones, and Brown.

Mr. Smith

Mr. Smith is a wealthy older American who had run against Harry Truman in the 1948 presidential election . . . on the vegetarian ticket. (He received 10,000 votes.) He and Mrs. Smith are traveling to the island in hopes of establishing an institute to promote vegetarianism. They believe that a strict vegetarian diet will lower the level of acidity and thus “eliminate passion.” Mr. Smith quickly gains the label Presidential Candidate, with a capital P and a capital C, which sufficiently impresses the Haitians that he is able to meet with Papa Doc himself to make his pitch.

Mr. Jones

Mr. Jones, who styles himself as Major Jones, is a middle-aged Englishman who may or may not have a military background. However, he does go on and on about fighting in Burma in World War II with a unit “like Wingate’s” and possessing the talent to smell water. We learn nothing of his purpose in visiting Haiti until much later.

Mr. Brown

Greene’s protagonist is Mr. Brown, a wandering Englishman who had been born in Monaco of a father he never knew and a mother who left him stranded at college with his tuition unpaid. She bore the title Comtesse de Lascot-Villiers until her death of a heart attack in the arms of her Haitian lover. Now, Brown is the owner of the run-down hotel she had somehow acquired on the outskirts of Port-au-Prince. He is returning there after a long absence overseas in hopes of resuming his affair with the beauteous Madame Martha Pineda, the much younger German wife of a fat and feckless South American ambassador.

A cast of characters caught up in a tragedy

In the pages of The Comedians, you’ll also meet Doctor Philipot, Duvalier’s ousted Secretary of Social Welfare; a diminutive gossip columnist known as Petit Pierre; a ranking officer in the Tonton Macoute, Captain Concasseur; the local Communist, Doctor Magiot; and the long-suffering Joseph, Brown’s right-hand man at the Hotel Trianon who had suffered torture at the hands of the Tonton Macoute. It’s a decidedly light-hearted treatment of a tragic scene: there are few more tragic episodes in the history of the Western Hemisphere than Haiti’s reign of terror.

Greene writes convincingly of the expatriate’s dilemma. Brown muses, “There are those who belong by their birth inextricably to a country, who even when they leave it feel the tie. And there are those who belong to a province, a county, a village, but I could feel no link at all with the hundred or so square kilometers around the gardens and boulevards of Monte Carlo, a city of transients. I felt a greater tie here, in the shabby land of terror, chosen for me by chance.” If you’ve traveled extensively, as I have, you’ve no doubt come across characters like this.

The United States comes off poorly in this novel

In The Quiet American, published a decade earlier, Greene eviscerated American undercover operations in Vietnam in the long run-up to the country’s fateful war there. The US comes in for similar treatment in The Comedians, taken to task for the knee-jerk anti-Communism that led a generation of American leaders to support some of the world’s most odious tyrants. From that era and region, Duvalier in Haiti and Somoza in Nicaragua come most readily to mind. But there were many others. And, sad to say, the practice continues, even flourishes. Around the world, many countries are experiencing their own versions of Haiti’s reign of terror . . . while their leaders enjoy the support of the United States government.

Did Graham Greene write this novel on a dare?

Now, you may wonder, as I did, whether Graham Greene wrote this book on a dare. I imagine some mischievous friend challenging him to write a novel about three men named Smith, Jones, and Brown, and—lo and behold—here it is. Greene notes the coincidence with a verbal eyeroll on enough occasions in the course of the tale to reinforce that impression. It’s just one of the comic elements in what, after all, is the challenge to tell a digestible story about a subject that would seem to be beyond our capacity to stomach it.

At several points during my reading of this novel -- because of its crisp, realistic dialogue; dangerous setting; and intriguing, imperfect characters -- I imagined it as a movie. I just looked it up on imdb.com and, yes, there is a 1967 movie with, ugh, Burton and Taylor, not at all whom I envisioned for the roles.

Perhaps because of its title, I thought the novel would be of a sharp, exaggerated satire, but, no, I suppose the Haiti of Duvalier was surreal enough. At first meeting the three men described in the GR blurb connected to this edition, I thought Smith, the American, would come across as a buffoon and Jones might be a mere annoyance. Once again my expectations were thwarted: There is real heart behind all the characters. I disagree with the blurb that the American is one of the comedians; I don't think Smith could make a chameleon of himself, as the others can, not even to literally save his life.

While maybe not as complex as Greene's longer masterpieces, this slim novel incorporates the best of Greene: apt metaphors (not always something I say of him), introspection and smooth prose, along with the elements mentioned above.

The ending has me looking for Henry James's The Great Good Place. Here it is: http://www2.newpaltz.edu/~hathawar/go... Thank you, Mr. Greene.